The Whole Wide World

I’m convinced that the storm sucked the energy out of me. I never doubted that the weather affects us as humans, but if ever there was subconscious doubt, it’s gone. The storm is gone, too, and my energy is back, relatively speaking. Hello and Goodbye -98F. It was 0 Fahrenheit today and it felt like a full on heatwave. It’s also possible that being on day one of my monthly two-day weekend could also have something to do with feeling good again. Who knows.

While I was feeling grumpy and tired these past couple of days, I was also actively trying to ascertain (possibly overthinking) why I was feeling so bleh. I think there are many contributing factors, so let me tell you about all my struggles. Wah-wah-wah. Could it be the lack of sun? The daily grind, ten hours a day, six days a week? The fact that everything is frozen? The lack of colors, especially, green? No sounds or scents of nature? The same conversations and faces over and over? The fact that we are already out of fresh food? Probably.

I am not complaining. I am still very much happy to be here and greatly enjoying the experience. Just noting. Much like I was not complaining, just noting, when I mentioned my salty meal the other day. I also found out shortly after that, that the freshies order that had been placed for that last flight of the season in the beginning of May, was not fulfilled in its entirety. Apparently, we only received half of our order. Normally, when something that has been ordered isn’t available the supplier sends a substitute. That didn’t happen this time. Someone must have ticked the no substitutes box. So what was supposed to be eight-thousand pounds of fresh food, turned out to only be four-thousand (or maybe four and two, I didn’t fact check my numbers, I just know it’s half) and we have consumed it already. Which is okay.

I just thought I would be eating raw cabbage all winter. To be clear, I was also okay with that, not a complaint either. During the summer season, I made a base layer to my plate at every meal of raw cabbage. I assumed that since cabbage keeps for ages that we would have it all winter. We don’t. We have no freshies. I was thinking about this the other night when I learned we had no freshies…thinking about the progression of my diet over the years. Another example of my life and extremes.

In the Peace Corps, I pretty much only ate freshies for just over two years. Living in a tiny remote village, I shopped at a weekly farmers market, other than rice and pasta, processed food wasn’t an option. Then on my Appalachian Trail thru-hike, I ate a predominately processed (trash) food diet for seven-months. Although, that was diet was supplemented with both fresh food and fast food during town stops and resupplies. I’ve never really had to forgo fresh food for extended amounts of time until now.

One common food thread between Peace Corps Morocco and Antarctica is the amazing fresh baked goods. Both savory and sweet, no discriminating here, yum yum yum. In Morocco, bread is your eating utensil and it is baked fresh every single morning. There are also all kinds of freshly baked treats on offer everywhere you turn. Down here, I moan constantly about both the fact that there are fresh baked goods at every single meal (that it is too much), and that they are effing delicious and I can’t not have one, of each, savory and sweet, at every single meal. In fact, the other night at dinner, I started a discussion at the family table, which started and eventually ended with this statement: freshly baked bread and butter is just savory cake and savory icing. All but one agreed, and our family table is big.