Andria Parker

Being present is all the rage these days. Sure, one could argue that the monks in the Tibetan mountains have been practicing the art of living in the moment for thousands (?) of years, but very few people — Leonard Cohen and Jack Kornfield exempt — would consider anything cloaked silent types do on a...

This week, the world — and by the world, I obviously mean those of us who follow celebrity culture on Instagram — learned something shocking. More shocking than people wondering who the heck Paul McCartney was after listening to Kanye West’s new single. More shocking than Justin Beiber’s Calvin Klein ads (are those even legal?)....

Do you ever get the urge to hop onto a bandwagon even though you know you’ve already missed the team’s first Superbowl win? Me neither — I’ve been a Seahawks fan since before Beast Mode — but I do often like to hop on trends seconds before they get thrown on the discount rack. For...

Normally if my significant other were to casually suggest a Sunday morning dumpster dive I would, at the very least, bat an eyelash. Maybe I would offer up some concern that he was just really desperate for pizza and the craving would subside or maybe I would ask, semi-offended, if the hide-a-bed wasn’t to his...

It was 1998. I had just finished being the last kid ski-dooed down Sun Peaks Mountain after attempting a black diamond run on my Grade Six ski trip and I was in trouble.

One of them nearly made me cry, but the majority just wanted some decent food and drink. It’s not what you think either —my church’s community luncheon was last week and yeah, I cried at that, but it isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the people who sit at a bar by themselves...

Several years ago, in the throes of holiday hubbub and debacle, my cat attempted to climb the Christmas tree. As all of these stories go — and we all have one of these stories — the tree came crashing down, breaking almost every single ornament in the process. Left over and free of harm, however,...

SEVEN ADULTS TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO LET GO OF THE MOULDS THAT WE TRY SO HARD TO FIT INTO OUR DAY-TO-DAY “Should I use my force punch or my scorching ray?” I asked the table seriously. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my short 27 years on this planet, it’s that if you can’t...

I’ve never confessed to being much of a baker. In fact, I’ve openly confessed the opposite. True, I don’t give myself much credit. I mean, I can bake gluten free Graham crackers from scratch, and that’s more Martha Stewart that your average threat to the kitchen. However, I’m not winning any awards. I’m not going...

Until you’ve sat beside someone for a five-course meal without uttering one single word to him or her, but having successfully Instagramed soup through dessert, you haven’t experienced real social media addiction. Until you tweet something that gives away the fact you were not in bed sick, but instead out with Jenny as opposed to...

STRESS HAS HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE CONSEQUENCES—SO WHY GIVE OURSELVES SOMETHING ELSE TO STRESS ABOUT? There is a new ailment sweeping the anxiety-fueled generation of western 20-somethings, and it’s not really recognized by any other culture as being a thing. Adrenal fatigue is pummeling the nation, one stressed-out student at a time, and now there are diets,...

If there’s one thing I don’t keep a secret it’s that I love wine. I love it, and I know a lot about it — like it’s made from grapes and if your tongue feels hairy after you drink it you can thank something called tannins. So, when I was asked to pour wine at...

CLEARLY MY BOYFRIEND HAS NO IDEA WHAT 'STRAIGHT' MEANS AND THIS WAS A PROBLEM. There’s an old couple’s adage — that’s probably now a meme — that says thou shalt not hang wallpaper together. The thing is, Urban Outfitters has this super cute metallic silver and black print stuff that I just knew was going...

When the option exists to have a bath with bubbles, rarely have I ever decided to opt for having a bath without bubbles. Something about staring into the clear, wrinkly water at the curves of what may not be considered ideal in Hollywood makes me uncomfortable. I want the illusion that I am peering down...

In 2010, a spotlight-obsessed woman we all sort-of felt badly for already decided to blow the minds of young twenty-something girls everywhere and get a new face. Heidi Montag – AKA the one on The Hills who ditched her girlfriends for her borderline emotionally-abusive boyfriend — showed up after being MIA for an abnormal amount...

“I can’t have fun this week,” I said to a girlfriend, “I’m cleansing." Lucky for me, I’m not entirely crazy. It’s not like I decided to be Beyoncé and do the Master Cleanse for three months straight — I simply have to take a couple “multi-system cleaning” pills in the morning and eat nothing I...

I moved into a new-to-me apartment this week that overlooks the Georgia Strait and the entire downtown Vancouver skyline. The rent pretty much means I can no longer eat, but seriously, the view is to die for. As my team of movers — aka loved ones — dropped off boxes in the empty rooms each...

I never thought I would be the kind of woman to shop for wallpaper. I never thought I would be the kind of woman to lattice my own pie, to have a bath in a tub full of oatmeal, or to use clothes pegs to hang artwork, but I have a Pinterest account and these...

I have always been very adamant and outspoken about the fact I do not like chardonnay. I tell people, all snotty, “It’s too bland,” “there’s too much oak,” or once, “I can taste the winemaker’s toes.” Of course, these are all lies. I wouldn’t know the taste of oak if I bit a tree. The...

“You should read this,” my mother said as she thrust a copy of this month’s Chatelaine at me. “It talks about why you should take a break from booze for a month.” She said this in the tone that is so nonchalantly over enthusiastic I knew she was actually just telling me what to do....

There is a great scene in one of the Sex and the City episodes in which Carrie Bradshaw thinks driving standard for the first time in twenty years is like remembering how to ride a bike. She makes this mistake on a hill. I’ve been driving an old 5-speed through the city for the past...

On any given Sunday morning you will find me chatting up beautiful aging ladies in a church hall over mediocre mugs of creamy coffee. On any given Sunday night you will find me chatting up leathered aging bachelors in a dimly-lit bar over mediocre cocktails. Just to clarify — in case either of my bosses...

The other day I got my first real pay check in two years and I immediately went and got my nails done, because I have priorities. Actually, first I called James, the guy who calls me twice a day from TD Canada Trust asking when I can pay down my student line of credit that...

Two weeks ago, closing the bar for the fourth night in a row, I blew a hole through the sole in my Converse sneakers. I’ve had them since I was 15, so I wasn’t devastated like I would have been if they were my polka-dot Kate Spade “walking shoes,” but I was disappointed. Those sneakers...