Your Baby is Ugly Part 1

Yesterday was a complete gong show! I had meetings scheduled in the thriving metropolis of Gull Lake, SK. Great little town by the way...and fantastic coffee at the local coffee shop! Jo and I thought our meeting was at 9.am. however, we were wrong. Our meeting was not until 10 a.m. and good thing!! We had no idea where the community hall was. We drove all over Gull Lake looking and asking local folks where it was. Anyways, we FINALLY found it....in about 15 minutes as Gull Lake isn't that big. Realizing we were early, we decided to go for coffee.

The small coffee shop brought back memories of my home town. And that is like opening a whole other can of worms. I still have some very sentimental feelings towards the people of Ponteix and will always remember it as my home. In fact, my grade 8 french teacher is now the mayor of the town. I am still a little afraid of her...but she is a good woman!

Anyways, the faint remnants of the smell of smoke permeated the coffee shop as it was not that long ago that Sakatchewan became "smoke free". It's funny how smells bring back memories. Of course, the stale odor of cigarette smoke instantly reminded me of my pa. He smoked for most of my childhood. I still love the smell of a freshly lit smoke as it always triggers memories of my dad. As sick as it sounds, I usually breathe it in...with a big deep breath. I always remember what it felt like to sit on his knee. He would bounce me around and I thought he was the most amazing man in the world. I was the apple of his eye and he always made me feel special. Just a great big teddy bear...that smelled like smoke...LOL. A teddy bear that always had a cig and a diet coke in his hand. Often on his way to teach the rotten grade seven students Science, baseball and photography at the local high school, he always smiled at me in a way that lit up my life. Weekends with him were often spent fishing, hunting, smoking and marking papers. That was my dad.

Anyways, I had to pack all my "healthy" food for the meeting as they were having pizza and caesar salad at lunch. Oh and did I mention Tim Horton's coffee and muffins. MMMM!!! None of which...I can have. So, I ate my rice cakes while everyone else indulged. My inner fat monkey was not very impressed...but she is slowly starving to death...snicker!!

At least I thought she was! She woke me up...actually....she prevented me from sleeping until about 2:30 a.m. last night!! I was SO hungry that I tossed and turned. Finally giving in to the cry of my tummy, I arose from my bed and drifted down to the dark kitchen. Desperate to stop the grumble of my screaming stomach, I made myself some toast and a protein shake. Probably not the best thing to eat...but hey...it's better than a chocolate bar.

Ahhh....to be continued...the camera crew is here.....stay tuned!!