Halloween Shmaaloween

Ahoy hoy!


It's Halloween. I didn't do anything special this year at all. In fact, I only dressed up last minute for a party on Saturday which is sooo unlike me. I am usually crazy about any excuse to dress up. To tell you the truth, this year I just couldn't handle the pressure I had created for myself with years of brilliant costumes. Instead, this year I paper clipped a piece of paper to a red shirt, put on a skirt, pulled my hair back and voila:

I am olive oyl.

Anyway, it was very freeing not having to worry. That said, I did end up dressing up today unexpectedly, let me explain.

I was called in for an audition for a sporty commercial today. For anyone that knows me that in itself is hilarious. I was to play a hockey goalie. (It is getting funnier and funnier...) the wardrobe specifications listed said that we were to wear hockey gear. I of course do not own any of this aforementioned "hockey gear" and neither does anyone that I know in Toronto. Or anyone in Winnipeg for that matter. I don't have a lot of sporty friends. Anyway... so I decided to take a trip to Value Village to see what I could find.

I found myself in the "jersey" aisle ( The shirt, not the place) and started to look through options. Most of them said "tim hortons" or something of the sort. I had no idea how to choose, so I decided to go with the colour that looked best on me out of the bunch and went with a blue one. I'm pretty sure it was a soccer jersey, but whatever, it looked pretty.

Next I found myself in the "sporting goods" section which consisted of three bagged items. One was 4 clear plastic things that I have absolutely no idea where they were meant to go on your body, and the other 3 looked like sports padding of some kind. I decided to buy all 3 and then figure them out after.

On my way back home I took the items out of the baggies and tried to figure them out. The first one I think might have actually been for hockey, and I figured by the shape went on your shoulder, however there was only one, so it was pretty useless. The second baggy had 2 plastic pads with velcro that after several attempts elsewhere I decided were shin pads. I'm pretty sure they were for rollerblading or something similar. The third baggie had 4 sets of pads (elbows and knees I discovered), and for a bonus, some of those little half-glove thingys. They were all red and blue with big letters on the front that said "fisher price."

I got home and put my outfit together. I put on a long sleeved black shirt under my slightly too tight-fitting blue soccer jersey, a pair of rain pants, with my shin gaurds and the fisher price knee pads and elbow pads. I fixed up my make-up and was on my way to the audition looking absolutely ridiculous.

I should mention here that earlier in the morning I actually googled "hockey goalie moves" on you tube so that in case they asked me to do any fake "goalie-ing" I would have a tiny idea of what to do. I was taught how to do a "butterfly guarding move" by some lovely young folks. I may have practiced a few moves in my living room. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xVr5ot6MIg

Anyway, as I got on the streetcar to the audition I felt quite ridiculous. This was definitely the first time I had ever worn sports equipment on public transit in my entire life. I looked around the streetcar, and in front of me was a man with a bullet wound in his face, a guy with a blonde long wig, and a baby dressed as a green monster. I realized that no one was looking at me at all. Oh Halloween, the one day when you can wear the craziest shit, and no one even notices.

The audition went ridiculously fast, as most of them do, and before I knew it I was out the door. Amazing how much work goes into such a teeny amount of time.

I ended up returning half of the equipment after the audition. Well exchanging, for a couple of cozy flannels. I kept the fisher price set though. Who knows when I'll need matching knee pads and elbow pads and half glove thingys, but whenever I do, I'll be stylin'!

Love and kindness all.

The death of Kings makes you think of things

This last week has been a lesson in appreciation, subtlety, and perspective. Let me explain.

It all started when I decided that for the first time, I would read the obituaries. Now, yes, that is not necessarily something that would make me laugh or be happy, but I thought it would be good for me to do it. I picked up a newspaper that was lying on the subway, and started to read through the obituary section. It was heart warming and heart breaking all at the same time. There were several things that really struck me: 1) two women had died of cancer that day who were around my mother's age. They are not that old, had just "finished" raising their children into young adults, and were taken from the new life that they were about to begin. Now, I don't want to go into questioning why. I don't know why, and to be honest, none of us will ever know why, I don't even know these people or their paths, so that is not the point. The point is, life is precious, life is short, and we need to remember that, I need to remember that every day of my beautiful life.

