Michael R. Barrick

So we got free ice cream at work today. Woo-hoo - sugar rush right before walking home. Today was such a great day to walk, except for the evil revenge of "Song in Your Head Boy" - of all the dumb things to get stuck in my head on the way home I had "I have spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle\as I go walking merrily along"!! Pure, self-induced torture that was.

So I go home. Had my re-heated Chinese take-out and that Guinness I was craving. I feel good now. Why is it that take out food, not just Chinese, but all take out food, is better the second day? Cold KFC, cold pizza, reheated Chinese food, the half-eaten Oreo McFlurry you stuck in the freezer... they all improve after a day.

Let's hear it for healthy eating!

Actually it is my own hypothesis that it's the worry, not the food that kills you. Look at the accumulating evidence - rich food is nasty for your arteries, alcohol by itself is hell on your stomach, mix them up and they work together to actually be healthy. Welcome to the traditional diets of my ancestors... I've got centuries of perogies, cabbage rolls and sausages on my father's side of the family and centuries of chocolate, coffee, and beer on my mother's side. When my born-in-a-Nevada-commune, raised-in-Southern-California ex-wife tried to feed me "healthy" food I couldn't take it. It just wasn't the food I was cut out for. I was tired all the time not to mention ruder side-effects. I've seen evidence that certain ethnic groups are attuned to different diets (with a rough correlation to blood type). For example northern Europeans and certain east Africans are really the only people who as a general rule can stomach milk. It's simple adaptation and differentiation - a matter of evolution. My evolution includes beer and sausages ;-)

Do you know where your brain is?

I have not been so covered in lipstick since I was whoring around at the Catwalk at C6. In deference to the official status of my divorce I was asking every cute girl at the club to kiss me on the cheek. As I got drunker I extended that to anyone who was wearing lipstick. I've got some photos that I'll post tomorrow.

For no sensible reason I ended up making bangers and mash for Opium and Sleepless Knight (who gets bonus points for finding bland boil-the-shit-out-of-the-vegetables and fry-the-meat-in-grease northern European cooking "exotic" - I actually had the pleasure of feeding the man his first ever Guinness). Chopping onion when you are too tanked to stand at 3:30 in the morning verges on completely fucking surreal. Although I have to say this for cooking drunk: at least the grease splatters don't hurt.

So many cute girls tonight... I got kisses from Daevina (who was first), Lori, Louise, Mel, Nancy, Opium, Sandi, and others. If only Ivana was there. All things in, she's really the only one I really want to be kissing... well except maybe for Mel, but I already struck out there... But when my mind is clear and I close my eyes it is Ivana I see first. *sight* If only I knew what to do.

But now the sun is up, Opium and Sleepless Knight have gone their merry way and I should catch some Z's so I can get some shit done tomorrow.

I got paid!

So the cheque comes through at five to five and I burst out of the building and run up the street to pick it up. Then I run further up the street to the nearest bank machine... which is out of order. So I run back the other way to the next nearest bank machine. I get the money in the bank. My payment won't bounce. I have money for rent in the bank now and so the next stop is the liquor store and the grocery store. Yay!

Yum

I think, however I have been broke too long. Let's consider what I have been eating compared to what I got to celebrate.

Poverty meal:
Rice or potatoes with cabbage with margarine.

Not impoverished meal:
Bangers and mash (and in case you don't know "mash" aka colcannon is potatoes, cabbage and onion) with real butter, smothered in cheese and mustard with a pint of Guinness on the side and a pint of coffee flavoured Haagen-Daz for dessert!

I guess it really is all about the details.

And in closing, today's comic.