Ordering Out

My wife is so weird in some ways.

For example, she ordered Chinese food, and I’ve just picked it up.  Normally, when food arrives, the bag is ripped open, and people descend upon it.  Then they start to scarf their meals like a pack of hungry wild dogs.

Not my wife.  She continues doing whatever she was doing before the food arrived.  It’s a lot like how a cat will feign disinterest in dinner and then sneak in later to gulp down the food.

I can’t abide this behavior.  So I’ve decided to leave her alone and write this blog post about it.  Let’s see how long it takes for her to start her meal. 

Is this difference in behavior a male/female thing?  Is it because she’s from New England and I’m from New York, where we open a box of pizza, take a piece, fold it in half, and rip out a huge bite while walking away, causing painful burns on the roof of our mouths in the process?

I came home with the food at least 15 minutes ago.  She asked just now, “Do you want to eat with me in the living room?”  “Okay, sure.”   Then she walked in the opposite direction of the kitchen.

Now she’s back in my office with a fistful of papers that need to be filed.  She’s talking about hiring a new helper.

[tick, tick, tick…] Now, finally, I hear her in the kitchen, more than twenty minutes after I’ve set the Chinese food onto the table.  But still there’s no indication that food is on her mind.

It’s as if the food is a visit to the dentist, or a tax return to be filed.  Why is she avoiding it?

I’m shaking my head in total confusion.

[much time passes]

She finally sits down.  Then she abruptly gets up, “I forgot a plate for the cat.”

She sits down again.  Then, once again, she abruptly gets up, “I forgot my drink.”

She sits.  She fidgets a bit, then uses the remote to switch channels.  Commercial.  Switch.  Commercial.  Switch.  Commercial.  All this time she’s still not eating.

Finally she started to eat more than 30 minutes after I came home with the food.

Dream: School Worksheet

I’m standing in a classroom with my math teacher/professor.  He asks me, “Shouldn’t you be studying for the mid term?”  I say, “No, I’m done.  I’m ready.”  He leaves the room.

A student volunteer errand boy enters.  I’m still standing in the same location. I’m deeply engrossed in reading something.  The boy starts saying that he has a paper to give to the professor.  I shush the boy.  I hold out my hand, still looking at my reading.  Then I look at the paper, and the boy says that it’s an old graded [quiz / homework / worksheet] that needs to be returned to the student.  I read SK’s son’s name written at the top in child-like penmanship. “Indeed it’s old,” I think to myself.  SK’s son graduated 10 years ago, and this isn’t even high school-level work!  Then I realize that name isn’t SK’s son’s name, it’s S himself.  SK is about my age, a sexagenarian(1)!  “I’ll take care of it,” I say, and the boy leaves.

I leave the classroom and walk toward the main office.  There are a few students in the hallways.  As I approach a staircase, one student is in front of me.  He’s walking a bit slowly, and he’s got a buddy nearby.  That buddy is on another staircase, and he’s showing off how he can slide down a few steps at a time.  Now I’m on the stairs stuck behind this slow student.  My impatience is building.  “I can do better than that,” I say, referring to the buddy, and I slide down the entire set of stairs, which is about twelve steps.  And I feel relieved to be moving at a decent pace again.

(1) A sexagenarian is a person between the ages of 60 to 69 years old. https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/Age-by-Decade

Dream: Urinal Cakes

I'm visiting my former workplace.  I've entered the building via an entrance other than the main entrance, and I encounter a few former coworkers.  As I hang out with them, I realize that I should check in at the front desk, and I tell the guys that.  One of them, JJ, looks me straight in the eye and says, "I'll go with you.  HR wants me to replace the urinal cake in the men's room."

JJ and the gang walk in the general direction that I go in, but their path is meandering.  In going up flights of stairs they switch between stairwells, for example.  So I dawdle a bit as I watch and wait for them to catch up.

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Commentary:

JJ is a talented process engineer.  The main idea with this is that the woman in Human Resources (HR) has given him a "lowly" task befitting a janitor.  JJ is not happy with it.  This representation of HR calling the shots mirrors my opinion that HR in large companies, acting as the company "bouncer," is getting out-of-control.  Or, they don't really know what engineers do or are capable of.

Quintessential New York Experience

Many times my most memorable travel experiences are those that are awkward or unexpected – mishaps, even, as I'm about to describe below.

My wife enjoyed taking bus trips to New York City.  Sometimes we were part of a group, but also we went on our own.

It was on one such occasion that I got the quintessential New York experience.  Before boarding the bus home, each of us had to present our ticket to the agent.  I like to make such encounters easy for people, so I opened the little bus pass booklet and turned it around to face the driver.  Or at least that’s what I intended.  Instead I fumbled the ticket onto the grimy concrete floor.

When I finally retrieved it and apologetically handed it to the agent in classic Woody Allen fashion, he bowled me over with a look that said, "What a MORON!"

Wednesday Weigh-In 20260217

I've achieved new highs in weight, fatness, and circumference. And so I'm cutting back on the dose of Wellbutrin from 300mg to 150mg. I blame the medication because it takes away any life-induced functional dyspepsia that might make me feel sick to my stomach and unable to eat. I figure the (Lunar) New Year's Day is a good time to make a change.

Waist = 45.25"
Height = 5' 7"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Balance Body Composition Bath Scale
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Book Review: “I’m Fine: A Practical Guide to Managing Your Emotions,” by Rob Nugen

This is a book written for men, and written by a man describing his life experience.  It's a book that every man should read.  I know that sounds cliché; in fact one of the endorsements says "A must read for every man"

I liked how the book was structured.  Between the foreword and closing words, it's divided into five parts, which are broken into chapters and subdivided into small sections.  I was able to read just one section if I was lacking time, and then when I returned to it, I was able to get re-oriented easily.

I expected to read the first part, or a few chapters, and then post a preliminary review.  And that review would have consisted of what I just wrote previously, plus a comment on how easy it is to read and the lack of typos.  And then I'd read through the rest quickly before "Paying it Forward."

But then I started to identify with the author's life experiences.  This is what went through my head:

I'm not the only one who tried to please everyone.  I'm not the only one who did something foolish while driving my parents' car.  I'm not the only one who endured demeaning treatment from a high school girl.  I'm not the only one who thought "My life is over..." after hearing my partner say she's pregnant.  (Except in my case I said it out loud.)

I started therapy a few years ago.  At the beginning of each session, my therapist would ask, "So, how do you feel?"  And I'd reply, "I dunno, okay I guess."  Gradually I learned that the stomach pains I experienced prior to a meeting with the boss weren't caused by food; they evolved from a severe aversion to episodes of humiliation.  When I was laid off and finally walked out of the building, the weight of all that lifted.

The author's discussion of fear was my favorite part of the book.  As I wrote on my blog¹, fear can point you in the direction of growth.  But if you succumb to fear, it can hold you back.  So it was easy for me to accept the author's idea that other "emotions are messengers, not problems."²

The author encourages his readers to pass the book along to another man.  But I'm not sure I'm willing to give up my copy so quickly.

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¹ https://square--peg.blogspot.com/2013/06/fear-as-ally.html
² https://www.robnugen.com/en/books/im-fine/

This review was posted to LibraryThing on 2026-02-11.
I received a free signed copy of this book in order to write this review.

Wednesday Weigh-In 20260202

Yet another weigh-in. The scale didn't report body fat, and I didn't bother to measure my waist, so those values are left over from a previous entry.

Waist = 44.75"
Height = 5' 7"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Balance Body Composition Bath Scale
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.