Life in the suburbs continues. Now, I don't want to offend any of you who have embraced suburban life -- I know blogland plays home to a lot of suburban mom types and I don't want to belittle anyone's lifestyle. It just isn't for me. My parents live in an area called "The Hamptons" (I'm not kidding) and it's the perfect picture of modern suburban life in North America: the houses are all made by the same company (to maintain the integrity of the neighbourhood, natch), there's nowhere to walk, there aren't any good parks because everyone has playground equipment in their own yards and there are oodles of huge box stores clustered in mega-strip mall complexes. I'm trying to go with it as much as possible: yesterday I paid a trip to Michael's crafts (something that wasn't in reach of my Toronto neighbourhood) and I also actually went through the Starbucks drive-through. That's right, Starbucks without even having to get out of the car. If I had been driving my parents' SUV, I think I would have barfed.
But all will be well soon. We get possession of our little three-bedroom bungalow next Friday. Our stuff might not arrive from the movers until the end of the month, but we're committed to moving in a.s.a.p. even if it means sleeping on an air mattress. Our new neighbourhood would have been considered suburban 10 years ago before Calgary started it's steroid-growth, but it's actually pretty close to downtown and is filled with big mature trees. And there's no Starbucks, which is pretty rare in a city with so much money. My guess is that one will move in pretty soon, but I swear I'll remain true to the local coffee place.
I have been enjoying some aspects of my suburban mom life: since there's no point in looking for work until I'm settled, I've been baking up a storm. Above is a nice loaf of cinnamon bread, which is actually more like coffee cake. I got the recipe from the Company's Coming Muffins and More book. I think Company's Coming is a Canadian phenomenon -- the books are very square and often use ingredients like cream of mushroom soup and hashbrowns in the recipes. My favourite part is the author's bizarre comments with each recipe -- usually things like "a dark and unusual loaf" or "Good! Good!." This one was captioned "rich enough for lunch." What, regular bread is too light for lunch? Who eats coffee cake for lunch anyway?
4 comments:
tee hee on the 'rich enough for lunch' (and, um.. it's HUGE!).
Funny how suburban means different things depending on how a city has grown up, doesn't it? Over here suburban means there actually ARE playgrounds. And I'm so proud I live in what must be the only city in the western world with a population over 200,000 without a starbucks (we do however have a thriving chain called Bargain Booze...). Hope the moving again goes well.
Oh you are too funny!!!
Your post cracked me up. I'm off to visit my folks in Burlington tommorow with Sid and it's a carbon copy of your parents neighbourhood. I can only stand a day or so before I want to barf so we'll make a quick exit before my Mom starts hounding us to move there.
Sid and Maddie miss Ruby!
Congrats on the house,
Vicki
i love it! soak up suburbia while you can. every once in a while, i too miss the convenience of malls and fast-food and space and copious parkin.
We hate the suburban lifestyle too, but it is so hard to fight against! All the jobs in this area are in the suburbs and the city is even more expensive than here! The bread looks great!
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