Space Stations

I cannot make pancakes without singing John Denver's Thank God Ima Country Boy.

Well, I got me a fine wife
I got me ol' fiddle
Sun's comin' up, I got cakes on the griddle.

Except I was cooking them at like 10:30.

But what if the sun did come up at 10:30?
And set at 2:00?
Then it'd be like Yakutsk in the winter!

I know I talk about Yakutsk too much. I'm just kind of fascinated by extreme places.

I'm reading this book called Three Cups of Tea and a lot of it, especially in the beginning, talks about the glaciers in Baltistan and hunting ibex and mountaineering and yak dung fires and losing fingers to frosbite.
Really great stuff. Stuff you'd never see on this side of the international date line.

What would it be like to live in such an extreme place all the time?
I think they age a lot quicker.
But then they get to eat delicious Pakistani food like creamy moong dal and butter chicken.
And they get to walk around and see K2 in their backyard.

K2 is the second highest mountain on earth. Mount Everest gets all the fame and glory for being #1, but K2 is probably just as tough to summit, if not harder.
.
Or so I've heard/read.

Steps to Getting a Haircut:

1. Think about getting a haircut.
2. Spend the next three weeks agonizing about finding just the right picture to hand the hairdresser.
3. Consider doing it yourself.
4. Put your hair up in a ponytail and try to forget about how long it is.
5. See that the hours for Great Clips are 9-9 every week day so you could totally go after work one day.
6. Don't go after work.
7. Take a day off from work instead.
8. Tell yourself you should do something productive on your day off, like get a haircut.
9. Check in online.
10. Spend another 45 minutes downloading haircut pictures on your phone.
11. Go get your haircut.
12. Spend the next half hour or so deciding if it looks okay.
13. Chop an additional 2 inches off on the sides because the lady didn't layer it right.
14. Resolve to just do it yourself from now on.
15. Live with it.

True story.

Sitting down to read one night:

Me: Where are we?
Mike: I don't know where I am. I need to go find myself.
Me: Take a year off and go find yourself backpacking in Europe?
Mike: Yeah. Find myself in the jungle.
Me: .........................................................
Mike: What, are there no jungles in Europe?
Me: Not really. I mean, there are forests, but when I think of jungle, I think of a rain forest with like a canopy and howler monkeys.
Mike: Where two or more trees are gathered, there is a jungle.

Always been like a hummingbird, and I can't keep still,
TWS

Hummingbird; The Weepies

Let's Blog Today

I figure if I still keep "writing/blogging" on my list of hobbies, I should probably do it once in a while.

I had this intense experience today: an insatiable, quenchless ravenous hunger.

I guess it kind of started last night.
Or earlier this week.

Ok, so you know how for the first week of the year, I was working T minus many hours because of this big looming thing called "year end close". The administration provides snacks and meals for those staying late on some nights. One day, there were apple slices and peanut butter for dipping.

Of course, after the late nights are over, they don't just throw the snacks out. The leftovers go in the fridge or into this spare cubicle with paper products and Christmas decorations.

And ever since the day there was peanut butter, I have been taking a daily walk to that cubicle with a spoon to get an enormous helping of this peanut butter.
It's so good. At like 10:30 in the morning. You should try it.

So that's been happening this week.
Peanut butter trips.
I try to go at a time when there's not a lot of people traffic so I don't get judged for swiping peanut butter...and only peanut butter.

Last night, I ate dinner (a disappointing Indian chili. Should've known better; the recipe didn't call for any curry), but then I snacked on crackers and coffee and had a gigantic bowl of popcorn at night.
Even still, this behavior is not unlike me.

Then today, I ate a normal breakfast (yogurt, oatmeal, banana) at work, went to a staff meeting, and then

BOOM. HANGRINESS ALL UP IN HERE.
CAN WE GO TO LUNCH AT 11:30? NOT YET? FINE. I'LL JUST GO GET MORE PEANUT BUTTER.

Then I ate lunch (sweet potato and brussel sprouts) and had a cup of tea.
Went for a walk.
The yooschz.

Why am I still hungry? I guess I'll eat my afternoon snack of carrots and celery.

20 minutes later.

I HAVE TO EAT. NOW. LIKE NOW? YEAH LIKE RIGHT NOW.

So then I went to the vending machine to use the cash that I only carry around for this very purpose and bought a bag of cookies and a bag of chips.

(Horrible. I know. The alternative was chocolate candy and poptarts.)

I was through the bag of cookies and halfway through the chips when my manager asked me for help with something. I felt sad and distressed as I had to walk away from my food for a time.

Then I came back and finished the chips.
Still restless.
Went back to the vending machine and bought another bag of chips because the trail mix was $1.25 and I had only brought $1 with me.

Still hungry. Like I can't EVEN.

Thankfully, I had a lentil stuffed pepper in the fridge I brought yesterday that was supposed to be my lunch for tomorrow, so I heated that up. About halfway through inhaling that, I finally finally finally calmed down.

What. The heck.

When I could finally think about other things besides stuffing my face, I reflected on how I felt.
Not overwhelmed. Not stuffed. Not even full. Just...satisfied.

It's like my body was a crying baby and I finally fed it enough so it would shut up.
And my hunger headache went away.

I still can't figure out why this happened. I've had girl-related-hangriness before, but not to this level.
This was extreme. I probably consumed 1000 calories in an hour.

And now that I'm writing about this, I wonder if I had started with the stuffed pepper instead of binging at the vending machine if I would've felt better sooner.

A few words on brussel sprouts: I ate them for the first time yesterday. When seasoned correctly (garlic salt), they are actually quite good. They're like little cabbages that explode with warm, juicy garliciness in your mouth.
In my mouth.
Not your mouth because you're not eating them. But you should be.

I guess the lesson here is to always have a meal in the fridge at work in case you ever feel like you're going to die.

And, no, I'm not pregnant,
TWS