Eight Lives Left

The Omnivore’s Hundred is a list of foods the gastronome Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives. I’ve seen this meme around but not gotten around to doing it. Working nights provides a good opportunity

The rules of the meme:
Bold those you have tried.
Strikethrough those you wouldn’t eat on a bet.
Italicize any item you’ll never eat again.
Asterisk any items you’d be interested in trying but have not yet.
Under line anything you don’t know what it is.

1. Venison We didn’t care for it.
2. Nettle tea*
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare*
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding*
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp*
9. Borscht*
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari Too rubbery. Maybe it was badly cooked?
12. Pho*
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo ghobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Époisses de Bourgogne*
17. Black truffle*
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper*
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters Only raw. We can’t stand cooked oysters.
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda*
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl We loathe clams.
33. Salted lassi*
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac
37. Clotted cream tea*
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail*
41. Curried goat*
42. Whole insects We’re open-minded, but not quite that open-minded.
43. Phaal*
44. Goat’s milk*
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more I didn’t like it enough to warrant spending that kind of money.
46. Fugu I have no urge to die young(ish).
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear*
52. Umeboshi*
53. Abalone*
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8%
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs Tastes like chicken!
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail Again, we’re adventurous but we have trouble with slimy stuff.
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

There was a bit of conversation, and some looking at old things, and then Lynn pointed out how deep my scars run when it comes to Terra. And she’s right. They do.

Terra really really hurt me. Here is it, what, four years later and I still feel it. Some might call it obsession, and I’m sure that’s a factor. Some might call it an inability to let go of drama, and there’d be some truth in that as well.

But the heart of it is that I loved her. I really really really loved her. I’m not sure she knows that. Maybe I didn’t know it either.

So it goes.

Politically focused alternative rap/hiphop…

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

Look at me, look at me
Hands in the air like it’s good to be
ALIVE
And I’m a famous rapper
Even when the paths’re all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to “De Colores”
And “I’m Proud to be an American”
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cuz, look:

I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome

And I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone

Look at me
Look at me
Just called to say that it’s good to be
ALIVE
In such a small world
I’m all curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine sixty four
Miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance

Cuz I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone

And I can split the atom of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule

Look at me
Look at me
Driving and I won’t stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let ‘em all die in exasperation
Have ‘em all healed of their lacerations
Have ‘em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don’t like ‘em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command

Because I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite

And I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope

And I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

[VIA]

Today I’m hanging out with T. I’m going to make sure her computer is secure (she has no firewall!!!), and we’ll have lunch and go see a movie and then have pedicures. It’s so girly!

We overslept, though, because for some reason the alarm didn’t go off. Gragh. Must rush!

I’m thinking about joining Weight Watchers. I’m definitely going to start keeping a food journal, or at least try.

I haven’t been feeling very blogalicious at all lately and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because there’s not much going on overall? There is certainly no extraneous drama, and we all know drama makes for good blog posts. There’s always some relationship macaroni going on, but it’s not extraneous. There are always real things that need to be processed and dealt with, especially when you mix in being multiple and having trauma backgrounds and such. Mmm, stew.

I’m getting really good at choosing my battles and having perspective about what’s important and what’s not. I realized the other day while talking to T that I react differently to things now, certainly different from what people might consider normal. T and I get along fine and like each other very much, but she definitely doesn’t get some of my choices and the things I do and/or don’t get upset about. I find it interesting because just a few years ago I was solidly in T’s court in many ways. All that’s changed though.

I think my approach to the world has simultaneously become more easygoing and more solidified.

Anyway. On the everyday front things are going ok. The condo is lovely and I’ve had my oven and my toilets repaired so there’s nothing left to fix. Eventually I’ll want new miniblinds and curtains and to have the place painted, but that can wait for my bonus next year (assuming I get one, stupid recession). I’m getting yet more responsibility at work (although I don’t want it), and I have some nice trips planned for the near future - Boston/Connecticut in September, Baton Rouge in October, and Lea coming for a weekend in October, too. The kitties are fine, although I’m starting to wonder if Boodle’s kidneys are going. She drinks an awful lot of water and performs these truly monstrous pees that go on for ages. It’s really quite impressive, although a little worrisome too.

We’re feeling really… settled, I guess is a good word for it. We own this little chunk of square footage and it’s ours and it’s safe and we love it. I think overall we’re content, and that’s a huge thing given some of the terrors and stresses of previous years.

I have to say that the configuration my life has taken was not what I had envisioned for myself. In high school, in my little group of friends, I was voted the one most likely to get married and have a station wagon full of children and a white picket fence. That didn’t happen, obviously. Here I am approaching middle-age (if you count the 40s and 50s as middle-aged), and I have none of those things. I am a cat lady and a hardworking employee and a good friend (at least I try to be) and I read voraciously and keep my ducks in a row and have laughing fits with my sister and talk to my many friends and acquaintances around the world and I’m getting a little set in my ways, too, from being alone so much.

I can think of far worse fates. Far, far worse. I lived through some of them and came out the other side and didn’t let them take away all my joy. Some of it, yes, but not all. I’ve carved out my niche and I’m content in it. It’s not what I envisioned, but it’s not bad.

I think there are a lot of people who can’t say that.