Potholes & Whole30 Sushi

Ugh, so today was such a weird (but overall good) day.

On my way to tap class last night, I hit an enormous, unavoidable pothole on 95N (right in front of the mall); it ate my hubcap and bent my rim.

I didn’t notice the rim was bent until this morning; in fact, I hadn’t noticed it at all. Justin went to inspect it, and brought me a photo to show me how bent it was. I was all kinds of anxious about it after he told me that it could cause a blowout. A blowout on the freeway. A blowout on my way to work, which I couldn’t miss because my coworker had already called out for part of the day due to a family issue. A blowout that would certainly lead to unnecessary injury and maybe even death at my hands. A blowout.

So I was having a kind of rough morning, really — full of anxiety and dependable breakfast (waffled potato with egg and hot sauce).

waffled potato deluxe with spinach pulp leftover from juicing (before hot sauce)

In my hasty, anxious exit from home, I forgot my travelling tea (I like to drink tea on my way: it soothes me), and there is no good coffee in Warwick, at least none that I’ve found (and if anyone even breathes a double consonant or a Cumby’s, I will vomit on-the-spot in protest).

When I got to work, I decided to try the machine in the lobby to get a cup of coffee. A cup of coffee from the machine costs $1.50 for 12oz. I get to the kiosk, and it has a million options, but two that look the same to me.

I deduce that one option is promoted as less crappy than the other, so I go with the “non-premium” option (I figure they’re trying to trick me – but then I realize there’s probably absolutely no difference between these coffees) and I become slightly annoyed at the idea that I even realize their trickery.

After I selected less-crappy, it gave me two options: 12oz or 12oz. I chose 12oz, selected no sugar, no milk, and put my dollar and quarters in…. quarters which the machine immediately rejected. By this point, my boss had walked in and saw my struggle and irritation (I was probably louder than I thought), gave me two replacement quarters which the machine immediately also rejected. Then the machine just got tired of waiting, ate my dollar and spat out a coin dollar. The worst.

So a student offered to buy me a coffee; he does some kind of voodoo magic by placing his card *on* the money thing, and it somehow magically deducts cash-money. I don’t even understand what is happening at this point.

The cup falls down into its little pour station, but at an angle, so the coffee never pours. At this point, I’m questioning if I’m even really alive – that it’s all just too weird to be real. I put the cup upright, and student waves his magic wand on the machine again and somehow it deducts another $1.50 from his account.

150 years ago, a woman would have been burned at the stake for such wizardry.

Anyway, I ended up getting a cup of less-crappy coffee in the end; student got half his devil-money back, and I went to start my day, which got progressively better, especially at around 4:00, when I left.

It wasn’t because I left that it got better; I actually like my job. It was because my co-teacher recommended a place to go look at my wheel, and it wasn’t far from work, so I just went. They were able to fix it on-the-spot for $25, wheel balance included. The guy said that it wasn’t even bad, really, and that he was able to bend the rim back with a pair of pliers. Honestly, from what I had seen earlier, it was way easier to believe.

The thing is that I’m wholly unprepared for these kinds of things. Sure, that guy told me it was no big deal; that I probably could have driven cross-country on it and never known the difference, but I did know the difference, and I didn’t know it was no big deal, so I got worried. And I already have so much anxiety around the freeway as it is. By 8:30 this morning, I was just glad to be alive and that I hadn’t left a trail of wreckage behind me.

All that was over, though. Sweet relief.

But then it got even better! I met Justin at the Coffee Exchange because I sincerely needed a good cup of coffee (and we were low on house beans anyway). He brought with him a batch of Whole30 Sushi, which (pinkie swears) was brilliant in construct, texture and flavor.

We got our house beans, sat at a window table and busted out this business:

Justin used riced cauliflower mixed with mashed avocado for the rice, and he rolled it with fresh spinach, cilantro, carrot, and smoky tofu. WHAT?

It was surprisingly good, and only 180~ calories, 8g fiber, and iodine from the seaweed. Big score.

But wait: There’s more! It is Thursday, and that means Fiberslingers meetup. Tonight, though, we met at Washington Park Library for a lecture on Downton Abbey fashion. It was pretty good, but it really made me want to re-watch the whole series, especially since I just finished binging on Poldark, and I’m jonesing for some good period drama.

I was able to knit a few more modules onto my Aranami Shawl during the lecture, and had some wonderful feedback from some of the other patrons of the event. The pattern really is lovely, and it shouldn’t come off as braggartly by recognizing how pretty it is; it’s really not any of my doing… it’s completely in the pattern. I just love it.

When we got home, we ended up making our new favorite snack: cashew (or almond) butter and fruit-sweetened jam on waffled sweet potato slices with tea. I’m sure I have a picture of it somewhere, but I’m too tired to look now.

We decided against our other not-so-new favorite snack (only new in homemade) whole perterder cherps:

These are very easy to make, but you need an adjustable mandoline to slice very thinly. We take one medium-to-large red potato, and slice it; then, we spray lightly our baking trays, season, lay the potatoes, season, bake at 425ºF. You really have to watch them, though; they will burn quickly if you slack.

Whelp, that’s it! It was a wacky day, but not in total bad; maybe in some ways actually good. 🙂


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