apple a day; flu-fighting foods

so i've been fighting a cold for a week now. i'm teetering between sick and not sick, and instead of just waiting for the cold to get me, i'm thinking i'm going to do what i can to stop myself from getting sick. there's the obvious stuff, resting and drinking water, but i wanted to look at the foods that can help you fight the flu, being sick etc. i

i'm pretty sure i've said this already, but i'm a terrible terrible eater. and though it's disheartening, it's not exactly shocking that a lot of the foods that turned up in my research are foods i don't like... let me see what i could force myself to eat here.

yogurt: i already wrote about probiotics, but apparently they can help you prevent colds too! just make sure it says it on the label.

red bell peppers: so everyone knows that vitamin c can help you fight colds. but i learned today that red bell peppers have twice as much immune-enhancing vitamin c as an orange does. craaazy. but i'm thinking i could trick myself into eating it if i snuck it into an omelette or salad.
green tea: now i don't like tea of any kind, but after researching all the benefits to green tea i'm thinking about starting! having two or more cups a day can fend off viruses and keep up your immune system.

sweet potatoes: eating them can enhance your immune system. beta carotene - that stuff that makes vegatables their orange pigment- turns into vitamin a in the body. and vitamin a helps treat respiratory infections. now i LOVE sweet potato fries! but my mom says they don't really count.

other flu-fighting foods include: almonds, garlic, leafy greens, oranges, chicken soup.

i actually found a recipe that includes all these ingredients and seems a) easy enough and b) tasty enough for me to consider making! check it out at this link! if i ever have time to make it, i'll post a pic.

that's all for now!
stay healthy!
-B.

romantic misadventures; bryce

hey! got another story for ya!

back in grade eight, my best friend at the time was a guy by the name of bryce. i think the fact that we were opposites in pretty much every way was what made me like him so much in the first place. i loved the way he didn't care what people thought. being with b made me realize i didn't have to justify myself to anyone. he didn't completely understand me, but he did understand guys and that was something. (okay well didn't completely understand them, but who does anyway?) i'm not gonna lie, he was pretty weird too. but he gave great boy advice, he was funny, and he was always there for me. he's the one who kept me smiling all through that wretched grade eight grad. when i asked him to dance with me, he obliged. that dance also marked the first time i had my butt grabbed. i'm not really sure its much in the way of romantic advancement, but it is something.

we talked a lot, but that talking got a lot more frequent over the summer. it was the summer before high school, and i was freaking out about the change. i was convinced the love of my life (clay) had moved schools just to get away from me. i reached out and bryce was there.
junior high relationships are funny. i didn't see bryce the entire time we were "going out". even though we went to the same school we lived on the polar ends of town. i wasn't technically allowed to date so we couldn't tell my parents and rides were out of the question. and at 13 i was still too dumb to understand the complexities of the public transit system. so i spent a lot of time on the computer that summer, needless to say.

now, i watch a lot of tv and love every moment of it. but i think there's a problem that comes with it. i have very little life experience and draw everything i can from sitcoms, cartoons or the movie-of-the-week. i got it in my head somehow that i had to break up with bryce because i was still in love with clay. which, i'm sure was a plot i saw on tv the night before i had this big revelation. and i figured that, just like on the show, i'd end up with clay in the end. things didn't exactly pan out that way.

i don't remember how i broke up with bryce, but i know it was a lie. he stayed mad at me for three months. and for three months i beat myself up for ruining things with the one guy knew me more than anyone else. luckily, he came back around and our best friendship picked up pretty much where it left off. he was such a big part of high school for me. we didn't have many classes together, but he used to walk me to class, or call me late at night. and i'll never forget the time he brought a balloon bouquet and a teen titans cake for a birthday. we were best friends until grade 12 but we never spoke again of that summer. we've mutually blipped it from our memory. but if you're reading this now b, i'm sorry i momentarily forgot my life is not like tv.

author's note: because this is probably the last i'll speak of him, i'll tell you right now, clay and i never go out. but i'm glad i didn't date anyone back then, i didn't have a clue what relationships were about. this was such a hard chapter to post! i didn't know what relationships some things happened at the end of school, and the real b and i don't really talk so much anymore. and i have to be honest. i really miss him. the next chapter's a lot funnier, i promise.
but i wanna know, how do you feel about dating the bff?

till then!
xoxo
-B.

love your life;

song of the day: it won't be long, evan rachel wood

it's been a while since i've done one of these! i think on the whole, things have been pretty great lately. but, this monday morning, as i found myself concentrating and overanalyzing the few things that didn't go so well this last week, i figured i'd step back and look at the good.