2) There was a little poem that was written in remembrance of a lady who had died several years before. It was short, and it was sweet, and within seconds I was weeping. It is the grief and the loss and the pain that cannot ever fully be gone. More than that, however, it is where that pain comes from, which is from love. That pain would not be anywhere near what it is, if there was not an equal or higher amount of love there. How beautiful is that? As cliche as it is, it IS better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. I need to remember this, and allow myself to love as much and as many people as I can possible handle! I want that kind of beauty in my life.

Okay, moving on from the depressing topic of death... this obituary reading changed something in me. On the subway ride home that day, I did not put in my headphones and leave the little world I was in. I looked around and really SAW the people around me. At one point there was a little girl sitting on the seat near me, and we were going through castle frank station where the streetcar goes above the ground. the girl's mother told her to look out the window, and so she did, and her face was pure awe. She kept repeating "wow. wow." as we went over the bridge and looked at the trees and the water and the roads below. "look at that, momma, wow." I looked out the window too, and for the first time since the day that I had first rode that subway in Toronto, I was also in awe. It was a beautiful sight, it was enchanting, and the fact that we could be underground one moment and up on a bridge looking down in the next still blows my mind. It was magic.

That entire day I felt like I was seeing many things on my route for the first time. In fact, I was waiting at the Queen and University streetcar stop and I looked behind me to notice an unbelievable sculpture on the wall that I had NEVER seen before.

This week I was also reminded to appreciate another thing I have: a healthy, happy body. I spent a day working at a hospital, and I cannot talk about the work I did or where I did it, but let me just say this: Being in a hospital can put things into perspective. I, like many people, spend a lot of the time that I look at myself doing so in a judging manor, wishing that I had smaller thighs and a tighter tummy, and clearer skin. For a brief second, as I was being examined by a stranger, I saw them NOT judging me. I saw them looking at my body like it was just that, a human body. Nothing more. In fact, they saw it as a healthy, well-running, youthful human body. What else could I possibly ask for?? It was a wonderful feeling of appreciation, feeling thankful for what I have. I really hope that I can hang on to that feeling for a while. ;)

Love and kindness all.

Halloween Fun!

Hiya friends,
So I decided to join the pumpkin carving contest at work for 2 reasons:
1) It seems like something I would have been too scared to do before, and I am trying to stop fear from making my decisions. Boooyah.
2) I have never actually carved a pumpkin, so it was my new thing of the day!

Now the truth is, I checked in with my momma, and I technically have helped her "carve" a pumpkin a long time ago, but that mostly consisted of using my tiny hands to scoop out the seeds and goop. I was not allowed to carve the pumpkin, so I have never actually done it. It counts!

So, yes, I am a virgin pumpkin carver (or was before that cherry was popped this morning...) and I had quite an adventure figuring it all out. Luckily there is plenty of internet help available!

I picked out a pumpkin at work, something a little smaller so that I wouldn't feel overwhelmed, and then searched for what kind of stencil I would like to use. Holy cow there were a million choices! I could find a stencil for anything I could think of. I decided it needed to reflect me somehow, therefore it shouldn't be too scary, or serious. I narrowed it down to a cartoon, and then stumbled upon snoopy dressed as dracula. Snoopacula. Perfect.

Now the fun part: With my computer open to Martha Stewart's "how to carve a pumpkin" page in case I got stuck, and my itunes on random, I got to work.

Before.... Isn't it a cute little pumpkin? So I cut off the top and started to scoop out the seeds. I forgot how gross this process is. Just slimy and tough to get the stuff out!

