revisitings

The last three days have felt wall-to-wall. This is a change of pace.

One of the effects of this scheduling density was that for the first time in months, I pooped at grad school. Early on in this blog (and its earlier twitter incarnation), I dwelled a lot on where I was pooping. Lately, it hasn't been school, or really outside of my home. This has a lot to do with the change in my diet affected sometime around New Year's. I'm on a classical Chinese acupuncture-recommended diet for several ailments, and I'm avoiding eating the following things:

-raw produce

-cold food & drinks

-nightshades in any form (potatoes, tomatoes, capsicum/peppers/chiles, eggplant, not to mention datura, belladonna, tobacco, etc.)

-aromatics like garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, scallions, etc.

-chocolate

-anything caffeinated (coffee, tea, chocolate, soda)

As you can imagine, cooking at home is a lot easier that eating out with these restrictions, particularly since restaurants often sneak onions and garlic into the darnedest things. Plus, my work this semester has me at home a lot, playing clarinet, programming in Max/MSP, composing around the apartment. So my food cycle is a lot more localized.

The story relevant to this medium however is that yesterday I crapped not once but twice in the great out there, once at school, once at a former work place (sort of in several senses). Both were perfectly enjoyable defecations, a little on the looser side, the second one had some franticness in front of it, a little bit of dancing around if you catch my drift. The first had a nice beet-induced patina, the second did not, and as I turned around to see the beet-infused guys go spinning, I wondered when the last beet-turd in that toilet was.

Tell me, if you, hypothetical reader, are in fact out there, [it's not crucial you identify yourself here, I'm just wondering abstractly] how was your last doo doo?

rare vos

It's a rare day that it's 12:17 PM and the following two things are true:

1.) I have yet to defecate.

2.) I have no feeling that I will soon (aka the doo doo cravings).

This is often the case when I wake up earlier and have to get out the door for something - no time to be taken straight away upon waking, which can be a nice time, and no relaxed ~10 Am crap, rounded out by reading the paper and brushing the teeth. Today will be a different day, it seems.

Still, dear reader, I am pooping regularly, against no odds.
Well, not regularly, but with frequency, I ought to say.
Regularity is for ladies who eat Activia. I like to live on the edge of the bowl.

having

I've been having these intense gassy bouts in the last few days, particularly loud ones at that. Not unenjoyable, just not subtle.
I can remember freshman year of college being laughed at from the hall for such blasts. Understandably. When I rip, I rip bad.
It's hard when bathrooms lead to well-travelled halls and there's no door insulating. Huh.

gasss

I've got the craps! The loud, gassy, liquidy craps! Woooooooo!

a promise

I've seen some pretty good concerts at Death by Audio. I would say that I like it there, hard as it is to locate. However, from the first time I went there, I've kept a vow to myself never to poop there. The bathrooms were clearly constructed as an afterthought, they're your classic converted loft bathrooms, up a step or two from the floor. They're covered in art, which is nice, but the toilet seats are cracked, there's a kind of moisture that hangs in the air, what toilet paper there is tends to live on the sink (which often seems questionable itself). The doors do lock reliably, I'll give them that, but really, it's not a great place for it. To paraphrase Triumph, it would be like pooping on poop.
Last night, I was there once again, listening and participating in a show. I was gassy, perhaps from some eggs with beets (not from this), but I was determined to wait it out. I will cop to having farted a good bit in there, but I did not poop. Ergo, this is a post about not pooping, but it was a triumph.

recent prunes

Now, I've never been a person who notices changes in my bowels based on what food(s) I eat. I just press on. There may be great fluctuation in my digestive cycle, but I don't really pay much nevermind. My policy is, eat what you want to eat, and unless things are really explosive or backed up, you're probably doing fine.

Also, I love prunes. Recent discovery. My first purchase was at Elly's Market one night a year or two ago, and now whenever I go to Sahadi's, I get a pound or a half-pound of prunes (with pits). Last time I went there, the prunes they gave me were (and are) massive. Usually, I eat two prunes in the morning if I remember they're there, which is about every third day. I may not pay attention to my eat/doo-doo correlations, but neither do I want to tempt fate. Anyway, these prunes are so large that I can only eat one at a time. I got a pound and I'm about halfway through. I think I'll go eat one right now...