slow movement

this morning, while sitting on my deck in the sunshine, eating a home-baked chocolate croissant and sipping a large mug of cafe au lait, i perused a column in the vancouver sun about the slow living movement. this is a phenomenon that rose up out of the french-invented, italian driven food movement that focuses on in-season, locally available fresh ingredients and drinking lots of red wine (see, at this point moxee's today post for an interesting comment on the economics of food. actually, if you see the sidebar for the social issues research centre, there's a good article available for reading. but i digress). anyhoo. this whole thing made me stop and think about my lifestyle. i do work very hard during the week - i work long hours and my days are pretty packed with stress and activity. but my weekends are markedly different. the biggest decision i made this weekend was whether or not to buy bake-at-home chocolate croissants or purchase them prebaked for ease of consumption. i wandered in the sunshine, hit up my favourite vancouver grocery spots, drank iced tea and sunned myself in my bikini, spent time with my mom, and talked with friends. granted, my room is a mess, and i should have tidied. but really, on days this gorgeous, who cares?

part of this indulgence comes from, of course, the fact that my time is *really* my own. i have no partner nagging me to do chores or run errands. i can take as much time perusing baked goods at my favourite bakery as i want. my son spent most of the weekend with friends - we touched base yesterday to go to the beach to sit in the sun and eat greasy beach food stand burgers chat about life, and watch the bikini girls go by.

the downside to this is that i tend to go a little stir crazy when left to my own thoughts too much. i get lost inside my head and have trouble shaking the introspection. also, on saturday evening when the sun came out, all i really wanted to do was pack up the car and have an impromputu camping trip. this, however, is not much fun on your own.

i think that, as i get older, i'm going to become more and more comfortable living in my own skin, and being by myself. this is, in part, one of the reasons that i figure if i don't meet someone amazing in the next couple of years and "settle down" so to speak, it's never going to happen. which, given the past weekend, is a double edged sword. i've been kind of lonely, but at the same time, it's good for my soul.