 Okay, so I got most of the goop out, but there were soooo many stringy bits left in that darn pumpkin that I could NOT get out. I had to check in with Martha and see what to do. She said to use a plastic scraper... I did not have one of those.I tried everything I could find: A spatula... no good. My knife was too long to fit in the round edges, and a spoon wasn't doing the trick. I looked around everywhere and then tried to think of what might work like a plastic scraper would, and had an idea.

I got my old international student card out of my wallet and started scraping away the inside of the pumpkin. Worked like a charm.

Well the cleaning took FOREVER, but when I finally finished, I got the design out and  tried to make it fit on a round surface, not an easy feat. I had gotten a tip at work to use push pins to make the design onto the pumpkin, so I also used them to keep it in place.

So after an hour of poking the design into the pumpkin, I finally started cutting. And it took twice as long as poking.

All was going well until I got to a really tricky bit around the mask and the eye. In retrospect, I should have done the middle of the eye BEFORE doing the outside of the eye, as it became so flimsy, that I accidentally ripped off half of the eye. Uh oh.

Okay... kind of an important part, what do I do? I assessed the situation, and realized that I had half of the eye still. I carefully cut around it, and saved the bottom half of the eye! Whew! It still looked alright, you got the basic idea. Crisis averted. I finished cutting out the pumpkin, trying to shave the lines so that they looked cleanly cut, and then I realized that I was creating what looked like spaghetti shavings all over the inside of my pumpkin! Ughh! It took quite a while to clean all of that out so that it wouldn't interfere with the light coming through the design. This pumpkin carving is a finicky business!

I finally got it all mostly cleaned out of the way inside, when I realized that I hadn't finished snoopy's ear... but given the very small amount of space I had between the edge of the cut and where I was supposed to cut out the ear, I didn't want to chance it again.... we wouldn't want an eye falling out repeat. Okay... so instead I decided to get a little creative and just shave off the inside of the ear instead so it was the yellow-y underneath colour. Yes! Well, it proved to be a little challenging, and after cutting my finger I switched to a different knife and it did the trick.

Taaadaaaaa!

With a flickering light inside, I'd say it turned out not too shabby! Now, in my head I had planned to add more to it, maybe a woodstock or some paw prints... but I decided maybe it would be best to just keep it simple. Sometimes simplicity is perfect. Plus, I finally got the yellow crap out of my nails and I think I had enough for the day.

All in all, a pretty successful first pumpkin! Now let's just see if it can hold up against the other 27 contestants at work.... ugghh! I'll let you know how it goes. And as a special bonus, I have a new found respect for the pumpkin carvers of the world! I can't believe the people who do the crazy intricate dragons and portraits and such. Good on you!

Love and kindness all.

Kidnapping and Ventriloquism

 Hello lovely folks,

So, I was kidnapped by a beautiful woman 2 nights ago. I know, my life is hard isn't it? My lovely friend Tennille popped by and picked me up and refused to tell me where she was taking me. It was lovely fun. Finally we arrived at another friend's house, dear Lesley, and a night of girlish laughter and chatter ensued. Great fun!!!I forget how refreshing a night with the girls can be, but it makes such a difference.

In the midst of the chatter I was trying to brainstorm for ways that I can make money without having to be in the restaurant business, because I detest is so completely. I told them about how the first thing that came out of my mother's mouth when we had a similar brainstorm was "puppets" which I have always loved and believe that I am meant to work with one day. I suddenly had another thought that I haven't had in a very long time: ventriloquism! Now, I should explain here that I had a pretty intense jaw surgery when I was 18 and I had to have my jaw wired shut for 6 weeks, so I got to be pretty darn good and talking without being able to move my mouth. I remember thinking at the time that perhaps this would give me an advantage at being a ventriloquist, but I have never actually entertained the thought further than that.

During this discussion, I started to demonstrate some of the letters that are really tough to say, including "p" and "b". This sparked about 20 minuted of each of us trying to say "peanut butter" without moving our lips. I highly recommend you try it, it is extremely entertaining. The following video also happened because of this discussion, but a little later in the night when Lesley's boyfriend Drew was playing with his camera, and did not tell us he was filming! The best moments always come from this scheme.

