I have a confession to make.
I know I haven’t blogged regularly in some time, for about a month or so, and it’s not because I’ve been busy or time is moving very quickly. Yes, both are true, but those aren’t the reasons why I’ve been silent for so long.
The reason is because I have developed a horrible addiction that I haven’t been able to control. It’s taken over my life. No longer do I read 3 or 4 novels per week; now it’s 1 if I’m lucky. No longer do I spend time in the kitchen making delicious meals for myself; I simply rush home from work and eat lettuce so I can spend more time feeding my addiction. I even go to bed at ungodly hours every night, waking up groggy and tired the next day. I used to value my sleep, now it’s no longer a priority.
I am hoping that by confessing I have a problem and admitting that I am willing and open to change, I will be one step closer to gaining control of my life once more.
My problem is obviously food-related, and it’s worse than chocolate, or cake, or macarons, or coffee or even pastries. It’s…..pinterest.
I know. You’re probably wondering, “Why??” or even “What??”
I don’t know the answer, really. I keep asking myself the question, “Pinterest, why can’t I quit you??” I can easily spend 4 hours in front of the computer, pinning food and pretty things onto my boards.
For those of you who don’t know, pinterest is a virtual pinboard. It allows you to organize whatever you like on boards and then share all the beautiful things you find – and there are so many beautiful things – with other people also on pinterest. Normal people use it to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, find Do It Yourself Tips and organize their favorite recipes.
Me, I use it mostly to create boards on all my favourite foods. I’ve got a cheese board, a chocolate board, a tomato board, a coffee board. The list goes on and on. And, because I’m strange, I try to pick original and clever names for my boards: my chocolate board is called, “Chocolat”, my dessert board is “Sweet Tooth” and I’ve compiled favourite food photos and called that “Edible Still Life”. Seriously, I am close to losing it.
I simply cannot resist pinning such incredibly beautiful pins from some exceptionally gifted photographers. There are literally millions of pins to choose from:
Just when I thought I was slowly on my way to recovery – I managed to stay off pinterest for 19 hours and only used it briefly last night, I ended up falling off the wagon today, when I spent the day trying to figure out a perfectly good reason why I should log onto pinterest, and I found one. I needed to get background information to write this blog.
When my friend Becky told me about pinterest several weeks ago, I wasn’t very interested. I mean, adding pins on a board? Seriously? But when my friend Jo-Anne e-mailed me about how great it was and that she would send me an invite – pinterest is exclusive, you need to get an invite to join – I thought, well, okay, I’ll try it.
My life has never been the same since. At first, I thought my pinning was innocent enough. I mean, pinning beautiful food doesn’t take as many calories as eating beautiful food; in fact, I’m probably burning calories by pinning.
My friend Christel asked me a few weeks ago if I needed a “pintervention” but I didn’t take it seriously. Now, any advice is appreciated. I thought I could just let the obsession take its course and hope that soon enough, I would grow bored with pinning. That hasn’t happened yet.
I’m working very hard to overcome this. I am. My fridge is full of great ingredients to make beautiful meals tomorrow, and I will spend all my time cooking and photographing and eating and writing.
I’ll only log on briefly tomorrow night. For one hour. Or maybe three.
