Day 57: It's No One Else's Fault When You're A Day Late Or A Dollar Short

Today wasn't a very good PCP day. I've been cruising along pretty good for a while there, so you know eventually something would have to happen to upset the cart.

The morning was no problem. I got all my jumps in and learned a new move. I've been able to hop on one leg five times, then regular jump five times, then hop on the other leg five times. I've almost got it to the point where I can to that twice without tripping. So today I tried to do an alternating hop on each leg. Kind of like running only in place. I'm also starting to get that rope a-spinning at a pretty good click. That's the only way to do some of those tricks.

But I'm derailing the train of thought here....

Breakfast was fine. Walked to our neighborhood all-natural organic co-op store and back. Had my mid-morning snack. Then it started going downhill. Shortly after the snack I started feeling nauseous. That lasted for a couple hours. I even tried to rest for a bit and that helped a little.

Unfortunately, by the time I felt better I had to race off to chorus practice. There was very little time to pack a proper PCP meal, so I kind of had to wing it. My lunch is suppose to consist of 100g carbs, 180g veg, 2 egg whites, 30g low-fat cheese, and 80ml yogurt. The eggs was the easiest part. I grabbed to hard-boiled eggs and threw them into a lunch bag. The shells and the yolk could be discarded later. The second easiest was the carbs, which ended up being a couple of slices of bread that my partner made. The rest I had to make a guess-timation.

A couple days ago I made a medieval recipe called "Armored Turnips". Basically it consists of turnips, cheese, and spices. I used what I had on hand: turnips, low-fat mozzarella cheese, whole-milk cheddar cheese, and spices. Close, but not totally PCP friendly. (The whole-milk cheddar cheese killed it. Then again, I wasn't exactly making it for me.) So I grabbed a piece of it, which weighed 180g. That fits the veg numbers, right? Well, not exactly. Although the turnips contributed to the weight, the cheese added some too. I was in a rush and wasn't exactly going to figure it out, so I called it even for the veg. I knew that there was more than 30g of low-fat cheese it (because of the cheddar), so I didn't pack a yogurt, hoping that the it would balance out the extra cheese, some of which wasn't low-fat.

I raced off to chorus rehearsal and spent the afternoon there. Then as rehearsal finished (around 5pm) I got a text from my partner that he and a friend were at the mall and asked if I could meet them there. I made a detour to the mall and found out that they didn't want me to pick them up (as they had taken the bus there), but instead wanted to take me to a movie. Not wanting to screw up the day further, I told them I needed to go home so I have my afternoon snack, pack my dinner and evening snack, and do the strength exercises. They were fine with that and we agreed I should come back to the mall around 7pm.

Great plan, in theory. There's road construction on the major highway here, so traffic was all backed up. I managed to take an alternate route. Then as I got near my house, traffic was all back-up again—this time for a football game at the large university just a couple blocks from the house. A trip that usually only takes about ten minutes ended up consuming forty-five. It was 6pm and I had no time to do any strength exercises. I quickly assembled and packed my meals (which were easier, 'cause they mainly contain fruit and eggs), dashed out the door, fought with traffic again, and made it back to the mall by 7pm. (Yes, I snuck my PCP food into the movie theatre.)

After the movie, my partner decided he wanted some gelato. Off we went through the mall to the gelato place. He got some berry flavor and our friend got a custard. They wanted me to sample their respective gelatos, but I didn't want to mess up my day any worse than it already was. So we reached a sort of compromise. I stuck out my pinky and they would place an itty-bitty teeny-weeny glob of gelato on it—basically enough to sample the flavor on my tastebuds.

When it comes to the holiday season, my all-time most favorite thing is eggnog. Yeah, it's a deathtrap in a carton, but I grew up on the stuff and it has always been part of my life during the months of November and December. My partner said that the custard gelato tasted just like eggnog, so I eagerly anticipated sampling the teeny glob on my finger.

It was definitely the flavor of eggnog, only smothered in who knows what. It was like a thick coating in my mouth and not at all any semblance of the pleasant childhood memories I had of eggnog. The berry wasn't much better—not as thick texture but definite overtones of sugar. Let's correct that. It was like being kick in the head with a bag of sugar. I didn't need any more than those tiny little samples. I so wanted a bunch of grapes to clear those flavors out of my mouth.

Eventually we made it home, with just a little bit of time for me to do this quick post before heading off to bed. I've had far too many late nights, and every one of them involve playing silly online computer games. Those things are the bane of a PCP lifestyle!