Oh man, I had a bit of an episode yesterday afternoon. I left the office for the day and headed downtown to City Acupuncture. After a dumb day at work, and then a harrowing and frustrating train ride where I battled several stalled trains, a painfully hot and muggy subway platform, and a woman preaching very loudly about Jesus, I arrived at the acupuncture place only to discover that they were closed.
It was a combination of my sinus infection and my disappointment, I think, that left me feeling overly dejected and exhausted. I stood on the busy street, unable to decide what to do next. Even though it was a beautiful, warm summer evening, I almost packed it all in right there and headed straight home to lay on the couch and feel sorry for myself.
Thank god for my loving boyfriend, who saved the day. I texted him and said “I’m having a bad afternoon. I think I’m just gonna go home.” And he wrote back, “Aw, I want to give you a hug. Let me meet you. We can have sushi and sake.”
I appreciate him all the time, but this made me even more grateful than usual. It was exactly what I needed to hear. As much as I wanted to go home, draw the shades and never come out, the only thing I would have been willing to do instead was to meet Kevin for a hug and a chat.
He was coming from his office, so I had a few minutes to kill in Union Square. It’s amazing how much a self-pitying mood like that can really cloud up your whole operation, but my bad mood was now beginning to lift. And then I saw an ice cream truck.
Having once been very overweight, I had to revamp my relationship with food in order to get healthy. So now, I try to limit the times when I eat to soothe myself or change my emotional state. It’s not a good habit to employ regularly, but it’s also a habit that’s impossible to avoid completely all the time. The bottom line is that food DOES make people feel good and happy, which is perfectly normal and human, and occasionally eating something you love in order to feel better won’t ruin your diet, as long as it’s not your only means of self-soothing.
>End of public service announcement.<
The point? I got an ice cream cone. And guess what? It made me feel so much better. I couldn’t help but grin while I ate it. It wasn’t even so much the taste of the thing, as it was the basic experience of choosing to give myself a little treat, a little something special that reminded me how simple and lovely life can be. I happily ate it while I waited for Kevin and from then on, my evening was pretty great. Oh and the cone was delicious too.
