Wednesday, February 2, 2011

And The Greatest Of These Is Pizza

I am as socially awkward as ever.  


Hungry Girl Crispy White Pizza.
The edges, maybe a little too crispy?
Went to a small work celebration of a successful launch of a project (where I was called in as emergency back up developer while the main developer was in Russia).  There were many faces, some known and many unknown and me there not knowing what to say to any of them.  I don't know what it is about me where my brain suddenly seizes and I seem to lose the precious little art of interaction that I have.  However, folks were friendly and the atmosphere warm.  Pretty nice presentation done, and (of course) there was pizza.


Perhaps part of the seize today was me being so nervous that, good or bad, I'd tear through a hundred-thousand slices of warm, gooey, bread-y, tomato saucy goodness that I'd literally have to be rolled home.  


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I'd eaten pretty well, actually.  I had a breakfast salad (chicken, strawberries and balsamic to top) and what I thought would be just plain strange wound up being incredibly enjoyable and satisfying.  I may have to think out of the box on breakfast a bit more often!


Lunch time, I'd decided I would actually go home to enjoy.  Most days I eat at the desk, though once a week I go out with my friend for knits and coffee, which is a pretty relaxing break once in a while.  Since we did not get the chance to do that this week, I thought I'd go home and enjoy lunch and contemplate rescuing my sweater mistake.


With large parts of the country gripped in ice and snowPuxsutawney Phil's prediction of an early spring would be welcome relief, and my neck of the woods saw a sneak preview with temperatures in the mid to high 60s (it may have hit 70 at some point, I don't know).  The short drive home was great.  I walked in the door, took out my lunch to heat up...


... and then the next thing I knew, I was geared up in my exercise gear and taking a quick 20 minute jog.  I wasn't sure what took me over.  The weather was nice.  I hadn't run the previous morning because The Husband warned me of ice.  I had come home specifically to look for me time.  It just felt... right.


After the run, I took a quick shower, put myself back together, and headed back to work.  Heated and ate lunch at my desk (which was what I was trying to avoid), but ultimately very satisfying.


The second odd thing in this?  I was having the Caramelized Onion, Mushroom and Bulgur Pilaf, which I love, and I only ate half because I was full.  I almost never do that with food I enjoy.  That felt good.



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So back to pizza.  After the presentation was done, I eagerly went for what I believed would be the first of at least two slices.  Veggie pizza with mushrooms, olives, peppers, tomato slices.  Spiced it up with crushed red pepper and garlic (gaaaaaaahlic!).  Took (I guess for me) a good time eating it... and was done.  


Not because I was full or even satisfied (though really I wasn't hungry afterward, so I guess that would be satisfaction).  I just didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought I would.


This is big for me.  This is crazy!  I was on a cruise ship and went for seconds on a really bad pizza (horrendous) just because I love pizza and that was the only thing available and I was being ruled by the emotion of I need to eat x amount of my favoritest thing in the world even in its worst form.


Today, I said, no.  This is plenty.  No need to spend the calories on something I'm not really enjoying that much.


Woah!


I went home after celebration, a little distraught that I didn't have that pizza (I guess I had an idea in my head) that I didn't enjoy.  


I also wound up having a lot of PointsPlus left over for the day.


So I decided I'd try a Hungry Girl recipe, for surely that'd be better.  I went with Hungry Girl's Crispy White pizza.  Not really modded, it looked like an intriguing recipe.


And again, I made it about half way through when I decided I just didn't like it.  It wasn't too poorly executed (my "crust" edges got a little extra crispy, but not nearly as bad as the picture seems to depict), but ultimately the flavors didn't come together for me.  Half way through, I pitched the rest of it.


That's twice in one day.  I feel like I'm growing a little.


So I'm knocking ideas around in my head for my own fakey pizza creation.  I may also head out at some point in the next couple of weeks to either Pizza Fusion and have the Spinach and Artichoke on whole wheat (I happen to like that one, it has gaaaaaaahlic! on it), or perhaps a place I heard about at the party that is local and owned by a Brooklynite.


Why the hesitation?  Well one... trying to practice self control.  Two, I think maybe in recent history a video a friend posted on Facebook kind of got stuck in my head when I saw it.  It's a clip from a Mary-Kate and Ashley video of a song "Gimmie Pizza".  Slowed down.


When I think of pizza, this is one of the things that gets stuck in my head.  And I think I get a little creeped out.  It lessens the hunger for my favorite snack by just a fraction (and sometimes, that's all I need).


So I post it here for you, if you are like me and could live happily eating pizza forever.



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To bring this to a close, I just spied an article where Hugh Jackman eats 6,000 calories a day.  When I mentioned this to The Husband, he replied, "That's one  Huge Jackman!"

[Insert rim shot here.]

I don't know, I thought it was funny, and should also be celebrated.  Today may have been a day of disappointing pizza, but it was certainly a day of many personal celebrations.  

I'm happy to be writing this down so I can look back at it.

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