Crave-o-rama

Oh what I would not give for a cupcake from Crave right about now. The worst thing you can do to a girl like me is to deny me something. All of a sudden I HAVE TO HAVE IT.

But in my defense, it's been months, MONTHS, since I've had a Crave cupcake. I think I'm overdue. Tried to treat Weird Kid to one before they left, only to find the store closed for the holidays. On Friday I was all set to treat myself to a cupcake. This was such a premeditated plan that I looked forward to my destined date with cupcake goodness all. week. long.

But it turns out it wasn't destiny. After Civic and I had some tea at Oolong we walked over to Crave to find them "sold out and so (they were) closed for the day."

Bear in mind that we went there 2 and a half hours before they were even scheduled to close. Oh, why must everyone want the same things I want? Why must they make it so difficult for me to indulge myself??

With no cupcakes in hand, we relegated ourselves to walking around the village to pass the time before my dance class. I had one of those moments where I wish I had had a camera with me. We came across a sandwich board for a local hair studio for men that advertised "a happy ending." A return visit is a must...with camera in tow.

We also noticed that the Plaza Theatre was showing Cannes Lions - World's Best Commercials so that got us into a flurry of phone calls (ok, maybe not so much a flurry, Civic called his brother and sister-in-law while I called Daisy) to see if anyone else was interested in taking in the 9pm showing. Soon after I headed off to dance class, Civic headed off to meet his brother for dinner, and all of us had plans to reconvene later on that night.

I love my salsa class. And it is sooo refreshing to finally be able to follow a guy's lead. (Mare tells the truth!) One of my favorite practice partners, ironically, is this gentleman who's old enough to be my grandfather. Of course, it's not HOT but at least he's got the confidence to be able to lead well...and I'm impressed with how well I can follow. (Shhh, my favorite practice partner is our instructor. Why not dance with the best, right?)

Then you have the opposite end of the spectrum. I had to dance with a guy I like to call the "salsa nazi." There I stood, alone, though briefly. I figured it was my turn to sit out a practice rotation (there were enough guys this class that calling for molecules wasn't really necessary). All of a sudden from across the classroom this guy comes bolting at me, grabs my hand, asks "can you come over here, please?" and drags me to where he had been originally.

After that, he had my hands in his deathgrip while his arms yanked my arms back and forth like saws while we danced. I bit my tongue and smiled. You have to practice with all sorts of partners, good AND bad, right? Besides, it would only take a few minutes and then I'd have another practice partner.

Oh, and if you were wondering why he dragged me to the other side of the room, it was so he could get a clear view of our dance instructor. Not that he was able to imitate the moves any better, anyway.

So at one point when he messed up, I tried to graciously get him back on track by showing him with my feet (since he was already looking down there anyway) what the next step was. And the guy had the NERVE to criticize me for trying to "lead" him!

"You're not being very helpful. You're just making it more confusing."

Honestly. Some guys. He should have been grateful that I took it all in with a smile. You should have seen the scowl on his next partner/victim's face when they were practicing.

Other than that, it was another fantastic class.

Once class ended I headed back to Kensington to meet up with the group for the commercials. But I hadn't had dinner yet. Luckily there was a local shawarma shop along the way to the theatre. Mmmm, falafel.

"How about I make you something else?" the shopowner asked me. "It's my specialty, still a vegetarian sanwich, it's got this and this and this...." As far as I could tell, the only difference between a falafel and what he was offering me was the addition of baba gannoush. But I LOVE baba gannoush so I went along with his suggestion.

His "specialty" almost cost twice as much as the falafel. I could've choked. My sandwich cost as much as my movie ticket for the night! But I was in a rush, and I had made the mistake of not asking about the price before he made the sandwich so I just paid up and left.

To his credit, the sandwich was amazing. Don't know if it was worth THAT kind of money, though.

In the end, only 4 of us caught the show: me, Civic, Daisy, and Autobot (I think that's the nickname I gave Civic's brother waaaay back when). Autobot's wife decided to call it an early night or something.

For some reason, a lot of Axe commercials made the grade. I had not known that Axe was a global product. There were also quite a few VW Golf GTI commercials (Yay, Golf!) There was a public service announcement from France (I believe) about Aids Awareness. I thought that one was particularly clever.

We ended the night over at Higher Ground. I love their Roger's Pass coffee.

Despite having a splendid Friday with my friends, I still need a cupcake. I won't stop until I get one.