Author: Christine

Christine http://www.mombie.com I'm a writer/storyteller/director/creativity & lifestory coach with a black belt in ITF Taekwon-do. I read voraciously and I write like my fingers are on fire. I'm the founder and Co-Chair of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl and I'm the current president of the St. John's Storytelling Festival. I bake a mean chocolate chip cookie.

That’s a lot of pressure, really

I was in a restaurant bathroom last night and the owners had really put some effort into decorating the place.

But this is a lot of pressure for a quick bathroom stop, isn’t it?

A photo of a restaurant bathroom wall with a mirror in the centre and a sign on either side. One sign reads ‘unwind’ and the other reads ‘relax.’ There’s a light fixture overhead and the reflection in the mirror shows two stall doors painted like houses and part of my left side.

Unexpected Shortage

Yesterday, I was at the supermarket when my friend sent me a text and asked me to pick up an onion and bring it with me.

I circled around for a bit going all through the products looking for the individual onions, but I couldn’t seem to find any.

Then, when I realized that the empty spaces in this section were all for onions.

What kind of bizarre onion quest was somebody on?

Why on earth with no loose onions?

I just bought a bag of onions instead but I still find it weird that I couldn’t buy just one, that this whole section was empty.

A photo in the produce section of a supermarket showing the egg-carton-like containers where individual onions would normally be displayed but all of the little spaces in the black trays are empty.

Officially On Retreat

It’s good to be away from everything and to retreat from the world for a little while, to focus on a specific piece of work or specific set of ideas, but I find the framing of being ‘on retreat’ really strange

I know it means stepping back from things, and that’s an appropriate use of the word when you’re stepping back from things to focus. But it has that connotation of backing away from a fight, that you’re retreating rather than them facing something.

And then I wonder if that’s why people have trouble stopping. Why they might have difficulty turning their attention to one particular thing, even for a short period of time. Perhaps they are thinking of that as turning away from the other things they ‘should’ be facing.

Or, and this is entirely possible, I may be overthinking this because I’m tired.

Mid-Night Tea

No, not midnight tea but tea in the middle of the night.

I woke up at about 3:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep.

I wasn’t worried or distressed, just awake.

Eventually, I decided to make myself a cup of tea and read until I felt tired again.

Since I wasn’t sleeping, I might as well enjoy myself, right?

I was terribly sleepy this morning but at least I wasn’t tossing and turning all night.