I don’t care what anybody says, I don’t like breakfast. I like sleeping in to the point where breakfast becomes lunch.

Luke and I went out for Thai tonight, and the table of mostly elderly people next to us spent the entire time discussing push-notifications, Facebook, iPhone (and Stalin). Weird.

“The misfortune of my life is perhaps that I am interested in far too many things and not decidedly in some one thing; my interests are not all subordinated to one thing but are all co-ordinated.”
-Soren Kierkegaard
For me, blogging has been like trying to pick my major in college.* When I first set out to blog last year, it was with the expectation that I would try to keep track of everything that was happening in my new Australian life, both for myself and my family. I had just met a boy, quit my job in NYC, and moved to Australia within a span of 4 months. And now that I was here, I figured there would be tons of interesting things to share about my new life in a foreign country. And, there are. Sort of. I mean, there are lots of things about being here that I find interesting, but trying to force myself to maintain a blog about one part of my life has proven impossible. So here I am, admitting to the internet that I am incapable of writing a travel blog (especially since I’m doing less travelling, and more living). I find myself posting things that are most relevant to me on Facebook, where the randomness of my interests is unlikely to be noticed in the feeds of unsuspecting friends. But this brings me back to my original intent when starting this blog, which was to have a personal record for myself (because let’s be honest, nobody is actually reading this). And so here we are, back at square one.
So let’s get one thing clear—I’m interested in E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Australia, sure. But also politics, fashion, world news, education, shoes, BAKING, home design, and more recently healthy eating (aka not baking), weight loss and fitness. My list goes on and on. So if you happen to stumble on my blog looking for a travel journal while I’m in Australia, keep looking. But if you’re looking for a one-stop-shop, I’m your gal!
*Double major in Anthropology/Economics, to just Economics, to Anthropology/History, to just History. But oh wait, I have to pick a specialization in History? But, but, BUT! I finished with a major in History, specialization in Ancient History, and a Minor in Ancient Studies. Which, I might add, has come in very handy….(?)
I’m currently undecided on these…
OMG.
What the….???
If I saw someone wearing the High Tide Heel, I would probably punch them in the face. Regardless of the wearing was in or out of the water. Just so you know. Consider yourself warned.
I’ve been avoiding this sort of information for far too long…must.give.up.coke.zero!
After years of explaining to people why I don’t drink Diet soda I was finally vindicated today by an article I read on jezebel.com, a women’s-issues-oriented blog (click on the title above to go the article). While I have some issues with jezebel itself, I was thrilled to see this piece. Why? Because for years I’ve refused to drink diet soda (and really, soda in general since I decided to take control of my own health two years ago) because I’d read that the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas had never been proven to help people keep wait off. In addition, they are completely fake, unlike the real sugar in regular soda, and they leave a strange, chemically aftertaste in my mouth.
I’m of the opinion that things like artificial sweeteners are as big a part of the health crisis in America that involves crazy rates of diabetes and heart disease as are Big Macs and Sonic Blasts packed with the equivalent of 5-6 candy bars. The problem is as much about what we eat as how we eat, and how we think about eating. Soda, a product that started out as a novelty item, has replaced water and milk as many people’s preferred beverage, but at some point most people realize how much sugar they’re drinking and think that the sugar is what’s making them fat and unhealthy. They then switch to diet sodas, because zero calories equals healthy. However, drinking diet soda is sort of like switching from apples to oranges - you’re still eating the same thing, but in another form and flavor.
People would rather drink a diet coke than eat a banana, because a banana has about 100 calories and a diet coke has none. We hear over and over again that the way to manage your weight is to have the calories in match the calories out, but that’s pretty over-simplified.
The study discussed on jezebel turns that theory on its head - suddenly that zero calorie soda has the potential to expand your waistline and exacerbate a widespread disease like diabetes even more than a banana, or even a piece of chocolate cake, by merit of its entirely man-made contents. Hopefully the dangers that diet soda and other products chock full of artificial sweeteners pose will become more widely known, in the same way that at this point in time everyone knows that smoking cigarettes is horrible for your health. Until then I’ll keep drinking my water and herbal ice tea and being a social weirdo.
I interrupt your regularly scheduled programming, to bring you this super cute winter LookBook from New Zealand label PaperCup.
swoon.
(Source: papercupclothing.blogspot.com)
Must.Begin.Blogging.Again— I PROMISE! Sooooooo much to update on. Like getting MARRIED! AND IMMIGRATION! Which is decidedly less fun. Don’t know why it deserves all-caps. Maybe because it’s making me FURIOUS!
Because you can’t take the French-Canadian out of the girl…
—My first ever homemade meat pie. And in Australia, of all places…
Mostly because my meat pie is better than their meat pie. Neener.
Dorothy: “Girls, do you know what just happened?”
Blanch: “I know I’ve been having a great time and there isn’t even a man in the room”
Rue McClanahan
1934-2010

Like a platypus, that exists in an anatomical netherworld halfway between mammal and reptile, today I am feeling stuck in a geographic and spiritual halfway house.