1. my moccasin boots: i've been wearing them pretty much nonstop.
2. party planning
3. the fabulousness that is my best friend D
4. bic pens
5. boys who give good advice about the boys who don't call
6. apple picking
7. youth group: i absolutely adore everyone in it!
8. secret societies
9. skype dates
10. chances

haha. i know i've already been crazy talkative today, but can i add one more? you, my dear reader. for sticking around even though things have gotten different around here. i hope YOU are having a fabulous monday.

lovelovelove
-B.

borrowed the picture from my friend C. his photos are AMAZING. hope he doesn't mind =P

romantic misadventures; robinson, clay

because you asked for it, more awkward stories from my v. strange life. enjoy!

(missed a story? catch up on rory, thatcher, rob and james.)

writing these stores has helped me to discover a number of things about myself. patterns are emerging. chiefly that i crush in deranged cycles that eventually lead to disaster. i deny, i become obsessed, it doesn't work and i choose another victim. i can only think of one crush that differs from this pattern.

you can call him robinson. even though I'm going with the one name thing, nothing i could've chosen has anywhere near the star power of his real one. robinson was like my own little celebrity and i liked him that way.

i wish i was kidding about the star power thing, but i still think he really was. he fit the prototype of course, but he kicked butt in the arts department. he was big into drama, and played a whole bunch of instruments. he played bass, guitar, drums and piano. and he had a killer voice that always made me want to take of my panties and throw them at the stage. it was beautiful in its right, but he also had a way of moulding to anyone's voice. in a 2^nd he was bono, the next, the king of pop. and he had this way of strutting around on stage.

one summer in high school, i was a camp counsellor where he was program staff. i followed him around as much as i could. i got my campers to fall for him and headed up his fan club there. i scribbled his name in a million notebooks and pined for him like he was miles away instead of three cabins down.

speaking to robinson was out of the question. just like you couldn't walk down and talk to zac efron. unfortunately the one time I did talk to him, it was because a particular friend of mine was showing off a mammoth mosquito bite I had gotten. most of our encounters were in my head.

but that was it. i liked him as a celebrity and as forest gump would say "that's all I have to say about that."

author's note: this is HILARIOUS to read cause robinson and i are actually friends now. i should've beleived my mom back then when she said that a) boys are just as insecure as girl, and b) robinson was great but not better than me. i really did elevate him to celebrity status, and consequently put him out of league. if you beleive in leagues in the first place, and she doesn't. anyway, one more before i have to get back to work.

if i put all my romantic encounters on a chart you would see that the majority of them cluster up from ages 10 to 13. ah, junior high! tempers flaring and hormones ablaze. it was a beautiful time. people were so desperate to experience everything that they'd settle for anyone. still not me though, in most cases. but that was alright. i had my sights set on someone else.

no that i think about it, clay carlise was the reason i set up my prototype and never again strayed from it. clay wasn't and still isn't very artistic, but what he does do is sports. imagine me, at my tubbiest in grade 7 trying to keep up with one of the most athletic guys in my school.

a lot of girls liked clay in middle school, but none as long as i did – two straight years.

boys were confusing at that time. i was against note passing. against friends doing your dirty work. (do you like amy? check yes or no.) that leaves you way too open for rejection. i needed the cover of dark, distracting background noise and the ability to walk away and pretend nothing ever happened. that meant my perfect place to move was at school dances.

i don't summon my kahones very often. so i remember these moments – gearing myself up to ask clay to dance – quite vividly. my palms got sweaty (thanks for the genes their dad). my queasy stomach pulsed to the beat of the music. luckily my friend tiffany liked alex, clay's best friend. so we asked them to dance in tandem. alex and tiffany practically velcroed themselves together. after some dillydallying clay let me slip my arms around him.

gosh, grade 8 dancing is awkward.

