~Thursday~ I caught the Wolfline bus in today as I was running a little behind and it was raining. That bus stops closer to my building than the city bus. It’s nice to have options.
Today was my first day back after vacation, and I spent most of the morning going through e-mails and some time editing this month’s OIT News for my officemate and the new Faculty & Staff Technology page for my boss.
I joined Brad, Sarah, and Anna at Global Village for a brief part of Petite Salon Latte Thursday. Sarah brought homemade cookies for me in a little gift bag for my birthday. Brad bought my cup of coffee. Sweet and hot. (And the cookies and coffee, too.) Badumpbump. I’m here all week folks. Try the veal.
I left at 12:05 to make the Lunch & Learn: NC State Brand Book put on by the Creative Services team. It started off rather nastily—with crankiness from the audience and defensiveness from the presenters, but after a call from one person in the audience that we just go on with the presentation to see what’s in the brand book instead of discussing why it’s in it, the meeting got back on track.
My boss and boss’ boss brought refreshments for the gig, which included a carrot cake (in honor of my birthday from my boss), Krispy Kreme donuts, and bananas. I appreciated that.
I attended the first NCSU Libraries’ Fabulous Faculty series at which my friend Sarah Ash (different Sarah from above) was presenting. I met Sarah a year or two ago through Myra and Patti when I worked in Service Learning for a little while. Her presentation was stellar—and very, very interesting.
| Eating through American History Sarah Ash, associate professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences and the coordinator of the undergraduate Nutrition Program, will explain our way of eating today by examining social, economic, and scientific factors that existed during the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century. Ash teaches over 1,000 students a year in a wide variety of classes, including one on US food history. She is the recipient of numerous teaching awards including the NCSU Alumni Distinguished Professor Award and the USDA Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award. This event is part of the ongoing NCSU Libraries Fabulous Faculty Series and is cosponsored by NCSULA. Samples of popular foods from the 30’s through the 80’s will be available for tasting. The Fabulous Faculty Series is generously sponsored by a grant from the Tom Russell Foundation, Inc. |
It was interesting to see how we’ve arrived at where we are today—specifically with regards to large portions, obsession with weight, and indigestion, which in the early days was referred to as dyspepsia.
On the way to the library after the presentation, I stopped at McDonald’s, where in spite of the hour I just spent, I convinced myself that having a Big Mac and fries was not too bad, since I hadn’t had lunch. The cashier said, “Would you like to Super Size that?”
“Oh, no!” I said all self-righteous and in a tone that suggested, “Are you kidding? It’s bad enough for you. I’d never do that.”
She pointed to the calendar on the wall beside the cash register with the schedule of specials for the month of October, and with her fingertip on the 15th square, said, “It’s today’s special. It’s cheaper to get it Super Sized than what you’re going to pay for the regular size.”
“Oh. Okay, then,” I said feeling good about trying to do the right thing, but getting what I really wanted anyway.
As if that wasn’t fucked up enough, halfway through my Big Mac in my car, I remembered, “Oh yeah. I’ve got to take my pills for today,” which I took with a big bite of Big Mac. Among them? My Esomeprazole. For? Acid Reflux (a.k.a. indigestion, a.k.a. dyspepsia).
I immediately thought of the subtitle of Sarah’s presentation: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
After shoveling that in, I stopped at Cameron Village to pick up a library book I’d requested called Big Machine, whose author I heard interviewed on NPR a couple of weeks back.
Maybe out of some desperate attempt to make things at least a little right, I went to the gym from 9:00-10:00 this evening, where I did 200 ab crunches, followed by 60 minutes on the elliptical machine, where I burned off 904 calories of the Big Mac and fries. That’s my story and it’s sticking to me.
While doing my hour-long cardio, I listened to the Kindness of Strangers podcast of This American Life described as, “Stories of the kindness of strangers, and where it leads. Also, the unkindness of strangers and where that can lead. All of today’s stories take place in the city most people think of as the least kind city in America: New York.”