The other day we went out for burgers and a movie.  By a movie, I mean The Revenant (which was amazing, and awful, and awfully amazing), and by a burger, in my case, I mean a salmon burger, because I don't eat meat anymore, but still eat fish.

After I polished off my grilled asparagus, because grilled asparagus, Missy offered me some of her fries.

As it happens, my favorite kind of french fries is Missy's fries.

Except these fries, somehow, by accident, wound up having a tiny piece of bacon in them.  I didn't even think it was bacon at first.  It looked like a like crispy fry bit.  So I popped it in my mouth, chewed it, swallowed it.

Only as I was already chewing it, and in mid-swallow, did I realize what it was.

I used to like bacon.  I wasn't some sort of bacon-maniac, but I did enjoy it.  A fellow vegetarian friend of mine told me once that after they'd stopped eating meat, on the few occasions when they had had it again, it didn't taste good to them.  They described it as tasting sort of dirty.  Not dirty like illicitly forbidden, but dirty like, has-mud-on-it.

I don't know if that was how I'd describe that little bit of bacon, but I can tell you this - I didn't like it.

I found that really surprising, and kind of validating.  I've lost the taste for it.  I'm kind of glad.

Posted
AuthorMako Allen
Categories365 Gratitude

Last Friday I was working from home, and just stuck on something.  It was related to a javascript function, and the particulars of what I was trying to do and why it wouldn't work don't really matter.

What matters is that I got my teeth into it.

I refused to be denied.  So I dug in, researched the problem, and plowed on through.  I ate an almost afterthought lunch, sat at my desk, and just ground through the problem.  I would not be denied.

Other plans I had for my day fell clean off the table.  

Eventually, I had a breakthrough.  I figured it out.  And then, implemented my change everywhere throughout the system.  I wound up working late to get it just right.

It felt damn good.

Posted
AuthorMako Allen
Categories365 Gratitude

So Missy texts me from work the other day.  She was nervous about getting her annual review that day.

I told her that she had nothing to worry about, that she was all that and a bag of chips, the greatest, awesome, free ice cream on a surprise day off, that sort of thing.

Not to be one of those people who likes to say "I told you so." but in this case, totally being that guy.  So happy for her!

 

Posted
AuthorMako Allen
Categories365 Gratitude
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No, not like the movie.  The other day I had something make me blindingly  mad. 

I know it seems like I never get angry. It's not true. What it was doesn't even matter. What does matter is how I dealt with it.  

I suffered.  

Then I bought myself breakfast, and while I sat eating it, I caught up a few blog entries, and moved on to thinking about something else, and noticed after how much better I felt.

I want to say that again, because it bears some repeating.  I didn't stop being angry and then write some blog posts. It was just the opposite. 

Ok, so what? Why am I telling you  this? It's not even a little bit to tell you what to do.

It's because after-the-fact I was absolutely gob smacked at how it went down.  Every once in a while I'm fortunate to see in high relief  a thing I believe happen so clearly  to me, for me, by my own actions. 

Getting so mad sucked. But moving through it and transcending it felt amazing! 

Posted
AuthorMako Allen
Categories365 Gratitude

Masked-llama is a podcast listener. We've never met in person, but exchanged a few nice pieces of Fetlife mail. 

It's no secret that I really love much anything to do with sharks. I talk about that all over the podcast, and let's be honest, pretty much everywhere else too.  

It still always knocks me out when folks send me mail like the one he did the other day.  

http://www.blankietails.com/products/adult-shark-bl… sorry if you have been inundated with these, but I stumbled across it and thought you might dig this.

As I told him, I dig it indeed! People can be so thoughtful. 

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Posted
AuthorMako Allen
Categories365 Gratitude