Bananas + Bread = Need I say more?

Look at that dressing dripping down the side...it's deliciously resembling the drool coming out of the corner of my mouth...

I don't know about you (although in all fairness, if you read my blog then I think I might know one thing) but there's nothing more delicious then a cooked banana. Challenge me. I dare you. I LOVE BANANAS.  All kinds of bananas.  Banana in bread, Banana in smoothies but most importantly, bananas in my mouth.

When I came across this recipe, the photo alone made me want to skip handing out Hallowe'en candy, grab a spoon, and scoop some of this bad boy right into some kids pillow case.  (You're welcome, parents)

On second thought - I don't want to share this with the kids.  I don't even want to share with you.  I want it all to myself.  And since I'm so greedy in regards to banana related foods, I decided to share this banana bread recipe so you can create your own drool-worthy masterpiece.  There's really not much to it, so try it out and let me know what you think! Also, if anyone modifies the recipe, please share below so I can re-make and eat all over again.

As only Gwen Stefani would say, "This shit is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S."

Head Hunters: Tacky Tactic or Flatteringly Fantastic?

This week I was looking through my usual bombardment of Monday morning emails, when I came across an email that looked like it belonged in the Spam category.  My first instinct was to "Report as Spam" and then delete, thus restoring my inbox to emails that actually pertain to my life.  But as I quickly glanced at the subject matter, I was surprised to see my full name staring back at me.  Hmm....Interesting...

Generally, most spam emails start off with: 

"Candice - grow your chest size in only 12 days!!!" 

OR 

"Candice, did you know that cell phones are giving you a brain tumour?"

A) I don't need anymore chest.  B) I'm never giving away my cell phone, tumour or no tumour. C) Take the time to address the email to me directly and maybe I will humour whatever you're sending me.

I opened the suspicious, spam-resembling email to find out that I was being head hunted by another retail company, for a position within their management team. 

Really? 

ME?! 

I kept reading and was half expecting to see at the bottom: 

"Sincerely, Generic Head Hunting Corporation of I'm totally a spammer and you fell for it, Sucker" 

But it didn't say that.  It said that I was wanted, and that made me feel warm and mushy inside.  The manager inside me had a different opinion, because some of us in the business world have the impression that trying to "steal" someone from their current position is downright unethical.  

When I was discussing the email with a friend of mine, she mentioned how flattering and amazing it was to not have to put forth the effort in furthering my career.  It was basically being done for me, all I had to do was decide if I wanted to pursue the opportunity.  Here I was being handed a job offer, when my poor friend had been relentlessly looking across Canada for an exciting new career - unfortunately with no success.  

This got me thinking about what it would be like if I was the one out searching for new employment opportunities.  Would I utilize the social media sites to source out connections? Would I get a newspaper and circle what looked appealing?  Do they even make newspapers anymore? Nowadays, the 'Classifieds Section' sounds like something cavemen drew on their walls.

With todays ability to go online and post just about anything  (ex. "Cat for sale", "Looking to buy cat", Cat in need of a job"..)  - how does one even know where to begin?

After investigating further into the job search options available online - they seem to be, for the sake of convenience and easy access to hoards of information, the best way to go.  With a quick click over to Job Search Canada, you are transported to an effective way of exploring many different areas of gainful employment.  You don't even have to get up from your chair/bed/couch - you just have to have a functioning resume and the motivation to fill in a few boxes of information.  It just doesn't get much more convenient then that. 

I suppose being head hunted is flattering - but when it comes down to it, shouldn't I be the one who gets to decide what my future career path will be? Because of this reason, I appreciate the fact that a website exists that make it simple to browse many opportunities all in one place (without having to go out in the snow to buy a newspaper).

I have no plans to leave my current position, but if the thought ever did cross my mind - I would rather it be something I went for vs. something handed to me.

Why the words "child" and "suicide" do not belong in the same sentence..

Why, as someone without children, does bullying bother me so much?  Well,  it's probably because I have a heart beating inside my body.

