Friday, May 3, 2013

Bad Day 297--I am not cleaning that up!

The Dog and I both ate something that made us sick, but I'm pretty sure that it was not the same thing since I don't have a habit of eating the trash. Mine came from the Indian food I had for lunch which I was so certain was wheat-free because I asked. The problem with Indian food, besides that it is delicious and I am always tempted, is that it is spicy so I can't tell if my tongue is burning from the spice or from wheat. So I asked does this have any flour in it and the food truck guy said no. But I am learning that the people trying to sell you food don't always know or maybe they just forgot or maybe they are lying because they want to sell me food. At any rate, it was pretty clear by about 3pm that I had eaten wheat, so after work, I came home, got in my jammies and had corn chips for dinner. Corn chips are safe, well at least the ones that we buy that say gluten-free on them are. Also ice cream. Sometimes, when I'm feeling really icky, I will just have a shake because thankfully I can still have dairy. When half of the food in the world makes you sick, you are grateful for small things. But boy do I miss brownies.

So now I am alternately in pain and seasick so I watched Dirty Dancing to make myself feel better. I had forgotten how much I like that movie and how much I miss dancing. I used to be able to do this. But I was younger then, and a lot smaller and less afraid of breaking something.


See, I used to ballroom dance. I loved it so much, I made my children watch Dancing with the Stars with me and quizzed them on the types of dances they were doing. But now, I'm too tired to dance. I'm too tired to do anything but sit in my pajamas and watch old movies that make me forget for a minute that I am a) old and b) Husband is in Afghanistan. Dirty Dancing does not remind me of Husband at all because it reminds me of Germany where I saw it in the theater more than a year after its original release date. Apparently, Berliners loved that movie so much it stayed in the theater forever. It might still be there. Let's go and find out, shall we?

I loved Berlin. I went when it was divided and I got invited to East Berlin by some Marines at the US Embassy there when I went to ask if the Embassy would give me a job.


The Marines thought I was cute so they invited us (we were six very cute coeds) back for a party. They bribed us with oreos and root beer, which surprisingly, they had in the East, probably because they had a commissary, but we couldn't get in the West. It was my first taste of how awesome Embassy life could be and probably when I decided I wanted to join the Foreign Service. So now, a mere 15 years later, (OK, I know! I was just hoping you wouldn't do the math,) here I am. It is Foreign Affairs Day today, and I am a Foreign Service Officer. And it is everything I ever dreamed all those years ago that it would be. Except for the whole Husband in Afghanistan thing. That's more like a nightmare. And The Dog is not my favorite souvenir from a foreign land (we got her in Korea). But other than that, I love it.

People in China who like to eat lamb are having a worse day than me. Lamb is one of the staples of traditional Xinjiang cuisine and there were lamb restaurants all over in Shanghai. Well, if people were willing to poison milk in order to make a profit (they were and they did and I ended up in the hospital because of it), then you shouldn't be too surprised that they would adulterate meat.

Lamb Kebabs are seen in this Tuesday, June 17, 2008 photo. Lamb is a popular dish in the western China region of Xinjiang, which is predominantly Muslim. Spices like cumin, not common in other areas of China, are featured in these kebabs. (AP Photo/Larry Crowe)

See those delicious looking lamb kabobs? Well, you're right. They are not made of lamb, they are made of rat. Yep. Rodents. Also mink and fox and all of it mixed with chemicals and gelatin so that people won't suspect it's not really lamb. I thought the dumplings with cardboard filling were a bad idea, but this is even worse than that. So thank you, Chinese Profiteers, for reminding me to be grateful that I never ate a kabob while in Shanghai, and now, I probably never will. I have no idea what was in the food that I ate and loved so much and really, now I never want to know. It might kill me if I did, or at least make me wish I had never eaten it. Honestly, somebody in China needs to do something about these food scandals. McDonald's in the US has to be careful not to make the coffee too hot, but in China, you could make it out of mud and still sell it. "Daphne," be sure to avoid the meat when you get there, and good luck!

1 comment:

  1. Ugh. Good thing I still can't really eat meat eh?

    ReplyDelete