Favorite Foods - Vol 2

1. Nachos
2. Tacos
3. Pizza
4. Spinach
5. Potatoes
6. Chicken
7. Eggplant
8. Cheese

People have different tastes.  They walk in food venues and order their favorites, what they are craving for, or something new.  This great eight list contains my favorite foods.  A large percentage of the time, I will be ordering something that is related to this list. I'm glad some of my items are healthy enough, and I can pair them with other items.  I can have chicken florentine with mashed potatoes, and that is half my list!  Yes, cheese is on pizza, tacos and nachos, but they can also be on eggplant parm and cheddar mashed potatoes.  Cheese can be on a lot more things, such as broccoli, and it makes them so much more enjoyable.  There are many other favorites that could make a top fifty list, such as filet mignon, kettle sweet potato fries/chips or a chocolate peanut butter dessert.

I used to choose just burgers when I was younger.   Now, I could never imagine bringing a McDonald's hamburger into Taco Bell.  (What was I thinking?!)  Green beans are awesome, and broccoli is now consumable.  I am picky, but not as bad as I used to be. 

There are many things I still dislike:
Onions - They've got to be so fried like in Burger King's rings - Their new ones are great!
Seafood - I can stand a not-so-fishy crab cake and tuna, but rather stay away.
Peppers - Occasionally mixed with a salsa or sauce is okay.
Most nuts - Peanuts are a big exception.
Bacon and some pork - No visible fat please.
Others: Celery, scallions, radishes, water chestnuts, oranges, beets, horseradish, sauerkraut, extra hot sauce, mushrooms, raw, rare or medium cooked meats, eggnog, vegetable juice

Waking Up from a Nap

How rejuvenated are you supposed to feel after a nap?  It doesn't matter how long or at what time, but I wake up groggy every single time I nap.  Grogginess is supposed to be when you wake up before your sleep cycle is complete.  I don't think it's a coincidence that I wake up before it's done every time.  I usually don't set an alarm and wake up naturally.  I need at least 45 minutes to an hour after I wake to comfortably converse with other people.  It's hard to form words out of my mouth.  It's like someone glued a brick to my throat preventing my voice box from projecting any sound.  My face keeps one expression: a half frown with an old age wrinkle between my eyebrows.  There's a dark cloud in my head, and everything sounds muffled and loud.  It's a really bad hangover, though I haven't had alcohol in a few weeks.

As a caution, I like to stay away from people in my first stage of waking up.  I become grumpy when I don't want to be, and I feel like I will regret how I'm acting toward them.  I don't want to come across as mean or ignore people either.  I tend to become a monk and hide until I'm ready to come out and be normal again.

Waking up in the morning is a little better.  I still can't talk much, but I don't have the fog in my head and am not a grumpfest.  It's probably from snoozing my alarm for an hour, testing my body for awakedom.

I found that the cure for a quick recovery is listening to something comical, whether it is a cartoon or a funny radio program.  The bf and I couldn't be any more different after naps.  He is a bundle of pep, while I am the queen of the blahs.  His silliness is out of control, or that's what it seems like at the time.  I am not quite in reality yet, and I am appreciative of him because my mood can improve quicker.

Watch the Time

What day is it again? Classified as a gold personality type, I have a constant need to see what time it is and where I am in the day, week, month, etc.  A watch and a huge wall calendar will suffice!  Through the holidays last month, I had many days off from work, so the five-day work week clock in my head became askew.  I started thinking my Wednesdays are Fridays and my Fridays are Sundays.

Between my watch, wall calendar, desktop calendar and pocket calendar, I would think I have enough.  Nope.  I have one more - I need to update at least once a week my online calendar, where I do most of my planning.  My adventures will not schedule themselves!  Lists on my phone are becoming necessary for shopping and to plan new restaurant visits.

I don't realize how much I look at my watch during the day until I forget to put it on in the morning. 

 

Realizing I forgot my watch.



Counting the hours in my head.  Is it 5:00?






















