Marguerita Pizza, Il Secondo

Pizza - I guess it's the hardest entry to start a blog with because I have so much to say (it's loaded - with significance). 

Part one: Best pizzas in my life so far, in chronological order starting in 1998: 

Venice House, 2:30 AM 1998? (I think my memory has allocated that year for everything I liked and everything I'm uncertain of. Maybe this was 1997): After one of the first raves I'd ever been to, chaperoned by a friend's mom in their leather-seat BMW, novelty cd stereo (novelty to me, I guess). We got ready at her fantasy house, which seemed like it was made for letting in sunsets and being loud and free and in this case, getting ready for a rave. We dripped with glitter, sitting gingerly on the car seat so not to shed. The pizza, after, was perfect - booth seats, mother-daughter fights, awkward moments between two people who don't have much to say to each other in between getting ready to dance, and dancing without stopping. The pizza was good. Venice House pizza always tastes good - nice crust, sharp thick sauce, medium-thick pepperoni, good cheese.

Dominos, June 2001 - Big city pizza. Humboldt only has Family Pizza (how much could I talk about the trials and tribulations of ordering pizza in Humboldt? Maybe I'll save that story for the next pizza entry). First meal in my first apartment, 18 years old. I sat in only the blue glow of the tv screen and locked my door behind the too-friendly pizza guy (acted on the second instinct of living alone, behind the first - ordering pizza). Dominos seemed so city - and the thin salty pepperoni and heretofore unavailable green olives were dancing on my tongue. 

Pizzaria Adria, Biggar SK, summer 2001 - My first encounter with biggar was driving back, as an early 18 year old from a lone trip to Red Deer visiting my then boyfriend. There was a huge fire in a field to the right of the highway and I pulled in to a side road to watch. Funny how most of the stories in your life come from being young and doing things without knowing better. I was drawn to the fire like Sleeping Beauty to the spindle wheel, and I took off across the field, manouvering under a barbed wire fence, feeling the heat as I got closer. I didn't know what was burning, but the closer I got, the more the fire seemed to distort the kindle into terrifying shapes - animals? People?? Most likely it was the night, and my tiredness turning flames into hallucinations, playing tricks with my eyes, and I ran back to the car wishing the two hours to Humboldt would pass in a blink. But when I blinked I could still see the shadows of the blazing light. When I got home my parents told me stories about Biggar and connections with the Klu Klux Klan, and things that seemed to explain why the fire had seemed to turn sinister before my eyes. I hadn't thought of that fire until my first real trip to Biggar, on my first "friend's wedding" date with Kalon. Who knew that while Kalon may have been living in Saskatoon at the time, he also may have been close by? Though, no one felt close by that night. 

At Pizza Adria, the heat of the pizza oven drew in close and surrounded us, and  - like a deep throated hum and drone of 1000 bald headed monks in meditation - it was overwhelming. But, you sit down and let it become part of you, and then you're sweating right along side them, praying for that pizza, the pizza that comes out of that heat. The long haired pizza guy, the owner, is probably the coolest catch for a Biggar lady, or really anyone. He was telling us, amongst the clutter of curios, and signature-covered walls, in the most unpretentious way possible that we needed a salad to "cleanse our palette." He proceeded to bring us a salad, and it was gorgeous. I can't remember why it was so great but it was just an oil and vinegar dressed salad, and was almost the best I've ever had. I can't remember which pizza we ordered either but it was good. No, it was great. The most romantic pizza I've ever had. Every time I go back there I wonder if he remembers the first time we visited - and I think yes - we're still here! You're still here! Let's grow old together!