Hangover Prevention

The best Defense is a good Offense.

Or so I've heard somewhere along the way.

My friend Chris linked me a few weeks ago to a stunning article claiming that eating asparagus can prevent hangovers, as well as possibly reduce the effects of a hangover that you already have.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THIS INFORMATION HAS ESCAPED ME FOR THIS LONG???

That's the kind of thing that you assume would spread like wildfire. Especially among college crowds.
"Welcome to WestCo 1. This will be your dorm for the year, here is a list of the items you are not allowed to keep in your room for safety reasons, and asparagus can prevent hangovers. See you at Mocon!"
Seriously.
That should absolutely be how college starts.

Anyhoo...
People have their own ways of dealing with alcoholic over-indulgence: 2 aspirin and chugging water before sleep, eating bread, eating greasy food (some scientific merit to that one actually), waking up and start drinking again/Hair of the Dog (I do not endorse this one), or, you know, NOT drinking to excess... which, like so many plans, doesn't always work out.
The New Plan: Eat Your Vegetables!!
For those who would like to explore this new Asparagus Plan, you can read the science-y bits here:
Suite101
Planet Green
Medical News Today
Or, you know, just Google it.

Anyhoo, I sort of tried to put this to the test this weekend since I had a birthday party in Brooklyn from which I did not return until after 2AM, and last night I sang and hung out with friends and got home at 4AM again... I think what I really need is a magic vegetable that turns 5 hrs sleep into 10.
(Work on that, scientists, ok? After you cure cancer and solve world hunger and global warming. You know. When you get a minute.)


For now, though, I'll settle for a magic vegetable that protects my liver.
(cue insipid cooing voice: "Gooooood liver. Mommy loves you so she eats her veggies. Yes she does!")

Saturday night I ate about 8 spears of asparagus with my dinner, and I woke up on Sunday (post birthday shenanigans) feelin' fine. Yesterday I only ate them with breakfast, so the events of eating the asparagus and being out drinking may have been too far apart, but aside from the fact that I only got 5 hrs of sleep, I feel pretty OK today as well.
(Not that I over-indulged. That would be to laugh!)

So, the recipe part of this post.
Could not be simpler.

Four asparagus spears, chopped and cooked on medium high in a non-stick pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil, and seasoned with garlic salt. Cook until just starting to brown but still firm, about 5 minutes.

Remove asparagus to your plate (without pouring the oil onto your plate) and cook an egg in your preferred style. Season to taste.

I went with over-easy this time.

Cuz I'm a Rebel.

I tried to break the yolk to make the picture more colorful, but instead it just looks a mess.

Oh well.

What really would have made this a delicious meal would be some smoked salmon under the asparagus. Sadly, I had no smoked salmon, and I don't go out or run errands before breakfast. So I just had to suffer.

But I hope you take this new-found revelation and that it prevents future suffering in your life!

(see how I tied that last bit together?)

Eat (asparagus), Drink, & Be Merry!

Waxing Nostalgic

I really miss dorm life.

Ok, no, I do not miss teeny twin beds covered in plastic or living in 9 square feet or sharing my bathroom w/ another 9 girls and 10 boys (showering was interesting to say the least, what with drafts and people taller than 5' 11" seeing over dividers), but I miss living in that community.  No, I do not want to live in a hippie commune, or any other such weird-ass place. I don't even want to live in the suburbs. I actually want to live in Italy where I can only see neighbors in the distance past a vineyard and some cypress trees... but that's a different dream.
   My fantasy when I was graduating from college was that all my friends and I who were already planning to move to NYC, would all move within 5 square blocks of one another, if not the same building, so we could all get together all the time with minimal effort. Possibly still wearing pajamas like that last-ditch run to MoCon before they closed the doors for breakfast on weekends. My dream kind of came true, in the sense that about half a dozen of my friends all lived within 3 blocks of each other in Brooklyn when we all graduated. Unfortunately, I was living in a lovely Gramercy neighborhood in Manhattan that was nowhere near my friends.  (I know, another tiny violin...)
   As time passed, my friends married or upgraded their homes and so moved around a bit, but they are all still basically within 3 subway stops of each other in Brooklyn. I however, married and moved farther away. We could technically have stayed in the same apartment, except the rent became too high. So we moved to the west side, uptown, for the express trains to the Bronx for Mike's teaching job. And I no longer had the excuse of "I'm right off Union Square!" to entice my friends to visit. Even having cable wasn't enough to draw a crowd very often (tho I did host a viewing of the finale of Sex & the City which was widely attended...  tho I saw the movie alone on cable. Full circle I guess.)
  Basically I just really miss having friends close by. Now everyone has day jobs (like ya do) and you can't pop by at 11:30 for a study break, or call because you're watching a silly BBC show and you wanted to share with a friend because it makes you happy and want to connect, because people have to get up and can't skip their 8AM Art History class anymore. Now everything is scheduling and trains and "I have a meeting" or whatever grown-up crap constantly gets in the way. And frankly it sucks.
   I often wish I were back in college, but only if I were 19 again. Because I am well aware that I could not pull it off now. Not just the fact that I'd be the random 30-year-old (albeit one who can pass for 25 without too much trouble) at the house party on Fountain. I also know I can't pull all-nighters anymore, and writing 3 term papers in 2 days is just no longer in the cards for me. But I miss the oblivious happiness. Sure, lots of bad shit went down while I was in college, but even major illnesses and funerals couldn't cloud my general happiness of where I was and what I was doing. Hell I didn't even really notice that I'd put on 20lbs since I arrived Freshman year. I was just happy. And there is a part of me that pines for that easy joy. And really that easy connection with people. I was in the same boat as 3,000 other people, and really we could start a conversation at any time about any thing. Now things are much more complicated, and everyone is moving in their own directions. And I no longer live down the hall, or within a mile, or within five miles of anyone I know. And it sucks.
  I never really had any negative feelings toward Brooklyn except that it remains far away. And the only thing I worry about is transportation. My local line is CONSTANTLY under construction, especially on weekends, and so we are always trying to get home from random stops. When I go to see a friend off the F train, I invariably end up doubling back via the G to what should be an F stop because of rerouting and I just panic I'm going to make the wrong connection. Otherwise it's just the 2 running local and the added 40 minutes to the ride.
  But somehow living where I do has separated me from the everyday with the people I know. I'm the alien living somewhere else, so I'm not convenient for impromptu hangouts or bad-tv watching that also serves as bonding hangout time. I may as well live in NJ for how far I am (but thankfully I am not that freaking far, as those trains cost more and cut off at 1AM. Lame.)
  So, I miss Hewitt 8 Well-Being-Accidental Placement and making huge ∆K∑  football brothers nervous about peeing just because there was a girl around (Nico!). And hanging out on the all-boys hall of Hewitt 10 building human pyramids and learning from Bill Cosby to "Tell 'em, tell 'em No."And I miss annoyingly loud Bruce being blared by a roommate in A1 Steak-sauce and sharing a kitchen w/ 9 other people. I do not miss rooming with inconsiderate models who let doors slam between their inner room and mine in WestCo when I'm sleeping... but I miss living within a few square miles of 3,000 people I mostly know or recognize. It was a great feeling. It was a great time in my life.

   Instead I sit in my lovely faraway home and think and write, but mostly think, and wonder what I would change about the direction my life took. And the answer is that I really wouldn't change much of anything. But that doesn't change the fact that sometimes you want to be able to just say "hi" without setting it up days in advance.