What’s Going On?

Ok…y’all know that’s my favorite word…well, second only to f*ck. Sorry…too early for profanity. I hope Girl Scout Troop 718 isn’t reading this morning.

Life has been insanely busy since I returned from Mexico. I think 6 days on the beach turned me into a slug. I’m having to force myself to the gym and I’ve been staging a coup against  "the man" because I’m forced to follow a schedule again.  I took 2 naps everyday in PVR. *sigh*

Back to the Real World…I had 268 emails when I logged in on Tuesday morning. WTF? I was only gone a week! Work has been crazy busy due to the Katrina aftermath. My account happens to be a major oil company with refineries in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. So…my workload is slowly replacing Zen Courtney with Urban Combat Courtney (brass knuckles and poison darts sold separately).

On a more hopeful note, my office is doing quite a bit to help our friends from N’awlins. Tomorrow is our  bake sale/food drive. I know it sounds small and insignificant, but we always raise a few hundred dollars each time. My coworkers love to eat…and Red’s Mom makes a banana pudding that gets pre-orders.  All proceeds will go to the local United Way. I received an email from my contact at Irving Cares and they are pretty desperate right now. The organization fed 54 Katrina families yesterday…in addition to their usual clients. My office donated 1700 lbs of food a few months ago, so they know to call us for help.   Non-perishable items will be divided between the food pantry and apartment complex that is housing 35 survivors.

Next week we’ll be collecting pet supplies for Operation Kindness…a no-kill animal shelter in North Texas that’s received over 50 Louisiana pets in the last few days. Needless to say, we’re spreading the love around. It’s nice to see everyone pulling together. *warmfuzzy*

***IMPORTANT FOOD NEWS BULLETIN***

As some of you know, I’ve avoided peanut butter since age 3. I had a bit of the deadly goo back in the day and it almost closed my throat. A dramatic trip to the ER told the ugly truth: I had the (painfully unoriginal) peanut allergy. I have avoided PB for almost 25 years! Over 2 decades without a PB &J? LOL That’s a sin in this country.

Well…I like to test rules/restrictions. *pausing for you to recover from shock* The last few weeks I’ve been eating PB in small quantities and monitoring myself. Bentley & Braxton were prepared for any emergency (riiiiiiiiight). Everything has been fine…so it seems I’ve outgrown my allergy. I had my first PB &J and was immediately hooked. PB is the devil! Despite it being a "good fat", I have to limit myself to 2-3 tablespoons per week. The first couple of weeks into the Peanut Experiment, I was craving it big time. I thought I’d actually have to ease it into my diet. PLEASE…I was ready to "ease" myself into a vat…nekkid…with a big spoon.

A special tribute to my new lover (turn your volume down or you will get fired…)

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/peanutbutter.html

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll write more later. The Charity Chick has work to do…

-C