Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Counting the days!

So MJ's funeral was yesterday and now I'm counting the days untill people stop acting like the world is going to end because he died. Don't get me wrong, I respected the fact he was a decent musician with a bunch of creative ideas. I respect the fact that for the most part he was a big influence on African American culture. And I am sad that he died.....just like I'm sad that all other dozen or so people who died last week died. Otherwise I'm like "oh well"

It might just be me but I never get why people make a such big deal about celebrities. I mean yeah they're cool and all, and they may be great actors/musicians/athletes/chef's/reality stars who are only known for being douches/whatever, but I still don't get why people go crazy and run around saying they want to have the celebrities babies and marry them (etc, etc).

This would be the point where someone may be prone to pointing out my semi-obsessiong with Tony Bourdain. Then thing with Bourdain is that I've pretty much admitted that if I were to hang out with him I'd probably get him to hook us (and out entourage) up with decent seats and meal at one of his friends restaurants, then find some dive bar to go to with a "crappy" punk band and drink all night. You know, hanging out doing normal people things, talking about normal people things (well as normal as a guy who travels around the world can be). People seem to forget that celebs are regular people (well not reality TV stars.....they're just dumb) and probably want to hang out and do regular people things.

So all in all, MJ dying is sad. But its nothing to lose sleep over. Besides, I doubt people are going to be running around crying as much in 2 weeks. go figure

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Adventures in eating Sushi

So I once read an article, or maybe it was a blog entry by Anthony Bourdain. In it he talks about how he places bets with the members of his production staff (especially new ones) about when the first person is going to get sick on any given shoot for an episode of No Reservations (well they do it when in other countries). 99% of the time Tony picks the breakfast buffet at the hotel because, as he so bluntly points out, you can't always trust that food and you shouldn't eat food you can't trust. Almost every time a member of the production crew eats the hotel breakfast buffet and sure enough they get sick.

Last week, I totally disregarded that word of advice and I paid for it dearly. For a while I had a bit of a craving for sushi. I have no clue how that craving started because I've only had sushi once back in November. But I had a craving nonetheless. My forary into eating Sushi here in Grand Rapids started out fine enough. I mentioned my craving to one of my friends who I went to Culinary school with the first time, and she mentioned that Jonny's Cafe at Calvin College (where she works) had a sushi bar on Tuesdays and that its pretty authentic. So a week or so later, I finally made it in (it probably helped that it was 90 degrees that day and hanging out in A/C is always a good thing). I had sushi and it kicked ass. I'm totally going again when I have a chance.

Needless to say, that is not what made me sick. What made me sick is two days later I was at the grocery store getting something to eat for dinner. I saw the grocery store made sushi and got a small bit of desire to buy it. A little voice in the back of my head was saying "don't do it, you know you want Potato Wedges instead!" a little voice which I then told to "fuck off" (bad decision). I bought the sushi, took it home and scarfed it down. And I seemed fine.

The next day I felt off. One of the classes I'm taking is bowling. Normally I can break 100 and even make it up to 120. (and today I got 143) But I was sucking due to feeling totally out of it. After class I met my dad for lunch and my trademark appetite seemed to be missing. After lunch I went to my aunts house to hang out (god bless A/C). Eventually I told her I was feeling like crap and upon mentioning I felt like I almost had to puke she said that making myself puke might help me feel better.

Thust started a 30 minute ordeal which has probably been the worst 30 minutes for me in the past 19 years. Seriously kids, I don't get sick and when I have puked, its because I've drank too much. After I finally felt I couldn't puke anymore, I grabbed an empty trash can and told her I was taking a nap and plopped down in my cousins bed. Naturally I woke up feeling much better.

Its funny though cause I tell people that story and the unadventerous ones always snarkily ask me "I bet you aren't going to be eating sushi anytime soon?" and its like "why not?" I'm not letting one bad experience turn me off. I ate bad food, I puked, it happens. I'd much rather be adventerous and puke than sit at home eating crappy fast food.

I seem to have the impecable luck of being an adventerous picky eater. I want to try a ton of stuff yet there are still things I won't eat. Despite that I have no learned an important lesson. No more eating food that can make you sick if its not being made someplace trustworthy