Only someone without one of those key components of life, could sit down and watch a one hour episode of Anderson Coopers show about bullying, without wanting to run to the closest school and yell out "IT GETS BETTER, TRUST ME!!" until every kid in that schoolyard believes you.  I normally blog about light hearted topics, and the posts are usually filled with sarcasm - but today I can't justify any of that.  Today my heart hurts for all the kids who have come to a point in their little lives, where they feel like enough is enough.  Those poor little muffins who get tormented at school, online and lord only know where else - and feel like there is no where to turn.  It has to make you stop and think...

In my generation, when I was in elementary school, we had bullies.  Of course we had bullies.  So and so had cooties, and someone was a dork or a nerd.  Maybe a few people were "loners" and sometimes they dressed poorly or different then the 'norm'. People would snicker about others in the hallway, and on more then one occasion, someone left school and went home to cry.
I think it would be safe to say, that without a doubt, today's way of bullying is like nothing we could have imagined.

Facebook, Twitter, Formspring, email, MySpace (if it still exists by the end of this blog post) and countless other social media sites have invaded our lives and for most of us, for the better.  We all love the connections, and the ability to check in on your bff from Grade 3.

The flip side of all of this open communication, is that children are allowed to partake in the same activities.  Instead of going home after a rough day at school and having a good cry, kids go home already upset and then log onto one of the many social media outlets - and the bullying continues.  Maybe someone has made a group on Facebook about how Little Susie's shirt was tacky.  There are 4,600 comments about just how tacky that shirt truly was.  Maybe from that group, it has branched off to a Twitter hashtag for everyone at Susie's school to retweet, letting not only the classmates - but the entire world - know that #susieistacky.  Meanwhile, Susie sits and watches as more and more classmates, and maybe even strangers, join in the attack on her favourite shirt.  She feels that because it's her favourite and no one else agrees, that something is wrong with her.

So Susie throws out her shirt...
It doesn't change anything.

Day after day, outfit after outfit, it never ends - and this could be just ONE kid out of however many million kids there are in the world who deal with this on a daily basis. Kids are copycats, so if the child who instigates the Facebook group about how tacky Susie's shirt was happens to be considered a "cool kid" - then once they have started the group and 4,600 comments have been posted about how they are absolutely right about the tackiness of the shirt, the bully is then given the confidence of their newfound online supporters to carry out the same bullying face to face.

The recent story about Jamey Rodemeyer, the 11-year old who committed suicide because of a long battle with bullies, has left me wondering what is happening to this world we live in.  How does a child at that age even know that suicide is an option, and for the love of god how can they feel like that is the only way that things are ever going to get better?  His poor family.  His poor friends.  His poor self.  My heart goes out to that family, and every other family who has had to deal with losing their child.  CHILD! Not even a teenager.  It's not right.

I know we buy pink shirts once a year to show that we care about this issue, and I know that it gets talked about when a tragedy happens, but there has to be something that can be done to take some serious control.  If you got in as much trouble for bullying as you did for not doing your homework, maybe kids would be less likely to do it.  Obviously schools can't control the internet, but the internet can control the internet.  Make Facebook and Twitter only available to people who are mature enough to deal with the consequences that come along with it.  I know bullying can go on between adults, but at least an adult has the sense to look at the situation logically.  A child has less options available to them - because they're not old enough to even know what the options are!  I never had a class about how to handle being bullied, but then again I never had a Facebook group made about how tacky my clothes are.

Obviously, this issue is not something that will ever be totally resolved, unless we revert back to olden days where people treated each other with respect because it was the decent thing to do.  But, that being said, there has to be a way to make it better.  Even slightly...

Like I mentioned before, I don't have kids.  But, I hope that when the day comes that I do have a kid - if she wants to wear the tackiest shirt in the world to school - she will be able to do so without wanting to come home and swallow a bottle of pills.

We're going to die a lot sooner then these kids are, so we should probably figure out a way to keep them from disappearing, no?