Mild Amusement

I remember the first time I had dinner at a friend's house. It was actually unintentional, because my parents were running late to pick me up. They called ahead and apologized profusely, but my friend's parents said it was no big deal and said I could just have dinner with them. The reason I remember it so well was that this was before I had started to realize that I eat really quickly ( fast enough to get myself sustenance 15 minutes before a show ). So, a young Sam ate at the speed he normally did, without thinking anything of it. I think there were a few jokes about how I actually enjoyed the food more than anyone else did, but even these remarks went over my head. Besides, even if I had slowed down at that point, I was still going to finish before everyone else. When I had cleared my plate, though, I looked around to see that others were still eating. What now? This was when I realized that I didn't quite know what to do at this point. If I had been at home, I could...

Like I've said before, I tend to eat a lot . Many of the things I like happen to be carb-heavy, and I've often described my favorite meals as "hearty." This is nothing new, and the fact that I've written about it before is proof enough that this is a long-standing habit of mine. However, there are a few new twists to this story. Let's start with an unintended Sam meal. There is a set of food trucks that stop by our offices every now and then,  and a coworker and I decided to grab lunch from one of them. Now, there are some really well known food trucks (e.g., Chairman Bao ), but the one we decided to patronize wasn't one like that. Honestly, I don't remember the name. However, I do remember what we both ordered. It was a giant helping of nachos. I actually saw some lady walk by after she had ordered that, and it immediately appealed to me. So, I got the same thing. To give you some idea of how big these nachos were, I carried it with two hands at s...

I have a friend who is pretty picky about food and drink. She's the kind of person who won't be very adventurous at all with food, or she might make a face if I order something she doesn't like . However, she also happens to be an old friend (I think we might've met about a decade ago), so I've also hung out with her a lot during that time. That means a bunch of stories. See, when I go out with other folks, I usually offer them a bite of my food. That way they can at least try whatever I'm having, so they'll know whether they like it or not. Heck, some people like the actual tasting quite a bit, too. Either way, I figure it makes things more fun. So, I pretty much always offer. And since I've had a lot of meals with this friend, that means I've offered her a bite of my meal quite frequently. In that time, we both noticed the other's eating habits. I noticed that she kept it very conservative, at least as far as food goes. And she noticed that...

I do a lot of driving, largely because I have a decidedly non-trivial commute to work. Heck, my mechanic always expresses surprise at how much the mileage has increased since the last time I took my car in. I never really stopped to think about it when I started driving to work, but that has had some unexpected consequences. Most notably, my radio is now my friend. That usually means that I listen to a lot of the Billboard top 40, since that's what they play on the radio quite a bit. But even with several presets, I can only listen to the same music so often. It's a little bit like eating nothing but fatty food. Sure, it's delicious, and it's fun for a bit. But eventually, you start craving vegetables to balance it out. It's like your body knows that you've had enough of the "bad stuff," and you need to eat something healthy. So, I listen to the audio version of spinach: NPR . Don't get me wrong, I like quite a few of their shows ( Car Talk and...