Even as an introvert, I love to (a) socialize with friends while (b) eating delicious foods. So this was a dining out weekend! I had a spontaneous cocktail and dinner outing with a friend Friday, and a long-planned ramen and caffeine social outing Saturday.
Friday, I took my team out for Thai food (lychee iced tea goes with everything!) and espresso drinks. In the evening, I enjoyed great conversation over a fine cocktail, za’atar fries, roasted brussel sprouts, flavorful baba ganoush. After running late Saturday afternoon, I enjoyed catching up with two long-standing friends, hearing about recent travels, AND enjoyed spicy ramen with ‘artisanal’ gluten-free noodles, a brief walk, a delicious almond milk latte, and picked up vegan nachos on the way home before the weather turned colder. At home, my meals have included vegan potato and poblano scrambles (with JustEgg and chipotle habañero salsa), pour-over dark roast coffee (Peet’s Sulawesi-Kalosi), gluten-free high protein waffles with raspberry fruit spread, yuzu and plain green teas, a homemade Thai green curry, more of those vegan nachos… and I’m not convinced that I’m done eating yet!
The only challenge: it is “cold” to us locals, and something about cold weather inspires me to want to overeat and then hibernate for at least a month.
This past week of January 2025 here in the U.S. feels like an especially good time to stress-eat and then withdraw from the world. Events in the U.S. associated with the new administration are… what was the Lemony Snicket story called, something like A Series of Unfortunate Events? That. The news is THAT. Reading about current events this past week has been painful.
My country has withdrawn from most meaningful international projects. Taxpayer funding for health and science programs has abruptly ceased. Government officials have been illegally fired; government employees with job offers in hand are receiving notice that their offers are being rescinded. Historical fascist gestures that were immediately condemned in Europe were normalized by the domestic media. (‘Shoutout to Germany for using their expertise to call it as they saw it). There is a propaganda effort to suppress information about the achievements of women and people of all ancestries other than European. The new administration has made a combination of invasion threats and trade war moves against both of our nearest neighbors, plus (somehow) Denmark, Columbia, and Panama…
The words I would choose to characterize these developments are neither fit for printing nor the public internet, though they are passionate and fair. I’m unlikely to write about world / current events here. (This blog is slow-paced and not time-sensitive. I save my tirades for people who can exchange these sentiments in person.) But know that I’m aware of them, even if I am choosing not to address those topics here.