Good times indeed!!!


Due to this discussion, I decided that yesterday I would research and try out ventriloquism. Something that I have never done before! I spent about an hour and a half looking up different people's ideas of how to say the tough letters, how to throw your voice and how to have a conversation with a puppet. It was fascinating!! Also, there are a lot of very unique people interested in ventriloquism, haha, but I don't know why that came as such a surprise. I think the favorite piece of advice that I picked up from my day of research was from a man on a how to you tube video who suggested that your puppet should be a unique side to your personality. A part of yourself that you don't usually show. Also, should have a voice very different from your own so that the illusion is assisted. That last part I completely understand, but the personality made me laugh quite a bit. I guess if I was choosing one character that I was going to use for a long time that would make sense, but wouldn't it be so much more fun to have lot's of different characters? Maybe that says something about my personality... haha this is reminding me of the "mixed fruit salad" title I was given in the teen magazine quiz from a previous post. Maybe there really is something to this! Anyway, that can be something to ponder on another day.

For now, I had a fantastic time practicing with my lamb chop puppet that I got for christmas. My love of puppets has been re-inspired, and I think I just might keep working on this ventriloquism thing... maybe it could go somewhere...

Love and kindness all.

90's movies and revelations

Hiya folks!!!

So... first of all it seems that writing everyday isn't actually going to happen. I still want to do a new thing everyday, but if I try a new flavor of gum there isn't exactly a great literary post in that, haha! So instead I'm going to do a summary every few days of the most exciting thing(s).

I decided to take a little trip down memory lane and re-watch Jumanji (as it has appeared on netflix! Yes!) I haven't seen it since its' release in 1995/6 so I thought it was time to experience it again.

I'm going to mention that I have also done this recently with Jurassic park which came out around 1993. So... let's just say I had high expectations.

Overall, it was still quite an exciting movie! I started watching it before going to a stressful shift at work that I was nervous about and I actually had to turn it off because I was feeling too anxious! When I tried again after work, I enjoyed remembering which terrible thing came next, and the suspense of how they would get out of everything. The big disappointment, I must confess, was in the special effects. It is amazing how far our computer animation has come, and I'm afraid most of the creatures in this movie were nowhere near real looking. Of course this was made almost twelve years ago, so there have been a lot of changes in that department.

Now, as I mentioned, I recently watched Jurassic park as well, and that movie had AMAZING special effects. They perfected the combination of puppets mixed with computer graphics, and that was back in 1993! Now, I would jump to concluding that it must come down to budget. Spielberg just had more money. His budget (from my googling research) seems to have been around $63m, where as Jumanji seemed to have a 65m budget... hmmm... well who knows how accurate these figures really are. In any case, Jurassic park wins for creativity, and therefore has a product that stands the test of time. 

Jumanji, however, was still an extremely enjoyable film the second time around. Kirsten Dunst was so much better as a child ;)

Just a side note: I have noticed something happening to me of late. I am becoming a lot less shy with the rest of the human population now on a regular basis! I have sometimes had the urge to speak to people who I don't know: You know when you see a woman crying on the streetcar and you wonder what is wrong, but you just sit quietly instead and assume it is none of your business? Well maybe that's just me, but I have started to have a new reflex, and that is to speak. I saw 3 girls sitting on the side of the road with a crying friend one night, and before I could even realize I had made the decision, I was asking them if they were okay, and if they needed anything, since I lived nearby. One of them assured me they were fine, just "boy trouble" but she thanked me sincerely for checking in. I think it's the blog. It has been a good influence on me :)

I am liking this change. A little more interaction with humanity is most definitely good!

Love and kindness all.

DAY 9: Teen fun

OMG Guys! I had a totally awesome day today.

