Monday Morning Blues

Have you ever had one of those days (or in my case, weekends) where just nothing goes according to plan? As you can probably guess, I just did. Not that I had especially productive or sensational plans for this past weekend. All I wanted to do was stay in and read.

On Friday, I stopped by the library to return a book and ten of my requests had come in. Feeling like I'd won the lottery, I checked them out and hauled them to the car, anxious to get home and spend the entire weekend inside a good book. That did not happen.

Instead, I spent almost half the weekend trying to eat breakfast. It started on Saturday, with my ill fated decision to try the new Cora's that had just opened. They were so disorganized, with no system of being able to put your name down for a table and having them get a hold of you when it was ready. You just had to stand in line and wait. Outside. In -27 degrees celcius. For at least forty five minutes. Um, no.

So, we decided we'd head over to Truffles. Half way there I remembered that it was Saturday, and they only have brunch on Sunday. No problem. I'd call Poached. As luck would have it, they had two tables left, but unfortunately I couldn't reserve one over the phone. Taking our chances, we drove to Poached, hitting every single red light on the way. When we got there, they had only one table left and it was the worst one in the restaurant. It sat directly in front of the door, not even two feet away. At this point we were famished and in terrible moods, so we agreed glumly to the awful table and proceeded to have breakfast. At no point did we take off our coats, and my husband kept his toque on the entire time.

The next day, we managed to wake up far earlier. Surely, there wouldn't be a long wait so early at Cora's this time. Wrong. Although we were able to get in the first set of doors, we spent forty five minutes crammed into the tiny entrance way with eighteen other people, only slightly warmer than if we'd been forced to wait outside. When we finally made it through the second pair of doors and into the actual restaurant, we still had to wait as no one seemed to be showing anyone to a table. When we were finally seated, I will admit that our server was incredibly attentive, but the food just wasn't good enough to make up for the long, cold wait. My toes were freezing the entire time and the smoked salmon eggs benedict were just not up to snuff. I'd had far better at Calories, and they at least took reservations.

Each time we went for breakfast, it had eaten up at least half the day and most of the rest was spent running errands on roads so slippery they had me white-knuckling the steering wheel.

Of course, it wasn't all bad. On Saturday night we went to see Life of Pi and it was incredible. They did a fantastic job translating such an amazing book to screen. The visuals were stunning. And on Sunday night we had dinner at my parents house, which was delicious. So, the weekend wasn't a complete loss by any means, but I was so disappointed that my own plans fell through. I wasn't able to finish a single book and now the work week stretches ahead like an unending ocean. I know there's another weekend just beyond the horizon, but I just can't see it yet. (If you're wondering, the lesson here is to just stay home and make your own breakfast. It's faster, tastier and you don't have to leave the house.)