I forgot how much fun...

Today I spent the entire day inside working on papers due for the last day of school on Monday.

I didn't even realize it was dark outside. That was enough to make me drag my ass outside to get some fresh air, and I am very glad I did.

Because I went for a walk, and walked past a school near my house, with four basketball nets. I remembered that a friend gave me an old basketball of hers earlier in the year, and I hadn't even used it yet! So, I came home, grabbed it, and went back to the school.

And I played basketball for an hour and it was amazing and fun and I'm so glad I did it. I was by myself. Wearing my glasses. In skate shoes. And baggy pants. And it was way too dark and I could hardly see. But I could hear my basketball and see the net and that was good enough for me.

I forgot how much fun it was to just play.

People should play more. Once a day. Play anything, really. How much better would everyone's lives be if we just played?!

Don't need onions to cry today.

I baked a pie

"Men may come and men may go... but pie goes on forever."

Baking a pie, is not for everyone.

But, thankfully, it is for me.

Today, I baked a strawberry-rhubarb pie, and it was delicious. Filled with strawberries, sugar, flaky crust, just the best darn thing to eat on a day off.

Here is the recipe:

Crust -

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup water

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles crumbs. Stir in water until mixture forms a ball. Divide dough in half, and shape into balls. Wrap into plastic (saran wrap) and refrigerate for 4 hours or over night.

2. Roll out dough on a floured counter, and use as directed in pie recipe.

Filling -

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 pound fresh rhubarb chopped

2 pints fresh strawberries

1 pie crust top/bottom

1 tbsp sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. In large bowl, mix flour, sugar with strawberries and chopped rhubarb. Let stand for 30 minutes.

3. Pour filling into pie crust and then cover it with top crust (I lattice the crust by making strips of pie crust and interlocking them on top).

4. Dab top of crust with butter and then sprinkle with 1 tbsp of sugar.

5. Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes, until bubbly and brown.

Eat! Enjoy!

Gone with the wind

It is so windy today I was nearly blown into a bush by the wind while on my run. But the wind led to some interesting stories while I was outside.

I imagine that most people in training for a half-marathon, or a full marathon, or any sort of endurance sport, train in the wind. Because it pushes against everything you are running towards, pushing against your body and tries to get you to give up and turn around, and walk home. It gusts quickly, so you don't expect it when it throws sticks, dirt and remnants of newspaper in your path.

It is a bit like life, the wind. It throws things at you you weren't expecting. But you deal with it.

So today, I dealt with it. I ran against the wind (which at my estimate, and the Weather Network's estimate, was going at about 40 km/hour) and I did not give up. I laughed out loud to myself. Grunted, sighed. But I still ran 6.5 km.

And also, while on my run, I noticed two funny things. First, there were hundreds of snow geese trying to fly in the wind, and they were basically floating up and down against it. I watched them fly over me, and suddenly they did a 180 degree turn and flew so fast with the wind, like they were children on a roller coaster soaring through the air. It was the neatest thing. They were playing.

And second, I saw a mother and her daughter delivering papers when suddenly a gust of wind ripped through their cart and sent tens of sheets of newsprint into the air, all separating and swooping and swirling on the ground and winding up against fences. I laughed. And then I helped the lady gather as many pieces of the destroyed newspaper as I could.

It was a good little windy day.

Chum

"But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous." - SATC

I received a phone call tonight from two of my best friends, who proceeded to tell me how glad they were that I was a part of their lives.

It got me thinking about how fortunate I am. To have those friends, the friends you can drink a bottle of wine with and have a heart-to-heart. The friends you can stumble home with at 2 am after a night at the bar, and then proceed to eat all the food in the fridge. The friend who calls and asks you for advice, and who takes your advice to heart, considering it and not disregarding it.

The friend who sends you a birthday card in the mail, even if it's late. The same one who, every so often, reminds you how beautiful you are, even if you feel the complete opposite.

The friend who crosses rivers with you in hiking boots, and proceeds to go through the bush first and scratch her legs so you don't have to. Or the friend who makes you daisy crowns in the summer.

And the friend who you spend Thursday afternoons with, talking about boys. As if you were in high school. But you're not, because you're in college.

I love my friends. I do. I'm so grateful I have them. Because even though we have our differences, as a group we compliment one another and make one complete whole, a whole that encourages and inspires, and congratulates and says, "I'm so proud of you."

Friends are truly few and far between. But the few you have are like the girls from Sex and the City - fun, crazy, caring and, mostly, they are there.