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June 8, 2005
Conversation Piece
Tonight I have been invited to go to a happy hour at the Philadelphia Racquet Club with a couple of my friends from college whom I see every few months. The friend who belongs there can get us in for free, and I've been a few times before. The drinks are good, quite decent wine, and there's always a huge spread of food that I will not be eating. My friend who invites us says we're there to improve the investment bankers to humans ratio (no offense to any investment bankers out there!) I'm as you know a union organizer and the other friend who is attending is a slightly offbeat freelance journalist who just returned from a trip to India to investigate something or other. Between the fact that I have a weird job and I eat weird food, I am a walking conversation piece.
In these situations I try to avoid talking about my work because I just don't enjoy arguing with people about unions when I'm supposed to be having a good time. I actually don't love arguing with people in general, though I do enjoy talking with people in order to move them to do something. I do, however, enjoy watching MR argue with people. He got into a rather fabulous argument recently and I am just tortured that I wasn't there to watch it. I realized this morning that I love to watch him argue so much that I have been subconsciously looking for people for him to argue with. Preferably people he will like on a personal level but have intellectual disagreements with. In fact, I don't really care what the subject of the arguement is. I just like to watch him think. We all recall the now infamous debate of Friday night of the CR Society Conference. The rest, they say, is history. And the bloggers write the history.
Meanwhile, the past two days have been fairly good food-wise. Yesterday I had my traditional breakfast, and was planning to eat the lunch I had packed for work, but had to leave the office at lunchtime to have my poor little car inspected. They actually made me drive it to their offices. I was so terrified that I begged a co-worker to come with me and follow me in his car. I was glad I did because when we got there the insurance inspector said, "Other than the fact that the hood might fly up in your face at any moment, it seems okay." Uh, huh??? I refused to drive it one foot further and made them tow it to their repair shop to deal with. Apparently the other insurance company has two years to pay them, so I may as well kiss my $500 deductible goodbye. Not happy about this.
My co-worker and I decided to hit the Ruby Tuesday's salad bar after the insurance fiasco, and I had a fantastic lunch of greens, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, hot peppers, olives, cottage cheese, salsa, peaches, pears, oranges, and a ton of vinegar. Oh it was so good. Just what I needed... a salad to soothe the soul. For dinner I had brewers yeast soup with broccoli and asparagus and flax oil and an 80 cal snack pack of cottage cheese. I took a walk into town, loving my CR inspired heat tolerence, and had a glass of cabernet while reading at one of the local pubs. Very relaxing. Walked home, visited my mother's cat and the Outside Cat (we're calling him the OC). Blogged. Went to bed at a decent hour (10).
Up at 4:40 am to resume my normal daily activities. Loving that CR inspired decreased need for sleep.
Today I had my traditional breakfast, followed by 80 cals of cottage cheese and the leftover shrimp, peppers, tomatoes and apples in NC bbq sauce with a side of broccoli for lunch. I forgot my hazelnuts, so I put about 5 g of cheese on top of my salad for a drop of fat. I never use nuts for protein, just for fat, but hazelnuts are a great fat source. VLC and I ate lunch outside on the patio next to the office cafeteria. We both brought our lunch, but they don't care if you don't buy anything, which is wonderful since we rarely buy anything at the overpriced cafeteria. Had a fruit yogurt for snack, and was of course still hungry which always happens when I forget to pack my hazelnuts. It's so true that eating too lowfat makes you hungry. Grrrr. A co-worker gave me a banana. Not optimal, but I was getting pretty wiggy with hunger.
I'm going to eat before this happy hour (needless to say!) and IIRC, there is usually a very good vegetable tray that I will no doubt find in pristine condition since no one ever touches the vegetable tray. The "not one bite" rule must be observed with the happy hour appetizers... once I start these days it's hard to stop. Now that I'm actually hungry sometimes, instead of in super fat burn mode, I have to be more careful than before. When you're ambiently hungry and you eat something that just tastes wonderful and hits all those evolutionary starvation relief buttons (fat! Sugar!!! fried thing!!!) something in the brain switches off. I imagine it might be how teenage boys feel around girls. Safer not to go there. I have better things waiting for me in life than fried popcorn shrimp and the Philly racquet club. Like zillions of years of happiness with the Orange Angel. Like being on the cover of Vogue in 2074. Like getting that insurance money... someday.
This has been some boring food content, but it occurred to me that you haven't gotten boring food lists in awhile and you might be missing them. The hardcore bloggiefriends can't live without the mention of eggwhites for long.
More philosophy soon, I assure you. Oh yes, my little bloggiefriends, (imagine the Wicked Witch of the West saying, "Oh yes, my pretty!") you will have all the philosophy you ever wanted. And then some.
Posted by april at June 8, 2005 4:42 PM
Comments
how do you make brewer's yeast soup?
Posted by: edaz19 at June 8, 2005 8:57 PM