 I had purchased a really cheesy teen magazine for the trip I took down to Niagra on the Lake with my friend Lesley, but since we didn't end up reading it, I decided to go through it today and do all of the quizzes! Yes! Now, to be fair, I did read these magazines when I was 13, but given that it has been 15 years, I figure I will let that detail slide.

Did I ever learn a lot about myself... wow.

As I began glancing through the pages, it was pretty clear that I am a little out of touch with the teen generation... I had no idea who anyone was. Not to mention that they were all 12, and posing like mini prostitutes. I started to feel a little uncomfortable. Luckily Selena cheered me up with her message:

Okay, on to the quizzes. Number one:

So after a series of difficult questions, it appears that I do have a texting style:

Now if someone will only explain to me what "K.I.T." means, then I will have a real insight into my personality. But I think it is pretty clear that I have a way with the gentlemen.

Okay, onto quiz number two:

Now, I had to google "BTR" to see who exactly these young men are. "Big Time Rush" is the band, I found a music video on their website, which I can't say I was a huge fan of:
http://www.btrband.com/ca/node/34090.
Now why I wasn't a fan, well it isn't my style of music, but I was also a little disappointed of their blatant use of blur's "Song 2" beginning, in such a ridiculous manor. I was a Blur fan back in 1997 when the song came out, and when these little boys were probably in diapers. Now this is besides the point, since I now know that one of them is indeed right for me:

Well, I do enjoy funny men. Perhaps I should give him a shot.

Okay, quiz number 3, my favorite by far:

YES! I think my favorite question was: "For you the best thing about bubble gum is: blowing bubbles, or the yummy flavor?" Tough one. I'd go with blowing bubbles. I finished the quiz, and it turns out I am.....

A mixed-up fruit salad??? What are you trying to say??? Well that was disappointing. I feel like I was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. At least I'm not alone. Some girl named "Vic" is a lot like me in this respect.

Well, all in all, a fun activity! And... I also got a nifty free poster inside to put on my wall!

Love and kindness all.

Day 8 is actually day 10...oops

I'm back!! Sorry for being MIA for a few days, just figuring some stuff out.

I am now back on track, and as I am stuck in bed with a malicious headache today, my post will be a little on the tame side. My activity today may sound lame, but in fact was very revealing:
I turned off my phone for almost 4 hours!

This may seem ridiculous and not a difficult thing to do, but the reality is that I never turn off my phone unless I am seeing theatre or a film or am in a meeting or rehearsal. In any other case: It is always on. I have never fully realized the dependency that I have on my little phone fella. Yes, I have had the day that I forgot the phone and felt naked/ like something was missing the entire day, but in that case I knew all of my messages and missed calls would be waiting and displayed for me when I returned. In this case, I could have no idea that someone was trying to contact me! God forbid!

About ten minutes after I turned it off, as I was trying to nap, I forgot that it was off, and touched it to see if there was any activity. Of course then I remembered and put it down again, but I did it again 5 minutes later! I had no idea I had such a habit of checking it. I finally fell asleep for a while and all was well. When I awoke, I had to restrain myself from turning it back on right away. I had to ask myself: "what is so important that it can't wait another half hour?" I couldn't think of any answers that were both realistic and relevent, so I went back to sleep. When I woke up again, I decided that I had exercised my lack of phone control enough, and turned it on. Yes I had a voice mail from my mom, and one missed message, but it was nothing that couldn't wait that extra hour/ 2 hours. It seems pretty obvious that without my awareness, I have become a little too dependent on constant electronic communication with the world.

So there, another lesson learned. I have to say it was a very nice feeling to turn the world off for a while, knowing that nothing was going to bother me or interrupt my "me" time.  A practice that I would highly recommend, and will be sure to do again for myself.

Love and Kindness all.

DAY 7: Taste of the mini mart

Hiya folks,

So yesterday I decided a head of time that my task was going to be to go into a mini mart that I had never been in or even really noticed before, and buy the 2 strangest food items that I could find (for under 5 dollars, which is what I made doing coat check last night.)

