What's a Foodie to Do?!

I've admitted to this before: I am a foodie. A foodie is "a gourmet, or a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food and alcoholic beverages. A foodie seeks new food experiences as a hobby rather than simply eating out of convenience or hunger" (Wikipedia). I love food. I love eating food. I love discovering different foods. I'm less interested in alcoholic beverages, but I've been known to imbibe a beverage or two in the past.

When I learned that my life span was being cut severely and that I had approximately a year to live, I decided to hell with "healthy" eating habits. I was going to eat what I want, when I want. It was a decision that played out well over the first few months. Traveling through Europe was a gastronomic delight! I experimented eating all the local foods: haggis, black and white pudding, a redonkulous amount of roasted pork (thank you, Germany, Czech Republic and Austria), and such. Did I care that the apfelstrudel I had in Austria was 500 calories a serving? Nope! Did I scarf down an entire plates of pasta in Italy? You betcha! I did skip the escargot in Paris because...well...yuck!! I even designed My Last Supper. I figured if I had to go, I'd go out with a gastronomic bang!

And then came the abdominal pain -- a foodie's worst nightmare! You see, I had developed a growth in my upper abdomen which is apparently sitting on a nerve which causes me to have unrelenting stomach pain. As a consequence, eating has become less fun. I now "eat to live" instead of "living to eat." I'm finding this turn of events truly saddening. After all, I don't have many things that I can enjoy about life right now. Food, books, movies, and friends and family are the extent of my world and now I've lost the joy of one. I now have to eat several small meals throughout the day and most of these meals are either of the liquid variety (protein shakes) or bland and boring. Anything more than that and I've got tummy troubles. In addition, my taste buds are all messed up right now so everything (even water) tastes terrible.

So I return to my original question: what's a foodie to do? Will I ever be able to have my dream Last Supper?? If I do decide to have my Last Supper, it'll have to be spread out over several days. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm open for any type of advice.

If I haven't said it lately, having cancer sucks! I wouldn't wish this disease on my worst enemy...well, maybe my worst enemy I would but certainly no one else.

Beef Wellington...yum!

Never Speak Ill of the Dead???

It's been three weeks since I last posted. Wow. Probably my longest dry spell. But it's hard to feel motivated while lying on your brother's couch feeling like shite! Hopefully, now that I'm feeling a wee bit better these days, I'll have more motivation and can get back on track with my observations.

Here's today observation:

Everyone's heard that old aphorism "never speak ill of the dead" (De mortuis nil nisi bonum) and I've always wondered why that is. I get that it's socially inappropriate to speak ill of the dead, but what if the person who dies is an asshole??

What brought this thought on was a posting on Facebook. A friend and one-time colleague had posted about the passing of a colleague from one of the law firms for which I once worked. As I said to another friend/colleague, I wasn't terribly torn up over this person's death because quite frankly, I didn't like the man. He and I often butted heads and I thought he was an arrogant prick. So now that he's dead, I'm suddenly suppose to feel like he was a great guy for whom this is a tragic loss. Ummmm, no. Sorry, I cannot do it. It goes against my basic belief about honesty in all things.

I'm quite certain that when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil in a few months, there were be plenty of people who will speak ill of me - that I was a bitch or they disliked me or whatever. Trust me, I do not expect to be canonized for sainthood. And I certainly do not want someone for whom I dislike to suddenly espouse my greatness.  That's being disingenuous.

Now, I'm not saying everyone should go around bashing those who have passed on before us, but neither do we need to root around in our heads and hearts to find something nice to say about people about whom we didn't care.

I will put this on record right here and now. For all those people who dislike me, feel free to say whatever you wish upon my demise. I promise that neither I nor my family will hold it against you. After all, I'll be dead and won't care. I won't even haunt you. Okay?

It's all about keeping it real, people!