Make it rain.

Tonight when I went roller skating, I found $40 on the floor.  Score!  Then after we left the rink, my friend found $5 on Colfax and gave it to me.  Nothing better than a dirty $5 Colfax sidewalk dollar.  Two weeks ago I won $100 in a raffle at a work thing.  Thanks universe!  I'll spend your free money on good stuff like pizza and roller skating.

The morning after.

Halloween is the best.  Really, costumes and candy is an unbeatable combination as there are endless varieties of both of those things.  For me though, the candy side of the Halloween madness has always caused more problems than it ever solved.  I cannot help myself when it comes to candy.  I'll make myself sick and keep eating it.

Yesterday's Halloween celebration was no exception with the candy over-indulgence, not to mention the weeks of candy consumption leading up to the blessed 31st.  Sheesh, I'm pretty sure I put away more than a few pounds of candy in October.  This morning my stomach was feeling a little off and it took a second for me to remember just how much candy I ate last night, out on the town, in costume.  The sporadic stabbing pain in my belly this morning was enough to remind me that it was not anything record setting, but enough to feel it.  I ate candy basically all night and candy that I don't normally eat as I do my best to be conscious of my candy choices.  Sure, right, "conscious" of candy choices, there's an oxymoron for ya.  I binged and I loved it.  It even hurt a little while I did it, but there was never any intent to stop or slow down.  Milk Duds, Reese's cups, Tootsie Rolls, Skittles, Snickers, need I go on?!  It was beautiful in a sort of way like when you watch videos of people getting hurt in that each bite was so sweet but hurt just a little more each time, coupled with guilt.  What a night.  What a morning.  What better way to nurse a candy hangover than by eating just a little more candy the day after, which happens to be exactly what I did at work today.

Soon I'll settle back into my normally binge-free candy days and nights now that Halloween has come and gone yet again.  Sure the other big holidays are just around the corner and present certain sweets binges in their own unique ways.  But those are more like a come down from the biggest candy holiday of them all.  It's like there's a few more candy laden holidays in the months following October just so we can slowly withdrawal from the sugar high of Halloween.  And though the later holidays have some magic of their own, none of them hold a flame to a holiday dedicated exclusively to costumes and candy, plus some skulls and bones.       

Crazy cat lady.

I saw one of the best costumes of all time this evening, the crazy cat lady.  Happy Halloween.

Danger zone.

This is one of those evenings where it's chilly outside, I took an exhausting bike ride earlier, and proceeded to eat like a pig after said bike ride.  I am on my couch, in my pajamas, with hot tea and a subscription to Hulu Plus.  I've turned the heat on and it's warming up nicely in my apartment.  That being said, I have entered the "danger zone", where I am in "danger" of being passed out on the couch with the lights on and in a matter of minutes, likely only to wake up to piss out the tea.  That's all I got today, sweet dreams to me.   

Weathering the weather.

It's cold today.  Like the coldest I have felt in years.  Cold by even the standards of those that tolerate cold weather.  I actually felt alright about it and even took a walk this morning to the bank and survived.  Being okay with it getting in to the 20's and 30's is, I suppose, some coping mechanism that I have unconsciously come up with in order to deal with having my first winter in seven years.  (insert long sigh)  

I have spent the past ten years of my life living and traveling around the world.  The number one reason I have done this is to get away from all wintry and cold weather.  Sure I love traveling, but winter is what has forced me to do it.  For the past seven years I have avoided winter completely.  After the last winter I spent in Denver(2006-2007)I swore up and down I would never spend another winter in Denver ever again.  That winter set a record for the longest consecutive number of days with snow on the ground.  It was blizzard after blizzard after blizzard and the snow was piled up around town.  I lived too far from work to walk, and riding my bike was out of the question making me subject to waiting at the bus stop every single day in those awful conditions.  Every miserable, freezin' ass day I spent waiting at the bus stop, all I could dream about was the following winter when I would not be there, no matter the consequences.  I have kept that promise to myself, until now.