a christina aguilera song was playing. And while everyone else was rocking back and forth awkwardly. clay was struck with a sudden bout of logorrhoea. he talked to me. he waddled us toward tiff and alex. he steered us to a couple we didn't know and started talking to them. talking, talking, talking. i still thanked him after.in a way, we both could write it off like nothing really happened. i stepped back in line with my group of friends and pretended my world just hadn't been rocked. (or at least, until the dance was over, i'm pretty sure i told EVERYONE when i got home)

it was a few months to the next school dance and i waited patiently. by this time tiff and alex were almost a couple so she didn't have to wait for me anymore. when the fourth slow song came on and i was tired of pretending to do something i thought about going over to him. kelly clarkson gently pointed out that "some people wait a life time for a moment like this." and i was tired of waiting.

he said yes. and this i think is the time i hope to never forget. if i think hard enough, i still remember what it's like to be held. to stare out over clay's shoulder and be convinced absolutely nothing was wrong with the world. to smell his adidas cologne and fresh laundry: to feel goose bumps absolutely everywhere when our cheeks touched, if only for a second.

i tried to talk myself out of liking clay shortly after that. (i do this a lot) but when the third dance rolled around, i didn't want to be alone. i tried to be all cool about it, like trick him into it. i think i said something like "everyone else is doing it, so we should too." but this time, clay didn't seem to need much convincing. my crush on him wasn't much of a secret those days, but it always wasn't known enough to become full fledged gossip, just little grade eight murmurs. so i've always wondered, did he know i like him and feel the same? or did he simply come to expect it?

after that, a plan was put in place. the next dance was our grade eight graduation and for once i was going to ask him, straight out, if he liked me. but even now, i've still never told anyone that i liked them. the week before the dance was sheer agony. i was so nervous i could barely eat. i fretted about it constantly. the grad ceremony seemed to drag on forever.

the dance was finally set to being and i was feeling the prettiest i'd ever been (to later be topped by grade twelve prom). i wanted to wait outside so that when clay came u could make it look like we had arrived at the same time

i waited all night, but he never came. and he was going to a different high school than i was. it wasn't like I never saw him again. i actually still bump into clay a few times a year. i just never had the guts to ask him where he was that day and i imagine now I'll never know.

but that's okay. something happened that day made me forget all about him, at least for a little while.

whoa! cliffhanger. haha. i'll post some more soon, but i've really gotta get back to my homework. one quick thing though, is it creepy or cute that i STILL remember what it's like to rest my head on clay's shoulder? i've got a really strong kinetic memory if that makes sense. (or i may have just made that term up). either way, the girl clay's dating now is SO SO sweet and i pretty much want them to get married. so? who's got awkward middle school dance stories for me! share away!

-xoxo.

got the pic from here, and here.

best ofs; oct 1- 18

heyhey! been a while since i've done this. haven't been reading as many blogs as i would like, but here are a few interesting things i've found over the last little bit!

♥ i've been thinking alot about the friends i have lately, and i loved this article from lemondrop on the five friends you need, and the three you don't. good good stuff.

♥ i LOVE the idea of operation beautiful. people leave notes on mirrors, changeroom walls, anywhere really, to remind them they're beautiful. then they take a picture and post their story. i'm thinking about leaving one myself =)

♥ make your own pollock! rainn wilson tweeted about this the other day and i was playing with it for a good hour, haha.

♥ also check out tim gunn's rules for evening wear via marie claire.

ciao for now!
xoxo
-B.

got the photo from here.

romantic misadventures; thatcher, rob & james

my apologies! my computer broke for a day there, but hopefully soon i'll have a new one! hopefully, you're having a good weekend! haha, and i'm not gonna lie, after i published the first story, even though that stuff was years ago, i still felt v. exposed, you know? but at the persistance of a few friends, i'm posting another. for now anyway. let the group therapy continue!

now i go to a very large church with a very small youth group. which should be good but has posed a number of problems in the past (present and future). i'm not sure if it happened inevitably, or if there were some girls who made sure that our youth group plays out like an episode of gossip girl. there was crazy gossip, drama and girl fights. but for the most part, it's not like that any more.

now that i'm thinking about it, most of my romantic-type issues are a result of bad timing. there's this one guy, who will henceforth be known as thatcher, because that's the coolest name i can think of. and this guy is pretty freaking cool. even in grade three, i was checking him out across the room at sunday school. taking in this perfect blue eyes and expertly coiffed blonde hair. baiting my breath and waiting for grade six. (they put the grade six through eight kids together. i waited and waited until finally, the summer before grade six. thatcher moved to brazil.) timing i tell you. but the thatcher thing is ongoing. he moved back a couple years later and girls still crush on him today.

