Whatever is my Point? Food, Food, Frenzy, and Food

I came home in a miserable mood. I deflated early this afternoon and it just got worse after that. I'm in a better mood tonight, but pretty wiped out. Tired, but not quite exhausted enough to sleep. In an hour.

In the morning, the evil wretched stairs shall be tackled. I was going to do it yesterday, then I decided to do a loser bike ride instead (I always only take it a couple kilometres when riding it for the first time in a while in the winter -- I've gotten sick from it in the past, thanks to asthma and all) and have no cough today, so this is good. My eyes are beady, though, which typically means I'm being threatened by potential sinus issues. Beady eyes! Bad!

***

I had to put out a fire at work. If I had realized there was a full moon, I wouldn't have answered the fucking phone at 5:20. But nooooo. They called three times. I'm sitting there, thinking "Why that line?" That's the overflow line that only rings if you dial it directly, and it's one digit away from the Vancouver Art Gallery's number, so I thought, "Oh, some poor bastard wants Art Gallery info. I'll just clear up the misconception."

Literally 15 phone calls and 55 minutes later, I solved a customer's big problems and set things up for tomorrow so they'll be happy customers. Shouldn't have answered it. But you know what? I kind of had some fun there. I once was the person who Dealt With Shit, and there's probably no one better at solving problems and making customers happy that I am. I sympathize and I help them understand our constraints and all that. And even when I fuck up, they seem to like it.

Take tonight, for instance.

In the middle of a volley of calls, I was dialing the customer at the same time as she was dialing me, at the same time as another line was ringing. (And I'm not supposed to be on phones, no one else was around for answering them, though.) I muttered "Oh, for god's sake!" as I was releasing the line I was dialing, just before switching over to the line she'd dialed in on.

I switch to her line, and all I hear is uproarious laughter. "Did you just say "Oh, for god's sake!"?" she asked.

"Well, it was just-- You heard that? But--"

"I FREAKIN' LOVE YOU," she shouted into the phone, still busting a gut. "My sentiments exactly!"

We had a pretty fun five minutes then as everything got solved at the last second there. Tah-dah. Happy people! Well, happy for everyone but the new girl who dropped the ball and will learn her lesson tomorrow. Not a biggie. Coulda been. But Citizen Steff was there to save the day. Whoosh! [flex]

Dealing with customers can be an evil, vile thing after awhile, but I always liked people. For some weird reason, I was always able to establish pretty good relationships with all the clients. I miss that part of the job I had. It's satisfying when you can Fix Shit Going Badly and be the Saves-the-Day girl.

I wonder if I'd come home feeling so shitty because I remembered how much more rewarding that used to be or something? Ah, probably the fucking moon.

***

Did my weekly save-10%-on-customer-appreciation day shopping at my little Chinese grocery store. These guys have the best quality groceries in the city, at cheap prices, and then they have everything from Thai and Italian products through to organic and I'm-a-broke-student necessities. I love it. Picked up my sweet Thai black rice and red rice and some cans of red and yellow curries and other goodly things. And they even have 100% coconut milk with no additives, which is slightly thinner than your usual canned stuff, and this is good, as I've found a Thai green curry soup that I think sounds delectable and I think the thinner consistency will work slightly better. (I've never used it without the preservatives in it, so it'll be interesting to see what it's like.)

***

I was having a chat earlier and mentioned how much I hate the smell of fish in my house. "Barbecue it," said x-guy. Yeah, yeah, fine, whatever. Grr. I need to eat fish. It's healthy. I don't actually even mind it the few times I've been ballsy enough to eat it. I don't know why I don't buy it. Old habits die hard?

I've been stupid about a lot of things in life, though, so this is just another thing to add to the list of my shortcomings and dodo-brained notions.

Thinking I'll do a prawn curry or something now, though. Once upon a world I had this notion that I'd try to eat seafood once a week. That never did materialize. This year, though, I'm using my scooter more for food shopping than I ever have in the winter, and I suspect it's time I get my ass down to Granville Island and get some fish whilst getting my other things. Prawns I suspect I can buy frozen even at Safeway, even though Safeway's meat SUCKS ASS, but how can prawns get messed up, huh? Okay, don't answer that. My ignorance is my bliss.

There. My new mantra. My ignorance is my bliss. My ignorance is my bliss. My ignorance is my bliss.

I'm doing everything else right dietarily now, though. Maybe now's the time to pounce on the fishies. If only it didn't stink up the house. Hmm. Well, whatever. I'll force myself to do a prawn curry (Gayboy, come eat wif me) and then I'll do a grilled fishie.

I actually had this great day once upon a world where I was on a boat for 4 hours over the course of the day, up in Tofino, BC, heading through the open ocean and rainforests for an hour-long trek to these incredible hot springs in the middle of nowhere on a cliff on the Pacific. The boat ride back had us seeing whales, bears, eagles, cougars, and more. It was incredible. I got back and I thought "There's no way I can eat anything but fish tonight." I don't know why I felt that way, but I did. So, I bought some halibut right off the docks, took it back, wrapped it in lemon, basil, and peppers, baked it, and it was actually good.

(You see what I'm trying to do, right? I'm trying to talk myself into this shit. Like I'm not smart enough to see the wiliness of my ways? Fuck, dude. My problem is my ignorance. Things like the bones and stuff freak me out. I need to get smarter, then I will get more brazen.)

Aha! I just remembered there's a sushi-grade fish shop in the hood. When they sold me my salmon for ceviche, they took care of all the bones and skin and stuff. I could just let them continue to baby me for a bit, then I'll get over my ambivalence and possibly start acting like a grown-up for once and Eat My Supper.

Oh, shut up. It could happen. I mean, it could.