I have decided to stay in Denver for at least this winter.  I decided that during some 90°+ June day, but it was decided and here I am.  I had returned to Denver from Buenos Aires in June and was planning to stay for only the summer and then carry on traveling, or perhaps move back to California.  Life has its ways and I found myself head over heels in love with Denver all over again that I decided winter had greater appeal than leaving/traveling/moving did at the time.  After so much leaving/traveling/moving the past decade of my life, I found myself longing to just stay put and not be consumed with where I was going to go next.  I am happy with my decision to stay even as the weather has cooled, but it's only October for frick sake, and time will tell.

I half joke with my friends about increasing my winter survivability factor by engaging in various cold weather training(the other half of me is entirely serious about this training).  An example would be riding my bike on a brisk 60° day with no jacket, only a t-shirt.  Sound weak?  Well it is, because I am.  I have also removed my jacket in temps that are hovering around the low 50's, and keep in mind the jacket I am removing is a puffy down coat likely coupled with a scarf.  Yes, I wear my puffy down coat and scarf when it's in the 50's.  I know, I know it seems totally ridiculous, but keep in mind my traveler lifestyle has spoiled me with temperatures that average in the 70's and often times warmer than that.  Anything below 60°F feels like the arctic tundra.  In my defense, I rode my bike a couple mornings these past few weeks when it was in the 30's and I'm still alive.  Take that winter!  Something tells me I shouldn't taunt winter. . . 

I will admit, and this may come as a surprise, that living in Los  Angeles actually helped me adjust to cooler temps.  The west side of LA, near the coast, is not the warmest.  The temperatures there were often in the 60's and only a few weeks of the year did it get above 80°.  Being a more humid air than Colorado, the air often felt cooler than it was, therefore helping my body adjust to what I am facing here in the autumn of Denver.  I have also increased my winter survivability factor by moving two blocks away from work, making me able to walk to work even on the coldest and snowiest of days(I will never wait at the bus!).  I am also walking distance from Whole Foods where I shop and three blocks from Turin for when I need a dose of testosterone from my friends there.  The heat in my apartment works really well and I am using my oven as much as possible.  I sleep under an enormous down comforter and I am embarrassed to say that sometimes I sleep with my robe over my two layers of pajamas.  I like being not just warm, but hot.  

I have a sneaking suspicion that this winter will be very snowy.  It rained a lot this summer in Denver and the mountains and if that precipitation continues into winter, it's gonna be deep.  (insert second long sigh)  One dumb ass question that I sort of can't believe people ask when I tell them I hate winter is, "Well, don't you ski?".  Listen you ape, nobody skis in the city.  Skiing is in the mountains and being a skier would not make winter in the city any more tolerable.  It's still messy, freaking cold and basically sucks the life force out of me when it goes on too long.  So the question remains of whether or not I can weather the cold weather that is creeping in slowly more and more every day.  If I suddenly drop off from writing on barbers without borders, rest assured I conceded to the cold that I am dead and plenty warm in hell.

Crunchy or creamy?

I've always loved and eaten a lot of peanut butter.  A fair chunk of my life has been fueled solely by peanut butter and bananas.  I've enjoyed peanut butter in many other combinations as well, including but not limited to, vanilla ice cream and peanut butter, apples and peanut butter, on pancakes with chocolate syrup, crackers with peanut butter, and of course peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  Yum.  Most of my friends and family are aware of my delight with peanut butter and one time a co-worker made me an enormous banana cake with the most ridiculously awesome peanut butter frosting.  That is truly the best cake I've ever had.  The cake stars aligned for that cake and I will not forget as long as I live.

In most of my life, peanut butter likely tops the list as the number one nut butter I've consumed in my life.  However, when I lived in LA and my dietary tendencies changed significantly, I began to explore different nut butters, mostly almond butter.  Oh, sweet, raw, organic almond butter!  Is there any better butter than that of the almond?  I squandered away a small fortune  on almond butter during my days in Los Angeles.  I was addicted and ate it daily on fresh organic medjool dates.  Almond butter and dates are responsible for quenching my sweet tooth on a daily basis during certain times in my life. 

