Healthy Hindsight

Eventually, at some unforeseeable -- but real -- point in the future, I'll look back on the past year and smile.
June in Vancouver -- even on the grayest days, it's still a dangerously alluring place. Surrounded by the deepest, darkest blue, the lushest green and the sweet pink of cherry blossoms sprinkling the streets -- I can't help but dismiss the out-of-reach real estate and imagined air of superiority.
Taking class this morning on Commercial -- always thick with sweat and struggle -- a gleaming group of satisfied minds and bodies carrying each other through the dimmest places under the light...it was, as it most often is, completely magical. Another practice = another day I have freed myself from the limits, either self-imposed or otherwise, with which so many exist.

It's strange for me, meeting such a plethora of people everyday, observing those who choose to live shackled by the limits they have either created or accepted. As always -- open to every possibility I can or have yet to imagine -- I am feeling my way through the professional options that seem to exist for someone with my particular skill set and interests in Vancouver; I'm still teaching of course (because that is what keeps me emotionally satiated) and have recently ventured into the restaurant scene...an excellent place to quickly gain back lost heartache pounds.
5 nights a week, I play hostess with the mostess to a unsurprisingly rather affluent room of diners. Greeting hungry guests at the door, I can't help but take a quick peek right through them to catch a glimpse of what lies beneath. Those who truly sparkle are governed by the hidden gem tucked away beneath the Prada -- the truest ruby -- often forgotten by the bachelors and bachelorettes dining solo at the bar night after night. I notice the limited souls shelling out hundreds like they're never going to run dry in part because I am deeply fascinated by the human condition -- and in particular, because of the year I've had.

June in Edmonton -- spent pretending I was not about to jump off a cliff into the treacherous waters of marital separation...followed by dragging my breathless body ashore to find the sweetest sunshine bathe me in its warmth.
By August, I found reincarnation as a single mother (still a bizarre term to me, which really fails to do the reality justice). September, October and November split my heart, mind and body between two very different places. The months that followed gave me love in hopeless places, took it away and brought it back. I gained friends and lost others I probably should have denied entry in the first place. I laughed -- a lot...I cried...less. I danced in happiness -- the kind that makes you fly while your feet touch the ground.
I lived without limits.
This summer and beyond, I'll have another healthy dose of the good stuff, just a dash of the bad -- got to have some of the latter to appreciate the former -- and keep allowing the most important muscle I've got to do it's worst.

Only Here for the Food

Araxi in Whistler: a dining experience we nearly aborted. Prepared to spend about $100 each for dinner, we had fairly high expectations. But even though disappointed loomed from the moment we walked in the door, none of our group of the pushover variety, we expressed our concerns at the apparent deterioration of such a notoriously impressive restaurant and they intelligently -- as on occasion I kiss and tell -- responded by rolling out the red carpet.

Upon the first sign of our distaste for our hobbit-like, mumbling to the point of inaudible, disgruntled server, the manager replaced him for a smooth, sweet, Australian treat who romanced every morsel served to us from the amuse-bouche to the double-chocolate ice cream brownie bar presented to us after we polished off the deserts we had actually ordered.

We were then brought a complimentary bottle of sparkling Okanagan wine and a full glass of the too-rich-for-my blood Cabernet Sauvignon I had asked just to taste to compare with my lower-end Malbec. Important discovery: expensive wine can be well-worth the frivolity. Drinking this particular Cab was like sliding into a mud bath (like the one JP and Ashley visited in Fiji) and being rubbed down from head to toe with warm, capable hands -- it brought a lasting smile to my face and perfectly prepared me for my first course: an albacore spicy tuna roll with which my deep appreciation of fabulous food was supremely satisfied.

Following the sushi extraordinaire was a lovely balance of creamy buffalo mozzarella and bitter/sweet beet-arugula, drizzled in a dijon-balsamic reduction -- stellar.

Bringing the tantalizing tastes to a whole other level was my main. Always one to order scallops if the preparation intrigues, I decided on the curried-salt variety, paired with aubergine and a chorizo-chickpea-tomato puree. I am a reliable predictor of choice menu items. This buttery, exotic, perfectly-balanced melding of flavours exceeded my expectations.

Funny how after swearing up and down we couldn't possibly eat another bite, when the server came over to offer us dessert, we all immediately selected something -- mine, of course, was chocolate. Barely able to eat half of the three preceding courses, I somehow managed to devour both the molten, Valrhona double-chocolate cake (which was especially prepared "double" for us as we had made it clear we were serious lovers of the good stuff) and the accompanying salted-caramel ice cream in seconds.

I share my appreciation for all things indulgent with words to the best of my ability, but sometimes words are -- well, they fail to adequately get across my intense love affair with really excellent food. But fortunately, as in my love affairs with really excellent people, I'm good at sharing.