Toe Stretch!

Yum. Cauliflower 65.  My favourite dish at Taste of Edmonton this year.  Yay for veggie dish hunting!  The story behind the "65": this was appetizer number 65 at a popular restaurant in Mumbai.  It's like an Indian sweet and sour dish.  I haven't checked out many Edmonton festivals this summer.  Missed K-Days and will be missing Heritage this weekend because I'll be in Panorama for a wedding.  I really should be packing right now.

I am currently stretching my toes for the sake of my poor feet.  This week included kettlebells, double practices and workshops and social dancing. Double practices mean I have been training with an Afro-Cuban group in addition to my "regular salsa" group.  It's awesome - I've loved Afro-Cuban dance ever since I first saw Cubans do it.  Difficult though.  Even the warm up with the group is difficult.  It is one of the toughest physical things I've done.  Talk about pushing limits!  There's some ballet and contemporary thrown into the mix (which I've never done) and my respect for ballet and contemporary dancers just shot up even more.  If I was ever looking for a new challenge, this is it.

I did end up getting a copy of Chimamanda Adichie's first book Purple Hibiscus and it was a beautiful read, just as I expected (despite hyping her up in my head so much).  The writing is so simple and unpretentious yet it captures so much.      

I also read Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and enjoyed it.  Partially because it's so relevant to me.  Partially because I can feel her energy jumping off the pages.  One might take a look a the book and think "oh, a powerful woman leader trying to lift up other women" but it is so much more than that.  That's the thing - feminists don't have to strictly be angry women who refuse to shave or wear bras (even though I thoroughly respect that).  Being a feminist female means that you want to be able to do your own thing without being held back or judged.  And yes, of course a man can also be feminist.

Unfortunately, men can get judged for being modern thinkers too.  Just because you are okay with being the primary stay-at-home person doesn't make you any less manly. 

Maybe you can't have it all, but in this day and age I believe it is possible to have a whole lot :)

Says the woman who is packing and toe stretching after 2AM.

Mind Farts
-i'm in love with Allen Stone's voice.  i'm still amazed that he looks like a regular white dude in a toque
-there are some lazy ass engineers out there!  fortunately not at my office, but i recently encountered one that made me wonder how the heck he even made it through engineering school
-just because a man can dance doesn't mean he's less manly either.  shirtless professional dancer vs. shirtless beer belly ... mmhmm ... just saying
-baked ketchup chips nom nom nom nom