But being a pricy nut butter I found myself not wanting to have a $60/month almond butter habit, so I tried sunflower seed butter as an alternative.  Often called sun butter, this was a cheaper and very tasty version of nut butter.  Sun butter resembles peanut butter much more than almond butter, and is as unique in its own right.  I eat sun butter in any other way I would almond and peanut butter.  Sun butter with dates, fruit, chocolate, all of it.

There was this one time I delighted in pecan butter with fresh barhi dates and some fresh whipped cream.  This combination is nothing short of oral ecstasy.  The super sweet creamy and nutty pecan butter, topping a bed of caramel smooth barhi dates, then topped with the realest of the real Amish whipped cream.  Oooooo wee!  I nearly weep as I recall the deliciousness.  Perhaps I've tried cashew butter a time or two, I can't remember.  I don't think I've ever had macadamia butter, but I'd be the first in line if it even exists.

There is another side to this nut butter lifestyle.  Being a barber without borders, I have suffered many times overseas, because nut butters of all forms are a very American thing.  Hard to believe that the world is not obsessed with this most perfect form by which to consume nuts.  They are nearly impossible to find in any high quality in other countries.  My first discovery of this was of course during my first long period of time overseas, in Egypt.  The peanut butter I found there was waxy and half flavorless compared to the natural peanut butter I was used to at home.  This absence of peanut butter in Egypt was eye opening to me as a new world traveler, and it was something I am still adjusting to every time I go away from USA. 

Not even the British understand, and of course the Aussies are obsessed with Veggiemite.  Latinos think we're nuts, no pun intended. Perhaps Canadians are the only ones who get it, but of all the nut butter lovers I've ever known, we are all American born and raised.  When I was living in Buenos Aires earlier this year, I made close friends with an American vegan chef(I love you Kara), who has a local delivery service company for her food.  Argentina has some access to decent peanut butters and in Buenos Aires I would make the trek across town to an area aptly named "China Town" where there is a market that has quite a good selection of peanut butters.  There is even a small expat-owned company that delivers the real deal peanut butter to one's home.  Likely this has to do with the size and population of Buenos Aires compared to other places I've traveled and lived, but I was thrilled at the various choices.   Kara, on the other hand, offered almond butter as one of her menu items and that was all I needed to know I would do anything to keep this woman in my life.  I won't give away the recipe, but this almond butter was like nothing else. Though radically different than anything I had imagined, it was almond butter and it was unbelievable to have found it at the end of the earth.  Kara was more than just a fantastic friend, she was also the angel and savior of my dietary  and cultural needs.

Every time I return to the States from a long time away, my first trip to the store requires a purchase of any and all forms of nut butter.  I love the stuff, it's got to be one of my top five favorite foods of all time, forever and ever.  Nice that it's a food I will still be able to eat even when I'm a toothless old lady.  I shall take a jar to the grave with me.  Good and good for you, nut butter significantly increases the quality of one's life!  And since I'm sure you have asked yourself by now during my love letter to nut butter, I prefer crunchy.

Mishap at the movies.

Tonight I did something I normally don't do.  Well actually I did two things I normally don't do.  I went to the movies, for one.  The movie was pretty good, no need to go in to detail there, nothing special really.  However, when I returned from the theater and was lounging on the couch, I felt something hard on my jeans, sort of near my crotch, on the inner thigh of my right leg.  No, it's not what I would like it to have been. . . It was a Milk Dud.  I sat on a Milk Dud at the movies and it had welded itself very near to the ass of my pants.  Nothing quite like something identical to a turd getting completely and totally stuck to my pants basically right by my ass.  Fortunately I was able to heat it up just enough to peel it off of my jeans, but they definitely will need to soak just a bit to get the residual caramel off that is now practically part of the fabric.  A recap on the things I did tonight that I don't normally do: went to the movies, sat on candy.  But I suppose that if there is any one place where it is appropriate to sit on candy, a movie theater has got to top that list.