Well, Happy New Year, indeed.

Imagine you here with me, sitting, sipping a new kind of cocktail, created in honour of the Year of Dragon: lychee syrup, coconut juice and amber rum over ice. Tastes a bit beachy for this time of year, depending on where you are, I mean, but this evening is warm and positively balmy in TO, bring on the beach, you know?

Air = filled with freshly baked cupcakes, comforting vanilla in the air, hint of butter-cream icing and lychee, warm almond scent underneath. Base note of the 5-spice carrot cupcakes from yesterday still lingers.

And 80s music is on and we are kicking back in the living room.

Today I learned a new word: ataraxia.

Which, honestly, looks like it has too many “a”s but, do I have to tell you how much I like that “x” there?

I like it a lot.

Slept in this morning, the alarm didn’t go off. I didn’t set the alarm! Not sure how I forgot, but there you have it, I did and there I was all sleeping in for half an hour!

No worries though, ok? I have 45min of “extra” time available to me every morning, so even with sleeping in for 30min, I still had 15min of “free time”. And yes, I got to work in plenty of time, still early. There you have it, some people are just wired like that.

Good day at work, seems like everyone was in a good mood all the way around and two of my colleagues ended up in the office as well – which is veryvery unusual, normally I’m the only one on my team, so it was…nice.

Forgot lunch, no worries though, a catering company comes in and we can buy our lunch. I bought my lunch today – tuna salad sandwich and potato leek soup. Which was pretty good, considering that I was going to go out and treat myself.

What really made lunch enjoyable though, this book that I’m currently devouring. Today, this book taught me a new word, but I think I told you? Ataraxia.

After lunch, for the rest of the day, I kept thinking about this word and saying it to myself.

Ataraxia.

My brain turned it over and over, tasting it. I mean, if a brain could be said to “taste” a word…you know what I mean here, don’t you? Well, ok then!

After work, it was time for hot yoga.

Yes! I’m totally ready and able to go and…

Somehow I end up at the grocery store and I’m getting stuff to make more cupcakes!

So, when I get home, I do.

Another recipe for lychee almond cupcakes and the smell…well, I know I mentioned that…

Then you know what?

I felt so good about…well, just about everything.

I called up my bro and offered to bring him some cupcakes.

me: hey! are you guys still up?

my bro: yeah. hey i just saw your picture of the cupcakes, they look good.

me: they are. hey, if you are still up, can i bring some over?

my bro: yeah ok.

my bro: wait, what?

me: i want to come over and bring you some cupcakes.

my bro: that is what i thought you said. but for a moment i thought maybe i was having a stroke. ‘cuz i saw your pic and i thought “i would really like some of those cupcakes”, so when you just said that, i thought maybe i was having a stroke.

me: is it a symptom of having a stroke to think about cupcakes?

my bro: probably not. is this real? you are really bringing cupcakes over to us?

me: what? do you think i would phone you up and offer to bring you cupcakes as a cruel prank? i would never use cupcakes for that sort of evil.

my bro: sure. well, sure if you want to bring us cupcakes, that yeah, come over. i’m going to be really disappointed if i’m having a stroke and you don’t bring cupcakes over.

So, this is actually how conversations in my family go sometimes. I hope that explains some things that you were maybe wondering about me.

Anyway, I did and it was great to see them, my niece was asleep when I got there, but it is all for the best, really, she may have freaked out on the cupcakes if she saw them.

Then it was back home and you know that moment when you open the door and you are hit with the smell of home? And it may smell like wet dog, or air freshener or pasta or curry – tonight I opened the door and yeah…freshly baked cupcakes.

When I lived in Alberta I used to bake bread. A lot. Like a few loaves every week-end for a while there. And sure, this meant that we always had bread around and usually some pretty interesting kinds too, ‘cuz that is the way I roll. But the thing that I liked best. The best thing in the world for me was coming home, opening up the door and the smell of freshly baked bread would pour out the door.

Heaven.

So, I guess you are wondering: What does “ataraxia” mean?

On the week-end I read that column “Free-Will Astrology” -

Yes, I should give you a link, but keep in mind, drinking rum with coconut water and lychee juice here! You may not want me to go linking all over the place, you know what I’m saying?

Anyway, my horrorscope, sorry, horoscope, suggested that I entertain some more of my ideas this week, not share them, not act on them, just…entertain them and let myself be entertained.

Secret time: I already do! I play and entertain and allow my ideas to amuse the heck out of me.

Why?

‘cuz it is fun.

On the way over to see my bro and deliver those cupcakes, here is what I thought: that I would start a cupcake delivery service. That I could get bike couriers in TO to deliver them, they are already doing the routes and going places anyway, why not take people cupcakes? I also thought that I could set up by Bixi bike kiosks. Again, not linking here, too relaxed…I also thought that I should start a choir, we could sing madrical music (note to WordPress: “madrical” is a word…gesh, I seriously need to join their dictionary team…oops, actually I’m spelling it wrong, sorry WordPress – no hard feelings, right?) ‘cuz I like all kinds of music and yeah, I love all kinds of music, to listen too and even to play and sing, but my fav, my all-time most pleasurable music to sing is madrigals (spelled correctly this time!).

And yeah, I haven’t sung in years, so I need to learn how again.

But, I can do that.

So those are the ideas that are currently entertaining and amusing me.

Ataraxia – tranquility of the soul.

If that isn’t nice, I don’t know what is…

My heart started growing again today.

 

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