Sunday 4/2/06

Follow up from last week: Bonni and Cleary, though fine, won't return to the circus. They are apparantly choosing to settle down in Deland, FL, the circus wintering grounds.


HOW PIGGLY WIGGLY RESCUED OUR INTREPID ADVENTURER FROM THE JAWS OF THE EVIL COOKHOUSE

I've had it with the cookhouse, in case you can't tell since this whole entry is about food. Right now I am self-medicating: pomegranate juice with Vitamineral Green, chocolate penut-butter fudge, sentimental music (Moby Play), and journalling.

The green powder I brought with me from SF, and the pomegranate juice I bought at the one healthfood stirem and ha've been saving for a special occasion. Since right now I'm out of water without a grocery store or other refill open within walking distance, and on my period, the occasion seemed appropriate.
The choc-penutbutt fudge I foundtoday at Piggly Wiggly. Fresh, in four big pieces. Mmmmm.
The fudge and the grocery chain name both go on the listof small but significant pleasures. I mean, Piggly Wiggly. Piggly Wiggy! That is funny!
There are Piggly Wigglys all over in this part of the country, and I always think of the Mrs Piggle Wiggle books when I see it, with her upside-down house and unorthodox way of relating to children.

Amazingly, I managed to refrain from eating the fudge for like an hour, until after I went back to the tent, paraded in the finale, and made a salad and a hummous/avo/sprout/onion/mustard/whole grain sandwich (taste revolution against the cookhouse “food!”) while packing up my room for the trip to the next town. Finally, all was prepared for the Bulgarian Sleeper (my home) and the Canon (my ride). The tent was being torn down, and the sky was darkening to a beautiful deep blue with just the tiniest hint of teal, all fading to dark grey clouds over a light horizon. I got into the canon for the ride, and indulged in the first melty bite...

Andy enjoyed it too; I'm glad, because I sure enjoyed the chocolate/hazlenut/wafer Bulgarian candy bars his mother-in-law brought with her from Bulgaria. Later, I gave a piece of fudge to Shredder, and she was so excited that she put her hand on my head to give me a blessing.

My diet has definitely shifted since I came here, as I knew it would. I'm still ironing out the kinks. I am eating meat; pretty much all the the cookhouse serves a lot of low quality carbs and protein, and (sometimes more importantly) hot water for tea. I bought about almost a dozen varieties of herbal tea at that one tiny health food. I stopped myself from getting more, although I shouldn't've, because I'm really wishing I had that Nettle tea, and we haven't yet come across another mall with a health food store, and I haven't yet managed to be on an errand outing that includes a Public's health food store.

What's the grossest thing yet served at the cookhouse? The other day, having opted out of lunch (baloney and sliced cheeze on wonderbread), at dinner time I was hungry enough, and busy enough (selling tickets while eating), to get down 5 or 6 bites of fried pork slice before I noticed how absolutely revolting it was and turned around on my swivel chair and threw it right into the ticket office trash. Even Shredder, who doesn't seem bothered by the low quality of the meat here, was amazed that I magaged to eat that much of it. I did eat the rather blechy creamy pasta (is it supposed to be like fettuchine alfredo??)... sometimes you just gotta eat something.
Actually, pretty often you just gotta eat something... I guess I'm glad that there's a steady supply of something around, and I'm getting resigned to spending more money on groceries than I anticipated.