here's another example. i'm a slow mover when it comes to love and all that stuff. it's experiences like the ones i am describing to you that make me so hesitant. there's rob, this one guy at church who fits the prototype perfectly. a complementary 5'8'' to my 5'7'', hilarious, plays the drums and as a bonus he has thick wavy hair that for some reason has always reminded me of a disney prince. (so why is it reminded and not remound? not finded but found? anyone else think the english language is completely crazy?)

in the fall of grade 11 i'd been debating between liking him. and by the time winter rolled around, it finally felt like things were going right. at my friend darcy's birthday, he hung around me all night long. so i was all set to go. to tell my friends i really was in this for the long haul. the next day, my friend hayley had news too and i made the mistake of letting her go first: apparently after i left the party rob had asked her out.

i still don't know if, had i told her, if hayley would have backed off. i'm not completely sure if she's that type of person. but now i'll never know. timing wins out yet again.

hayley, back then, was not much help in the whole romantic department. similar things just keep happening. when we first became close friends, she was dating this amazing guy, james . he was really nerdy and gangly and awkward but i loved that about him. he fit the prototype of course. and on top of that we were really alike. the same weird interests, the same quirks, the same sense of humour. even now, no one's ever really gotten me like that. in some weird way hew as like a different version of myself. people still say that. they also still say that it'd be bad to date someone like that and i still don't get it. and yes- that does mean we've never gone out and i bet you can tell where this is going already.

though this might not be timing's fault. have you ever noticed that guys suddenly get heaps more attractive when they're going out with someone else? james had always been in the picture but i only really noticed him in the summer of grade 10 and by that time he had already been dating hayley for a number of months and would continue going out for a year. but as i was kicking myself in the summer and all through the fall i kept thinking, if only i had gotten to know him earlier. if only timing hadn't boned me, yet again.

authors notes:

i used to like them stick-man thin, but my tastes have really changed in the last three years. james and i aren't really alike any more. and he's been with a different girl now for the last three years, and i'm super happy for them!

i also wrote here that i wondered if "hayley would have backed off." and i'm thinking now, isn't that kind of selfish of me to think that? cause i mean, if rob liked her and not me, it really wouldn't make a difference, now would it? ahh the beauty of hindsloveight. my question though, is how do you handle it when you and a close friend like the same guy?

till next time!
xoxo
-B.

romantic misadventures; rory

song of the day: taking chances, glee cast.

heyhey! i hope you've been having a fabulous week! i'm going to try something new today. yesterday, i was piddling around on my computer, and i found this thing that i'd written at the end of high school. i'd completely forgotten that i'd written down my most significant romantic misadventures up till summer 2007. i found myself crying laughing at how different things used to be. not only have i changed, but my approach to guys has changed a lot. but i'm not really sure who or what i was writing it for! so i've decided to share it here. just for fun. i mean, i haven't had time to write real articles lately. so hopefully this'll tide me over until things get less hectic!

and i'm going to give you the chance to play love guru. after each story, give me your best advice! okay, here's the intro i wrote:

no boy has ever made me cry.

believe they've certainly given me reason to. but when it comes down to it. i just can't do it. i'm not going to pretend there's anything special about me. it's just a fact.

and that's what i aim to present to you. the real facts in my lovestruck and irony-prone existence.

as much as it will kill me not to make my life more interesting - or less sad - i will keep everything as honest as possible. the only thing i am doing is changing everyone's name: to protect them, but particularly to protect myself.

i've never been kissed either. i've never had a boyfriend. so i'm guessing that you're thinking the fact that I actually have a rather sizable collection of romantic misadventures is rather odd. but, it's doable. you'll see.

and the first story: rory.

i feel even though there are a few of them, i should start with a highlight. in grade ten i had a monster crush on a guy i will now call rory. he was and still is my perfect crush archetype. male, most importantly. and tall, one of the most important factors. i have this thinking about liking guys who are shorter than me. it's just awkward, when you're holding hands; in your prom photos; at the altar. i'm on the tall side (5'7'') already and don't need to feel anymore awkward so it's best to just nip that one in the bud. luckily rory was plenty tall, a good 6'4''. he was artistic, that's a must. i do a little bit of everything; drama club, piano for 10 years, flute for 5. i sketch a bit, not that i'd ever show anyone. i write so much you'd think it was my job. (it's not, but i really wish it was.) rory played the drums and the bass, always keeping the beat. he had gorgeous red hair. and he was funny. and it just so happened that we had every class together 2^nd semester in grade 10, so i was pretty much doomed from the start.

