Starbucks Has My Number

I have never been a coffee drinker. I’ve just never really enjoyed the taste of it. If I needed a little caffeine pick-me-up I would reach for a can of Diet Coke.

Anyhoo, before I moved to Ottawa I lived in Vancouver where a Starbucks beverage was virtually an accessory. No outfit was complete without one. So enticing was Starbucks that I started drinking coffee (only once in a while), as long as it didn’t taste like coffee.

At first, my drink of choice was the Caffè Mocha. But over time I noticed new items appearing on their menu – all of which fit my requirement of not tasting like coffee. I was distraught earlier this year when they discontinued their Cinnamon Dolce Latte. So imagine my glee when I went into my local Starbucks last week to see that it is now back!

And now that it has made a triumphant return, it is only a matter of a few short weeks before their pumpkin-flavored concoctions appear. And then only a few more short weeks after that, they’ll bring back their Christmas-themed coffees (I love me some Peppermint Mocha!) I am all a tizzy with anticipation. For someone who doesn’t really like coffee, I am far more excited than I should be. Maybe it’s the caffeine.

The Addiction

After The Wee Man was born, I didn’t want to buy myself any clothes until I lost the ton or two of baby weight I gained. But I still needed my regular retail therapy sessions. Since I couldn’t be the beneficiary of my shopping habit, The Wee Man got decked out in a lot of clothes.

Almost every week for the first four months of his life, I went trolling for new outfits. Sometimes I would just browse but sometimes the addiction would take over.

The worst occurred back in April. One of my favorite stores brought out a summer line with gophers playing golf as the motif. (C’mon! Gophers playing golf – how cute is that?!) My pupils started to dilate, I got the shakes, and before I knew it, I was well on my way to another shopping high. Just one thing though: I didn’t simply get high, I overdosed. I bought every item that had that motif and The Wee Man was kitted out for the whole summer.

Yes, it was more clothes than one growing baby needed. And, yes, it cost more than one new mother should spend on a growing baby. But I needed my fix and this store knew how to deliver.

Since the o.d., I have stayed well away from shopping for The Wee Man. I needed detox and knew to avoid all bad influences. I didn’t go into this store for four whole months. I was doing well with my recovery. That is, until Grandma arrived.

My mom wanted to do some fall clothes shopping for The Wee Man. We had pretty much wrapped things up when we decided to “quickly pop into” the store I had avoided since April. It was like a junkie going back into the crack house. When I saw the current fall line with the bear cub motif (C’mon! Bear cubs – how cute is that?!), things started to go downhill. If my mom wasn’t there, I would have bought the whole line, I swear. But I managed to escape with two shirts and a baseball cap.

So, obviously, I still have a ways to go dealing with “my issues”. But I didn’t fall off the wagon with a big of thud as I thought I would. No need for a 12-step program – yet.

The Downside To Being Grown-Up

Hubby the Great and I have been trying our best lately to conduct ourselves like adults now that we have big-time financial responsibilities. But acting like a fiscally-responsible adult can suck sometimes. Now is one of those times.

We have just RSVP’d to a wedding invitation and the answer we submitted was not the one we wanted. The couple getting married are dear friends of ours. We so very badly want to go and share in their happy day. However, the nuptials are in Calgary and when all was said and done, the trip would’ve cost us more than we could shell out at the moment.

At first, Hubby the Great and I didn’t even consider the cost, merrily planning our trip from Ottawa to Calgary and thinking about where we would stay, who we would visit etc. etc. We knew airfares were going to be outrageous but we also knew they are a sad fact of life for us when we live here and all our family lives two and three time zones away. We have become almost numb over the cost of flights and begrudgingly pay the loan shark-like fares, so the aeronautical portion of our trip didn’t initially dissuade us from going to the wedding.

Then we started calculating the other costs: the hotel, the rental car, and three meals a day in restaurants. Our trip to Calgary was starting to look A LOT more expensive. And while it killed us to send our regrets, Hubby the Great and I knew it wouldn’t be financially prudent (yes, we are grown up when we start using words like prudent) to go.

We are still paying down credit cards and paying off a vehicle loan. And within the last year we have added a mortgage and a new baby, both of which have managed to keep our bank account at a can’t-fly-to-Calgary-for-the-weekend level. We knew, intellectually, that there wouldn’t be as much money to go around after we started a family but to put it into practice is something we are just now coming to terms with.

And seeing The Wee Man gleefully smush and contort his face up against the mesh of his playpen while we ate dinner last night told us that we better start saving for his Ivy League education now!

Welcome

I have been mommy to The Wee Man for the past eight months. The experience has been so joyful, but all-consuming too. For the first six months of my son’s life, I swear, I was in a bit of a haze. Once the haze started to lift I realized that even though my life had changed drastically, I was still the same old me with the same likes and dislikes that I had prior to becoming a mommy. However, the self-imposed pressure to “do well” at being a mom almost dictated that I reinvent myself as someone who solely focuses on my new role and forget about the old me. And I know I’m not the only new mom who goes through this.

I found that I needed to laugh, and laugh at myself, as I navigated this new world and to not take myself too seriously. So, yes, I no longer deny that I enjoy a cocktail or two or that I can let the F-bomb fly if I get cut off in traffic. And I don’t want to always discuss all things baby. I may have shoved my designer purses to the back of the closet in favor of a diaper bag and high heels just don’t go with a stroller. But I am determined to combine mommyhood with a whole range of other interests. And that is also what I intend to do with this blog. If it happens to generate a few laughs along the way – bonus.