And the Strangest Things Seem Suddenly Routine

Various virii have been knocking over my friends and loved ones left and right, so it was inevitable I'd eventually get hit, too. Monday night I was feeling a bit out of it, and I woke up Tuesday with full-blown ick. I thought it was just a head cold at first, but then the fever and achiness and chills soon joined forces with the sneezing, hacking, and snorfling to knock me flat. I've pretty much just been camped out on the couch for the past 3 days, half-watching Daria and Avengers prequels between naps and forcing myself to eat soup and drink juice. I don't have much of an appetite when I can't breathe well.

I started getting a little energy back today, so I got some groceries delivered (hooray for TaskRabbit!) and made a pot of chicken and stars with enough garlic to keep Sunnydale vamp-free for years. It was awesome. I ate three bowls, and then made some bittersweet chocolate ganache which I had over a huge bowl of ice cream. I guess I'm starting to get better.

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Making the ganache I thought, Man, if I'd known how easy this was as a kid I'd have gotten fat a lot earlier than I did. But thinking about it more, I'm not so sure. The poor eating habits that contributed to my weight gain in early adulthood can all be traced back to thoughtlessness--eating what was put in front of me because that's just what you do, eating out of boredom or sadness or social obligation, eating junky convenience foods because they were what was at hand--and I think being actively involved in the preparation of what I'm eating makes me more mindful about it, and therefore less likely to reflexively make poor choices. Not that I don't still make poor choices these days, but they're few and far between, and almost always involve grabbing something packaged or pre-made to quickly satisfy a craving. And when I feel the desire to eat because I'm sad or bored, if I cook rather than just grabbing a convenience food the cooking process itself is generally enough to make me less sad or bored because I enjoy the creativity and craft of it so much. I still enjoy the hell out of food for sure, but it's a deliberate and mindful enjoyment. Those three bowls of soup tonight were on purpose, whereas the increasingly rare occasion of suddenly finding myself at the bottom of a bag of chips or on my fourth soda of the day never is.

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Things that have been keeping me from going insane with boredom:

• Texts from the Avengers
  
  
• This gorgeous interactive script for Moonrise Kingdom
  
  
• This mostly thought-provoking but occasionally infuriating Metafilter post about women and makeup
  
  
• The Worst Things for Sale

The last few lines of this poem popped into my head earlier this week after a delicious dinner, but then I got too distracted to share it. So here it is now:

Recipe for a Salad
by Sydney Smith

To make this condiment, your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two hard-boil'd eggs;
Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve,
Smoothness and softness to the salad give.
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, half-suspected, animate the whole.
Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault
To add a double quantity of salt;
Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown,
And twice with vinegar procur'd from town;
And lastly, o'er the flavour'd compound toss
A magic soupçon of anchovy sauce.
Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat!
'Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat:
Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul,
And plunge his fingers in the salad-bowl!
Serenely full, the epicure would say,
"Fate cannot harm me, I have dined today."