So I like to keep my issues strong, but it's always darkest before the dawn.

I had a good weekend. My spa date with work friends, followed by a delicious dinner, was the relaxation that I needed following a busy week. Saturday morning I went for a pretty long run, then ran some errands before catching a ride to a baby shower in Midland with my work spouse, her daughter, and her real-life spouse.

Midland is about an hour and a half north of Toronto, and we got there, there was (melting) snow on the ground. A chilling vision of things to come, I suppose.

The shower was fun. It was for a former work buddy, a science nerd like myself, and that breeds a special friendship. It was a pretty fun shower; one that's more low key where men were invited, and there weren't any lame shower games. The spread was really good: cabbage rolls, lasagna, and turkey. The cabbage rolls smelled just like the ones that my grandma used to make, but didn't taste quite as good (still very good though). It's too bad that my grandma never taught either my mom or I to make them before she died. My grandma was a wonderful woman, but never had the patience to teach anyone. Somehow, my mom and I, both teachers, ended up with some patience. That must have been passed down from my very patient grandfather.

The point of that story is that smells and food brings back memories, don't they? I remember reading that the olfactory part of your brain is located near the part that stores memory, and that's always made a lot of sense to me since smells so often evoke vivid memories.

At the end of the shower, just before we were heading back to Toronto, land of no-snow-yet, the mom-to-be insisted that I shotgun two glasses of wine to help me cope with the ride back. Who was I to say no? I had a giggly/sleepy ride home, where I stayed up late enough to watch the Muppets on SNL.

On Sunday morning, I went for another run and ran some errands/did some housework. Jason and I braved the families going home from the Santa Claus parade to meet up with a friend of his (shout out to the lovely Stephanie!) to attend a benefit screening of the movie The Goonies, which is an 80s movie that I somehow missed during my time as a child of the 80s. It was pretty fun, but I have to admit that I fell asleep a bit. I blame the running around that I did in the morning.

But alas, lovely weekends have to end, and bring Mondays with them. Today was OK. Final Multicultural Day preparations are underway and keeping me busy. I have to return some outdated flags, plus get a few more. Can you believe the flag store sold me the former flags of Ethiopia and Vietnam?? Yeesh. I also have to pick up some wall hangings that I'm borrowing from my friend Ali to help decorate the African pavilion. Busy, busy.

However, I'm taking mid-week break to see the Muppet Movie with Jason on Wednesday when it opens. I have my priorities straight.

Now, it's time to spend my Monday evening curled up in my pjs and finishing off Freedom so I can read one of the better books that I picked up this weekend. I'm 400 pages in, and dammit, I've invested too much to give up now. I'm also listening to the new Florence & The Machine album which is quite good. I'm glad that she performed on SNL to remind me to check it out.

Hope you all have lovely weeks.