Viruses, Snakes, and Coffee Crimes

Issues, concerns, and miscellany for today:

You know you have a crappy apartment when the maintenance man comes over so often that your dog greets him like an old friend when he walks in the door.

I am having an "icky body" day, I just feel grublike and gross.  Did I weigh any more today than I did yesterday? No.  Then why do I feel like I have grown my very own turkey wattle of chin fat overnight?  I haven't even eaten much today, because I apparently have some flu-type virus.  I am almost certain I picked it up in the waiting room at the doctor's office on Monday, which is ironic but not all that surprising.  I was planning to go to my grandparents' house for Turkey Day tomorrow, but their health is always tenous and I am very afraid of infecting them, so it will just be me and G. here.  

I take that back: me, G., and the snakes.  Did I mention I got a snake a couple weeks ago?  He's just a baby, a real cutie.  I'm also keeping J's snake over the break.  It is the same species as mine, but a different subspecies. They don't share a cage!  Snakes don't like sleepovers.  This species actually prefers to eat other snakes, and my poor little guy wouldn't stand a chance against J's, he's still only pencil-sized.

Speaking of pets, one of my pet peeves in life is baristas that shortchange me by underfilling my Americano.  When I pay $3 for 20 oz of coffee, I damn well expect to get a 20 oz drink, not 16 oz and three inches of air.  If I wanted that much "room for cream" I would have just ordered a latte.

Another overpriced food issue: These 100 calorie pack things are really getting on my nerves.  Now they have them for candy bars, you can get a little 100 calorie portion of M&Ms, Twix, etc.  Do the candy companies really think people are dumb enough not to realize that the traditional fun-size versions are pretty much the same thing, except much cheaper?  Also, with the cookies, crackers, etc, individually packaging each 100 cal portion is incredibly wasteful, think about all the extra cellophane, paper, plastic, etc that is being used.  I think companies should have a responsibility to use recycled and/or biodegradable materials if they insist on marketing items that use 10x the necessary amount of packaging.  Maybe this is just because I see things through the lens of a broke college student, but it costs a lot more per ounce just to fill your trashcan up with extra wrappers,when technically ANYTHING you buy can be broken up into whatever serving size you want.  Seriously, there is no need for people that are concerned about limiting portions to require food that is pre-measured and bagged. Pathological people like me have been buying regular boxes/bags of things and weighing portions out the old-fashioned way for years, and it works just fine without the super-expensive and landfill-crowding new over-packaged items that have flooded the market recently.  Also, having snack foods packaged by calorie count makes kids think snacks are "healthy" because it's just 100 calories of cookie, instead of defining "healthy" by actual nutrient content.

Why do I feel the constant need to punch the button to check my CrackBlackberry even when I can see that the little red message light is not blinking?  It's like I'm a moth attracted to this little device, I can't leave it alone.  Somehow it seems like by checking it often enough I'll POOF, make e-mails and messages appear whenever I need to feel validated.  Sadly, it doesn't work like that.  I wonder if Obama would have run for president if he knew they'd take away his BB?  It would have given me serious pause, I even use mine as a flashlight when I get up to pee in the middle of the night.  

Now that all of that crankiness (can I blame it on the flu?) is out of my system, I think I am going to head towards bed.  Goal for tomorrow: get rid of this fever, and if said fever isn't gone, don't push the exercise so much.