i spent a great deal of time staring at rory and not a lot of time talking to him. so if he did know i had a crush on him, he was a really good sport about it. he must have caught me ogling him at least a hundred times. he responded well to my christmas card that greeted him with "hey hottie." (a decision i still regret to this day.) he didn't even say anything when i quite clearly switched with norah to get him as my partner when the school secretary taught a ballroom dancing class. (he was a really good sport about that one, and a really good dancer. and he proved he was fun when we turned our "frame" into a bumper car and purposely started knocking other people off balance.)

but the highlight happened in grade ten english. i love my teacher for that class chiefly because she let us study family guy instead of reading to kill a mockingbird like all the other classes. we didn't skip the shakespeare though, and i'm glad for that:

rory and i got to read the balcony scene.

i didn't say much in my classes then, and i still don't. but rory had been reading the part of romeo all class long and as soon as act two, scene two came up my hand shot up out of its socket. teachers always pick the quiet kids when they finally do participate, just a little something i've picked up.

so i got to stand on a chair and speak in a fake british accent while rory professed his love for me below. i know he didn't mean it, but in the moment it felt like he did.

rory spawned a lot of bad poetry that semester. but oscar wilde said "all bad poetry springs from genuine feeling," and i firmly believe it. there could have been something there. but the next semester we had no classes together and rory started going out with a girl I believe he is still dating today*. i moved on. but the good thing is: light always breaks through yonder window.

that was difficult. i've never written non-fiction before and the temptation to make it more interesting was tempting. like a kiss at the end of the balcony scene or at the very least, making myself seem like less of a loser. but i've vowed to write things as they happened and that's what i'll do.

*author's note: rory dated that girl for about three years, but they're no longer together.

they get so much better i promise! but the way that i've written them, like the flow of it, is too right to mess up. i might post the next one tomorrow, maybe even later today! i'm that excited.

oh, if only high school B knew what i know now! but my question to you is, how has the way you crush on guys changed since high school? and, does anyone else find gingers as attractive as i do?

there are so many more stories to come! stay tuned!

xoxo
-B.

got the photo from here.

current obsession; 5 minute chocolate cake

song of the day: haven't met you yet, michael buble

i should be working but instead i'm wholed up in the library watching michael buble videos. then i realized, if i'm already slacking off, i might as well be blogging! so now i'm scrambling desperately to get caught up on all the wonderful blogs i've been missing. i feel like i have so much to tell you! i know some of these are super old, but here are the things i'm loving so far:

♥ this post from college fashion about finding and maintaining your personal uniform.
(i think mine right now, is definitely, long cardigans, tanks and boots of all types. comfy and cute!)

♥ this fab article about connecting with your inner creative writer.

♥ interesting article about the vampire "trend."

♥ the post from whowhatwear has me considering pouncing on the leopard accent trend.
(i would LOVE a pair of leopard print flats, i think.) and this post from elle has me rethinking faux fur and more excited about where the wild things are.

♥ according to stylecaster, H&M is FINALLY going to launch a full website. not that i think this'll help curve my shopping cravings any... it might actually just make it worse.

i'm still only HALFWAY through the blogs i usually check. and this is how i've been making it through long studying nights. i'm not sure if i'm helping or hurting by passing this one. a couple weeks ago my friend K posted a recipe for a 5-minute chocolate cake. the recipe is super simple.


ingredients: 4 tablespoons of flour, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of cocoa, 1 egg, 3 tablespoons of milk, 3 tablespoons of oil, and a splash of vanilla extract. 3 tablespoons of chocolate chips are optional.

instructions: toss it all in a mug, stir, and pop it into the microwave for three minutes.

granted, it looks a little funny and doesn't taste quite the same, but it sure does in a pinch. i've been loving it with ice cream and caramel sauce. even if you bake it (for 25 minutes at 325 F) it's awesome to have just a personalized serving of it! my sweet tooth rejoices! so tasty! if i wasn't school i'd be making some right now.

gotta jet! hope your tuesday is treating you well!

lovelovelove,
-B.

borrowed the picture from K's blog!