Day 20: Making up for lost time ...

"Feed the babies - who don't have enough to eat,
Shoe the childre-e-en - with no shoe-oes on their feet,
You oughta house the people-le-le - that's livin' out in the street,
Well I know-ow-ow, there's a solutio-ion.

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' - into the future-ure."

I'm firing up the time machine for this post. Step in, buckle up, and let me take you to all the way back to 24 hours ago (cue wavy dream wipe). Oh, I think your coat's stuck in the door, let's fix that. I anticipated my week n Norfolk would be a challenging one for the diet, I just didn't realize it would be because I couldn't keep up with the blog. This going to be brief because I am exhausted, of both energy and ideas.

So, blogging was difficult but eating really wasn't. I mean, aside from the good-spirited joking from my coworkers, it was all handed to me on a plate. Literally. Vegetarian/vegan options were included in every meal because our distributors have the tendency to be quite finicky about what they put in their bodies. And, really, why shouldn't they? They're the experts, they're the nutritionists. What credibility does a mechanic have when he or she rolls up in a lemon? Same mentality in the health food industry, where books are judged by their cover. At least when it comes to legitimacy. Though, that's whole 'nother story.

Point being, it was a breeze. I ate grilled eggplant, tomato-basil soup, fennel, fregula, and a handful of other dishes I'd have absolutely no interest in outside of this diet. It was an educational nutritional experience. Now, that's not to say that some of it didn't suck (much of it, in reality), but it opened me up to new stuff. Of course, my peculiar diet opened me up to much interrogation for the answers to how? what? and, mostly, WHY?! Unfortunately, by the time it got around to talking about T30DLV, I was pretty lackadaisical and ambivalent to engage in what could be rousing discussions. Not to mention, they're my coworkers and I don't need to encounter collective eye-rolls and be ostracized just yet. I'll wait until next week ... my last week. ;-)

Anyway, day 20 was fairly uneventful. Just glad I'm in the 20's now. Not being able to take advantage of the prevelance of good seafood KILLS me. In that sense, this is the worst week to go vegan. I see shrimp, I see crabs, and I see salmon. Alas, I'll get other chances. This, however, might be a one those "once-in-a-lifetime" things people are always telling me about. Month-in-a-lifetime, I guess.

Today I did meet distributors from South Africa and the general manager of our Australian office and chat with them about various sociopolitical/cultural experiences. I love to hear their opinions and impressions of the U.S. and its citizens. Every one of these foreingers is healthy, in harsh contrast to many of their counterparts in the States. A visible difference and difference of approach to what they put in their bodies, for sure. They all have gorgeous accents that tickle my ear with invitations of room and board when I finally make the trips to those countries. I listen with jaw-dropping jealousy as one distributor tells me about her Capetown office that sits on what sounds like the most gorgeous place geographical area I could ever conjure. A view of mountains, grasslands, and water as far as the eye can see. It's time to go. No time like present. Not to mention, I've got lodging already booked and the US dollar equals, like, eight rand, so at least I won't be fighting with the currency. Now, about that plane ticket ...

BJB

Homework: 'End of Food' - It's the system, stupid.