by PenRei
After a long work week and too much time spent in front of the computer, I wanted to get out of my apartment and find a place to meander about. On Saturday, I was seduced by the idea of shopping (since I’ve recently discovered many of my clothes are old, stained, and have holes in them), but I opted to go for something that didn’t involve spending money: hiking. One of my absolute favourite things in Toronto are the ravines. You can access them quite easily from a few subway stations and can easily spend hours in them. It’s the best way to feel like you’re leaving Toronto without actually leaving it.
On this specific Saturday, my feet, by the sheer will of their own, walked me straight to the Brickworks. Having lived in Toronto for 6 years, I felt a little ashamed that I never made the effort to visit before. Luckily, it’s never too late! I had a great time wandering around, checking out the old buildings, walking the trails, taking in the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves, ect. Before I knew it, 4 hours had passed since I left the house. Despite all the fun that was had, my stomach was in a particlarly angry place. (Context: my eatings habits involve eating about 5 small meals a day, preventing my genetically slow metabolism from storing too much food in the reserves.)
Enter main struggle of the day.
I was FAMISHED! Before leaving the Brickworks, I stopped by their cafe to grab a snack, but the cheapest thing they had left were a few 9$ sandwhiches, and there was nothing too special about their content or their size. I decided to tough it out, believing that I could hold out before meeting Nomes for some chicken wings. Boy was I mistaken! The 30 minutes it took me to get back home never seemed l-o-n-g-e-r. Every step became an effort as that annoying feeling of weakness crept in from my deepening hunger. The world was spinning, and not in the fun way.
Once I got back in my neighbourhood, I stopped by Shoppers DrugMart to pick up some kind of snack. Unfortunately, almost everything in the store made me sick. Even a small bag of original ruffles had 0 appeal to me. Then, it hit me. There was only one on the planet that I wanted at that very moment. Only one thing that would allow me to eat, but still have enough room for dinner. One thing that was on the way. A WENDY’S JUNIOR BACON CHEESEBURGER!!!

looks nice and waxy
I couldn’t wait any longer! Mama needed that small burger and she needed it NOW. I was so impatient that I didn’t even want to walk all the way to the Wendy’s; I became ultra lazy and took out my bike. That’s right, I biked the 4 blocks it took to get to the Wendy’s, locked it to a pole, impatiently waited in line as I fought every urge not to faint, and ordered the burger.
It tasted SOOOO GOOD! I often have trouble bringing myself to eating a normal burger in a fast food place. Prime reason: the JBCB is already 400 calories, and that’s a kid sized burger. Yowzah! Still, my calorie intake of the day was far too low, resulting in my present painful predicament. After the little buger, I felt better, but I could still eat a cow.

As I walked my bike to the restaurant for dinner, my worst enemy started happening: a migraine. It did not rank amongst the worst ones I’ve had, but it was there, creeping, and being a jerk! I decided to wait until I had more food in me before deciding that drugs could be the answer.
Nomes got to the restaurant and we caught up on the last two ridiculous weeks of our lives. The migraine however didn’t flinch. It remained true to its cause of aggravating me. We stopped by Starbucks afterwards to grab me some coffee.
NB: Depending on what kind of migraine or headache you get, caffeine can actually help to alleviate the pain, especially when the cause is high blood pressure. However, this won’t work if you’re a daily drinker.
There wasn’t enough room left in the cup for added soy milk, so for a while, the coffee just tasted bitter, but I took it anyway since the pounding in my head was starting to decrease. By the time we got back to my place, there was enough room left in the cup for me to add my own soy milk. I opened the door of my fridge, but there was no soy milk. However, there was one kind of soy drink there, and I decided to mix the two to see what happens.
So, this:


- Bolthouse Vanilla Chai Tea
+ this:
= AMAZING!!!!!
It was like the flavours were dancing in my mouth in harmony. The migraine quickly vanished as the caffeine took hold and the taste took over. At the end of the cup, I was sad that it was all gone.
Nomes left late after our Ringer mini-marathon. It was past midnight and time to go to bed, especially with our plans for the next day.
Then, somewhere between 3am and complete frustration, I remembered why I never drank coffee after 6pm… BECAUSE I CAN NEVER SLEEP OTHERWISE. As I laid down in bed, one of my main thoughts was “if you just brought something to eat to the Brickworks, or bought that 9$ sandwhich, we wouldn’t have been starving, we wouldn’t have gotten a migraine, we wouldn’t have drank coffee, and we wouldn’t be lying awake in bed looking at the day in hindsight“.
All of the day’s struggles just because I skipped a meal. Bullocks!