I took a caffeine pill at 0700, but I also took two Benedryl to put me to sleep last night, so I got a large cup of coffee as soon as I got to SBUX this morning. The Komodo Dragon is one of my favorites, and since I got here by 7:20, it was the freshest of the fresh. I can’t remember the last time a cup of coffee did so much to improve my mood, because when I walked in, I got exactly what I wanted. My choice of power lunch is a protein box, a bag of chickpeas blown up to look like Cheetos, a banana, and a large bottle of water. Not bad for $8.00 I had to have something for breakfast, so the banana was gone in .3 seconds, but I’m saving the rest for when my stomach starts growling and I won’t have to leave for lunch. As I have said before, Fridays and Mondays are my busiest days. I am sure that I could make time to leave the office, but it is inconvenient at best. I might make a 7-11 run because I need gas, and a Big Gulp never hurt anybody. Besides, I have a 7-11 app where I get every 7th cup free. Coffee, Slurpees,™; and sodas all count, and I am one away from a free one. My only beef with the Slurpee is that they don’t make one that’s Diet Coke only. It has regular cherry Slurpee in it for flavor. It’s delicious, but I don’t *do* sugar, especially since it’s working. I am burning fat in all the right places. I only wish that Starbucks would come up with a version of Bulletproof coffee so I could buy one here instead of making it in the mornings. It’s not that I can’t; I would just prefer to write here.
I can’t imagine how good Komodo dragon would taste with grass-fed butter and coconut oil. I think it would be off-the-chain, but no one asked me. They just can’t call it Bulletproof coffee, because that’s an actual company in which the knockoff recipe leaked. The company started with a guy who was hiking in the snowy mountains (perhaps Everest, I can’t remember) and the indigenous people gave him tea with yak’s milk and butter. He noticed immediately the difference in his energy and his ability to burn fat with fat. For me, this is not a diet, but a lifestyle change. I have also given up alcohol, unless it’s a “treat yo’self” day, like a party, because all I can think of when I put a beer in my hand is just how much sugar I’m consuming. Especially with microbrews, it tastes like drinking a loaf of bread.
My brain is changing a little bit every day, and so is my body. It makes me feel really good about myself, something I desperately need. I don’t think I realized how much nutrition was a part of brain health until I made the choice to find out.
I don’t much like talking about food on my blog, because in a way, it’s kind of boring. But it’s also what’s going on in my life, so you’re stuck with it… and I am certain that there are people reading that are glad my mental health is improving so drastically. I don’t even get rattled when people disagree with me politically, because even though I am passionate about politics, I’m not so passionate that I can’t tolerate other people’s views. I can see how not being able to own an AK-47 seems like an infringement on freedom, even though I don’t agree with it. I am much more the type of person that likes to go shooting and rent firearms rather than keep them in my home, because studies have shown that you are way more likely to shoot yourself than someone else… or your kids are smart enough to find the keys to your gun safe and shoot themselves, which I believe is even worse than shooting yourself, because losing a child is so painful there’s not even a word for it.
And God forbid if your child shoots someone else’s. More children have been killed by firearms this year than we’ve lost Amerians to terrorists. But fear is a powerful motivator, and if you think terrorists are out to get you personally, you’re going to have a different opinion on guns than someone who believes that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind… and I do.
My beef is not with former military and civilians who are willing to invest in extensive training classes. The reality for untrained gun owners is that it is far more likely that in a burglary, they’ll miss, and the burglar will find a way to wrest the gun from them and the homeowner will be shot with his own firearm.
As someone wit monocular vision, I can’t hit the broad side of a barn, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the smell of spent rounds… but again, renting is not the same as owning. Plus, I was taught to shoot by two former soldiers, which made all the difference in learning gun safety. The one with which I had the most fun was a Chinese plastic 12-gauge, because it was light enough that I could actually lift it. Shooting Volfe’s .308 was a lesson in kickback. My shoulder was purple for a week…. but that didn’t mean I didn’t have a TON of fun.
But at the end of the day, the soldiers took their guns home, and I was able to have a great day on the range without the temptation to buy my own. I could not defend myself with a gun, because again, I’m not that good a shot, and buckshot inside a house is…. unadvisable.
It doesn’t seem like a tear-worthy moment, but Diana Gabaldon twisted my heart to bits when she mentioned that Captain McKenzie had monocular vision as well. It helps to close one eye, but even that doesn’t solve the problem entirely.
Interestingly enough, a soldier just walked into Starbucks, so I got up from my table and went up to her and said, “thank you for your service.” I think she must have needed to hear it, because her eyes got wet… and that’s exactly why I do it. Sometimes soldiers go a long time without hearing “thank you,” and you never know if you’re the one who’s said it at a time when things are going to hell in a handbasket for them. For soldiers, you never know if they’re safe in a desk job in Washington, or whether they’re about to leave for a clusterfucked shitshow… or whether they’ve just returned from one.
The fire alarm is going off in the Starbucks right now, and it is loud and annoying, the smell of smoke pervasive, but I think it was just a sandwich that caught on fire or something, because there’s no evidence that the entire store is about to break down. If there was, I’d already be out of here. I’m just tuning out the noise, trying to concentrate on what I need to say today. The employees have opened the door to let some fresh air in, and they’re not evacuating everyone, which I take to mean that it’s just like when you’re cooking at home and the fire alarm doesn’t know the difference between a house fire and accidentally burning a dish.
Ok. Now I’m out. When you’ve run out of things to say, stop talking. Plus, I need to get away from the noise. It’s starting to cut through my thought process. I thought I could tune it out, but it’s been going off for about seven minutes now. I have just enough time to go get gas before I have to be at the office, anyway.
See you on the flip side.
Stories That Are All True 