Smell of pine needles Wednesday

To offset the truly horrible school lunch today, I had a lovely and relaxing sit outside underneath some trees. The smell of the pine needles drying in the sun was so nice.

Lunch, on the other hand...

Well, I've been eating mostly well for the past couple of weeks, but not *as* well as before, and now it's caught up with me. My feet, ankles, and tummy are swollen and I feel tired and unmotivated and just not as good as before. So, obviously, the answer is to clean up my food. Well, breakfast was a delicious combo of salmon, seaweed, and avocado - which was amazing and kept me really full. However, come lunch time I found cabbage and unknown meat salad smothered in unknown-but-probably-almost-certainly-sugar-laden-sauce, bean-sprout soup (I don't eat bean sprouts), rice (didn't even take any), and a battered hotdog. I tried an experimental bite of the hotdog to find it was a small REALLY processed sausage-like meat-like thing covered in what tasted like vanilla sponge cake, dipped in sweet tomato sauce. It was like disgusting, wrapped in weird, then dipped in yuck. So I ate the salad and drank the soup sans-sprouts. I think my co-workers probably think I have an eating disorder. And I might be a tad hungry by the time I get home! Ah well, with any luck I can un-swell myself and get back to that uber-awesome happy state I'd managed to obtain.

I've talked to Andy about it too, and he seems to understand. I just told him I thought flour and sugar are bad for me and don't make me feel good. He said he doesn't feel well after eating bread and stuff either, so with any luck my eating a little strangely won't be much of a problem. He actually doesn't even eat that much rice, so me skipping it 90% of the time hasn't caused much comment. I'm cooking dinner for us both tonight, so at least I know that'll be fine. I'm planning on garlic-rosemary grilled chicken, a lettuce-bacon-almond salad, and mashed kumara. Yum!

Speaking of Andy, I'm really enjoying (among other things) how our conversations are slower than I'm used to. It's partly because English is his second language, and mostly due to him thinking hard before he speaks. It means our conversations have a much slower pace, and I like it. Sometimes I'll ask him something and he takes so long to reply I think he's not going to, but he's actually just considering his answer thoroughly. It's actually a quality I'd like to have more of myself.

And I didn't end up cooking at home last night. I had octopus! But, I did try to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I turned it off after maybe 20 minutes though, it was so crappy! Not even Johnny could save that one.

OK, today's five:

1) Smell of warm pine needles in the sun.

2) The sound of cicadas. 

3) Salmon and avocado for breakfast - doesn't get much better than that!

4) I get to cook for someone, which is always nice :)

5) I finished planning Summer Camp.