Andria Parker

I stopped watching the Oscars when the Academy decided to keep stiffing Leonardo DiCaprio. Titanic I understand, but Gangs of New York? Blood Diamond? Wolf of Wall Street? The Beach? Like, there is a conspiracy in there somewhere. Several years ago, in lieu of watching the actual event, I tried to start a new tradition...

When I was in my final semester of University — so long ago, yet somehow I’m still reaping the tax rewards — I was asked to give a presentation on a modern day Utopia. Almost everyone found obscure communes to profile — communities of people living in places such as Niland, California that I so...

When was the last time you stepped into a different time zone? Maybe it was when you managed to score tickets to the last hot music festival and heard a band you’d never seen before play a song that took you all the way back to 1972 even though you were born in the eighties....

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...