Ok, so I walked into a mini mart on parliament and started to look around. I instantly found my first item: a candy bar called a "wazoo" is was brightly coloured and said it had a "fruity flavor." Okay, now onto the second item. I scoured the grocery items in the very small store. I should note here for foreshadowing that I did notice quite a bit of dust piled up on many of the tops of the grocery items. I finally found a bottle of "All purpose sauce" from "Mang Tomas" and decided that this was my second item. I purchased the items from a very confused looking Chinese man, and was on my way.

I decided to eat the "Wazoo" bar while I was waiting for the streetcar. When I unwrapped it, it looked a little like a pop tart, which got me rather excited.

After one bite, I was less excited. It tasted like very sugary bubble gum, and was just as chewy, so I felt like such a rebel for swallowing it down.

I also could not get it out of my teeth. In conclusion: I will not be purchasing a wazoo anytime in the near future.





I'm afraid to say that the all purpose sauce also ended up being disappointing in the end. When I got the sauce home and started collecting food that I could try it on, I happened to look at the top of the bottle to see the expiry date... and it said May 2012. Boo. The dust should have been a bit of a tip off, but in the moment my intellect was clouded by excitement.


BUT I am a journalist and a life adventurer, so despite the fact that it was past the due date, I decided to give it just a little taste.

It smelled a little like very old tomato sauce.

And tasted like bread crumbs that had been swimming in vinegar for about twenty years. I hope I don't die.

I have found out since googling this all purpose sauce that it is a product of the Philippines, usually used on Lechon, a pork dish. It normally has liver in the ingredients... but thank goodness my bottle was missing that ingredient. 

Well, as of today I am still standing, so all is well. I am sad to say that I don't think I will be purchasing either item again, but still a fun experiment.

Love and kindness all.

DAY 6: Ticket to ride

Hiya folks,

After an unexpectedly long day at work yesterday, I decided to pick a streetcar-related theme for my task, so I could complete it on the ride home to my comfy bed. I had thought that I might strike up a conversation with a friendly-looking passenger (a woman, so no one got the wrong idea and tried to follow me home...) but alas there were only 3 women on my streetcar, and they were not too friendly looking. There were a couple of kind-looking men, but I decided against this.

I'm just going to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that again, I was prevented from a task due to the implication that as men and women, there is an underwritten rule that if I am a stranger and I show you any kind of attention and kindness, I must be trying to sleep with you. I suppose that in many cases this might be true, but what about when it isn't? We are preventing so many possible acts of kindness and friendship because of these assumptions, and in my case assumptions that there will be assumptions. I am also guilty of assuming that most acts of kindness towards me from a man are indications that he wants something more, and can be rather paranoid about this. That said, as a single young lady alone in the city, you can't be too careful. I think I will try to make it a goal to not jump to any conclusions in this regard, still keeping up a little bit of a guard. I'll let you know how this goes.

Okay, back to the story. So without a suitable streetcar buddy, I decided to chat up the driver himself. He was one of the youngest drivers I have seen, probably in his late 20's. I first walked up to him as other people were exiting the car, and he kept the doors open assuming that I was also trying to exit. I assured him that I was not, and then we began moving again.

At this point I actually got quite nervous at the idea of talking to the driver. I guess I don't usually walk up to strangers on my own accord without being at work, or needing help. I worked up a little courage, and then leaned over and asked him how long he had been driving streetcars for. He didn't hear my question and assumed I was asking how long it was going to be until the next streetcar came and told me curtly it would be about 90 seconds. I laughed and told him that I was not asking about that, but I was wondering how long he had been a streetcar driver for. This completely caught him off guard, and he shyly answered that it had been 4 years.

I then asked him what the weirdest thing was that he has ever dealt with at work. This was a difficult question for him to answer. I tried to prompt him by asking about kicking someone off the streetcar or something, and he just smiled a knowing smile and replied that kicking someone off is not an abnormal occurrence.