If it's not on my dresser, in my purse or pocket, I start wondering if I dropped it and is in a parking lot somewhere.  I always end up finding it though. Even when I do find it, I don't put the watch on!  The relief is there that it is found, but I like to be settled for the night without having it on my arm.  If I want to use a laptop and my watch is on, forget that.  It is uncomfortable, so the watch is being set aside.  I am still in the know of what time it is by the lot of digital and face clocks throughout the house.

A few weeks ago, there was a double whammy - I found my watch in my purse at dinner time, and it was stuck on 12:20!  Now I have to find the time to start up the time  :D

Online: Then and Now

My last post that lists my favorite restaurants reminds me of ten or more years ago when surveys or chain letters from my friends circled through my email.  There were often questions of favorites, firsts, secrets and about other friends.  It often made you choose between Coke and Pepsi.  "When was the last time you...?" questions were popular.  They tried to bring out answers to get to know your friends better.  These email forwards usually occupied a small amount of time on a school night.  It was something quick to read and fun to fill out.  I would often get a friend of a friend's survey because they had replied to all of their friends.  They would be a complete stranger, but I was compelled to read ALL of their answers.

I'm sure the chain surveys are not as popular now, but I did find a few websites with these questions, encouraging to fill out.  Here's an example:

Nicknames: Jen, Jennie, Bean, Beanery
Croutons or Bacon Bits: Croutons
Favorite Salad Dressing: Russian
Have you ever gone skinny dipping? Nope
Favorite Food:  See my Favorite Foods posts
Pets:  Fish
Favorite number: 3
Favorite thing to do on a weekend: go out to eat
If you could dye your hair, what color would it be: purple, deep red or black
Favorite brand of gum: Juicy Fruit
What is your favorite quote: "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
What’s on your walls in your room:  maps and trees
Which one, Coke or Pepsi: Coke
Which kind of milk is your favorite: Almond

Besides email, there was instant messenger, old school blogging sites and teen network sites.  We had social insecurities of talking on the phone even back then, and the IM was like a text today.  It created a connection with your friends in a whole new way.  As a 13 year old, I'd say goodbye to a friend at school and ask them to go on AIM that night to talk.  Old school blogging sites are all of the basics from today's blogs and the least changed over the years.  HTML first allowed users to post their topics on the Web.  Others could comment on the post and interact with the author.  The teen networking sites usually kept you somewhat anonymous, and you were free to converse with others your age based on a similar topic.  Forums were a big hit and allowed you to gravitate towards music, art, computers, or relationships.  This was not an ideal way to meet people, but this was the beginning of something big.  Online networking was fun and addicting.

Today, we have complex cell phones and many popular social media sites for individuals (and businesses).  I can keep myself entertained if I'm waiting somewhere by myself by looking at the feed on my phone.  There is less communication and more "stalking."  Your profile page can tell others all of your pertinent information as a human being:  your gender, age, sexual orientation, your job, your location, whom you are dating, your likes and status updates.  Today, laggards think all of this information is way too much to give away and may stress over security. 

Information is right here at our finger tips.  I would spend hours writing down lyrics to songs that I'd tape from the radio.  Now they are easily available online.  When I listen to old school songs now, I find out what I was really singing along to when I was a preteen.  I didn't know about half the stuff I was saying!  Today, it is so easy to find things to do.  Online reviews help in decision making for travel, restaurants and attractions.  Shopping became easier as well with retail websites.  It was the next step after QVC and infomercials.

I'd like to go back in time and search the internet when it was a few years old.  What kind of search results would come up if I typed in facebook, wikipedia, ebay, twitter, youtube, starbucks, directions, blogs or news?  Some things would not exist yet and some things would be interesting to see what their sites looked like and what they could do.

It's amazing how different you can view the world with technology.  Answers to some of life's pondering questions can be found out in an instant.  I feel that the searches I do can become excessive, and I drown myself in too much information, some useless. At times, I'd like to become one of the Slowskys, the awkward turtles in today's society.  I'd like to shut out technology for a day to start. Turn off the TV, computers and phone and just take in life as it used to be.  National Unplug Day is coming up in March, so I'll try that out with some of the rest of the world.