10.26.2011

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Ladies  & Gentlemen, (and “others”), I am having one heck of a stinky day. I am, now, going to attempt to ignore it, and hopefully it will just go away…..

I’ll begin with my joy at knowing that at this very moment, (+ 2 weeks), I will be busy obsessively playing MW3. (Ooo -- *Note to Self: Stock up on Loca Mochas!) (For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a Monster brand drink – Mocha + Energy, heh-heh.) Ooo – and to tie in from last week – if I’m lucky, I’ll have a brand new matching MW3 Controller to play it on! 

I’ll now move on to “The Figs,” which do make me quite happy.

I don’t know how many of you have ever eaten fresh figs, (and I’ll venture a guess that answer is ‘not many’,) but truly, this is one of life’s most simplest, and richest experiences. I’m not kidding. There is nothing on this earth that tastes like a fresh fig. Dried figs, fig newtons, even fig preserves, – not even close.

When I was a kid in SoCal, one of the places we lived had all these different fruit and nut trees in the backyard. One of them was a fig tree. My step-sister and I could just climb up, and pluck off a fig and eat it – yummy! And, of course, in season you could find them in the store sometimes.

So then I moved out to the Midwest, where I’ve spent most of my life. The trouble with figs is that they have a very short lifespan. So trying to special order some figs in, say, Chicago, is that unless you’re made of money, they’ll probably perish before they get to you. So I haven’t had any figs for 25 years.

And now I’ve been living out here in New Mexico for a couple years, and I was just about to give up, when…..

I’m toddling through the co-op market last weekend, passing through the produce section, and out of the blue, there they are – just sitting there. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I swear they started glowing, and I think I heard angels singing, and I know I exclaimed much too loudly “Fiiiiiiiiiigggs!!!!” Followed by “Figgiiiiies!! Fig-a-roos!!” (No, I wasn’t done embarrassing myself yet.) “AAAAAaaah-ha-haaAAA- FIGGIES!” And then turning towards the persons closest to me, I very cheerfully proclaimed “They have Figs!”  

They all gave me an uncomfortable smile, and I began pillaging the entire stock of figs. (Which I admit was terribly rude, but I was, apparently, possessed.) I brought them home, and knowing what I know about figs, I promptly cleaned and then froze most of them. I am so beyond happy to see my favorite little fruits again.

Jiminy – that worked!! Talking about the figs has made my bad mood just flutter away. Before I was all “Grrrrr…”  and now I’m all mellow and content.

I am a strange and complicated woman.

This week’s shout-outs go to new friends OwlorNothing, and Ferretgr, (whose name I may have misspelled).