Chocolate and Cheese

Just so you know, I am human. I am not perfect. So, you'll understand when I tell you that I fell off the wagon a bit in Milwaukee (you're probably filled with glee). I was so huuungry when I got to the airport after a long day of teaching and eating only fruit and dehydrated bean soup at the lab, so after I checked my bags, I went in search of a place that had something yummy I could eat (and not a stoopid salad- sick of salads), but the Milwaukee airport is LAME.

So I ate a cheese pizza from Pizza Hut. And M&M's. Chocolate and cheese. It always comes back to chocolate and cheese, doesn't it?

You see, I was so desperate, with a nasty headache, so I had no control over my decision-making, the body just took over from the brain and ordered that cheesy goodness (No! Nastiness). And chocolate. So, rather than bash myself to death over it, I just shrugged my shoulders and told myself I'd be better the next day. And I was. It's a whole lot easier to eat healthy at home.

So we'll see how I do next time I go outta town, but I'm gonna keep at it, because I already feel a lot better- my skin's clearing up, my clothes are looser, and *WARNING: TMI ALERT* my poo is wonderfully fluffy and copious.

*****

I finished Barbara Kingsolver's newest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and now am all psyched to buy a house so that I can dig up the yard for a big garden. Right now I'm looking out on my huge (rented) backyard, and the huge patch of grass that I can't dig up, so it is completely worthless for anything other than aesthetics and the grass bugs that Possum loves to pounce. Will greener than green grass ever become unfashionable? Here in Portland, a lot of folks are landscaping with native bunch grasses and flowers- and staying away from neon green carpeting- which is really beautiful and low-maintenance (saves a bunch of water too). It just seems more logical to landscape that way. I don't get the grass thing.

Anyway, back to Kingsolver. She's been my all-time favorite author since high school, when she came out with the Bean Trees, and I've devoured every one of her books since. Her appeal is that she's a naturalist with schooling in biology and ecology, but she writes with a down-home style and gentle quirkiness about people and their relationships with each other and their natural environment. Her books shaped many of my developing thoughts about how we should behave on this planet. So, I was mystified (and a little ticked) when I learned that she'd ended up on this stupid list/book of 100 people that are 'screwing up' America (which includes my personal hero, Jimmy Carter- if that tells you anything about the moron who came up with this list). So, if you'd like to buck the right-wing propoganda machine, hop on over to your local bookstore and buy as many of her books as they sell. She's a beautiful writer, kills her own chickens, but I'm pretty certain, not a terrorist.