He thought for a minute and then replied that the strangest thing he had ever seen was with a man who he gave a free ride to one time. He had been homeless and seemed to really need it, so he let him stay on until the end of his route. At the end, the man had asked him for a transfer, which he refused since he had not paid. The man went crazy and grabbed the entire stack of transfers just to spite the driver. at this point it got out of hand and the driver said he was going to have to get the police involved if he did not put down the transfers and calmly leave the car. At that moment, the man took a running start towards the back of the streetcar and jumped through the back window, right through the glass. Of course he ended up hurting himself and the police (and ambulance) were now fully involved. the man didn't get charged with anything, except for the fee of the repair. Was it worth it for another free ride?

Just another day in the life of a streetcar driver. I smiled, thanked him for the story, and continued on my journey home. It was nice to be let in on such a different world for a few minutes.

Love and kindness all.

DAY 5 is yummy!

Hello lovely folks!

I decided half way through the day today that I was going to choose a recipe from the little box of recipe cards that I found in my grandma's kitchen after she passed away, and I was going to make one of her dishes! So, I picked one at random and ended up with rhubarb pie dessert. Awesome. It is probably one of the least healthy recipes in the bunch, but that's okay!

I was out this afternoon and early evening, and then on my way home decided to pick up the ingredients at a store that was on my way home. They didn't have any rhubarb, which is exactly when it dawned on me that it isn't quite rhubarb season, and come to think of it, I don't think I have ever actually noticed rhubarb being sold in the grocery store, so I needed a plan b. I thought of the second most likely fruit that grandma would have cooked with, and picked up some strawberries.

I got home with my ingredients and got to work. Might I say here that I don't think I have ever actually bought a container of cool whip before in my life, and I was too afraid to actually look on the list of ingredients, so I decided to remain ignorant instead.

With "undeclared" playing beside me, I cut up the strawberries and put them in a sauce pan with a little sugar (I used a bit less than grandma had written down...) some water and some corn starch, and started it cooking. Beautiful.

After the strawberries were cooking for a little while, I looked at the recipe card again, and realized that I had only put in 3 tsp of corn starch instead of table spoons. I thought the best way to remedy this would be to put some more in after. I gently poured in some corn starch, as all of the sudden I heard a fire alarm go off outside, and jerked my hand so that probably about half a cup of corn starch landed in the pot. Okay, don't panic.

I grabbed the pot and took it to the sink, where I scooped out almost all of the extra cornstarch. There were a few little clots of it left in the pot, but with stirring most of them came out. So here is a piece of advice: don't add corn starch in anything after the fact. Yikes.

Moving on, I waited for the strawberries to cool. I got bored, so I decided to give myself a green clay facial.

I poured the cooled strawberries into the graham cracker crust, and then put the mini marshmallows on top.

Next I mixed up the vanilla pudding mix (Ya, I told you how unhealthy this was!) Now, this is where I made another little teensy mistake... I decided that it would make more sense to mix the cool whip in with the pudding instead of making a separate layer first (because it was just way too hard to spread over the marshmallows.) So I mixed them in and added the milk. I poured the mix over the rest of the pie a little too energetically...

I cleaned up the mess and poured a little more carefully, and then left the pie to cool and the pudding to set. I watched some more "undeclared" and then came back to find that the pudding did not set... fully. Another word of advice: Don't mix cool whip in with a vanilla pudding mix, they don't work too well together. I think the major lesson I am getting out of today is that I REALLY can't take short cuts in this recipe, even thought I seem to really want to.

Well, so what if dessert is a little liquidy. I put another layer of cool whip on top and left it in the fridge for another hour, just to see if it helped.

It didn't really help. Whatever, it still tasted good. What would Grandma have done? She would have adapted,  probably served it as ice cream topping or something. So, I served it anyway, and I called it: a Strawberry parfait.

Love and kindness all.