Monday, May 07, 2007

Introspection and Chipotle Peppers

First: My entertainment of the evening has been watching Chris obsessively eat several chipotle peppers in adobo sauce straight out of the can. He's crazy for chipotle everything, and this is the first time he's had chipotle peppers themselves. The first one he tried as a dare to himself, assuming that it would be too hot and that he would cry. He then proceeded to eat several more. He gets all excited when he first eats the pepper, exclaiming about the "nice, smokey flavour." Then he gets thirsty and drinks some water. The water makes it really hot in his mouth and he starts half-dancing, half-marching around the house, yelping. Blowing his nose. Wiggling a lot. And talking about how he needs to "punch through it." Then, his mouth calms down and he craves another. Rinse and repeat. (I'm not sure if there will be enough chipotles left for him to make the chicken dish he's planning on making for tomorrow's work potluck.)

Second: Facebook has been driving me into fierce introspection (if that's a plausible combination of words) lately. Especially since a childhood friend tracked me down and we've started messaging back and forth. This exchange has caused all kinds of musings. Some of them along the whole "Road Not Taken" strain, where I start wondering what my life would be like if I'd made a few different decisions. It's really strange, since a lot of the friends I've tracked down have regular jobs; many of them have kids. Also, do you know how weird it is to respond to "I have three kids and still live in Regina!" with "I live in Victoria and I'm working on my PhD in German history!" How do you say that without scaring people off? How do I say that without sounding pretentious or braggy or something?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can relate in a serious way. Do you know my first real boyfriend is going to be deployed for the second time to Iraq? Of course you don't, but I didn't either until I saw him on myspace. I haven't talked to him since sophomore year when we broke up and suddenly I'm getting teary-eyed over how he was so anti-establishment and how much he must now resent being in the military and his kids' futures if something happens to him.

Not to mention that I can't relate to more than... say, one of my friends from high school?

Marc Vandersluys said...

I get the sense that Facebook does this to a lot of people.

I get a similar feeling when I think of class reunions.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Marc: it's been especially weird because I'm now a year away from my 10-year reunion. And so I'd already starting getting like this before I joined Facebook.

lifexhistory: Wow. That would be especially strange. It was strange enough for me to know that a boy who liked me in high school is in the (Canadian) military now. Even though it was not at all a surprise.

roger said...

I wouldn't worry. They probably think they're bragging too.

Anonymous said...

i think roger is right. and if not, if they think you're braggy and pretentious it probably says a lot more about them than it does about you.

ps i love the pepper story

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Roger and anastasia: Huh. I think you're right.

Anonymous said...

Brag away, babe. Despite your moniker, you've worked hard to be where you are. Don't be ashamed of what you're doing now because someone else took a different road.

P.S. my word verification is stinqbjm. And I didn't even have beans for lunch.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Meggy: have I mentioned how much I love you? 'Cause I do.