November – Day 5


Blog / Saturday, November 5th, 2011

Did you remember that today is the fifth of November? You must always remember. Remember the fifth of November. Now you will.

The maggots didn’t kill me, though I woke up with some awful cramps/gas. Correlation? Probably.

In continuing the trend of weird things being eaten on accident, today I ate fried duck heart and liver. I bought a duck yesterday as a treat for myself this weekend. I let it defrost over night and I’m going to cook it tomorrow. But inside the duck was a package of what I presume is liver and later found out to also contain a heart. In my excitement of finding the treasures tucked inside, I decided to cook me up some duck liver. I pulled out my trusty Polish cookbook I picked up at the Peace Corps office and found a recipe (it was for goose liver but the book seems to use the two interchangeably in every other recipe). I soaked the liver/heart in milk for two hours, dipped in flour and salt and fried it up with onion. It was surprisingly delicious. I would eat both again. The heart was really good, it reminded me of a rare steak. Try it. Try it Sam and see.

That brings me to my 30 Day Challenge update. Today I have to cultivate my gratitude. This challenge is a great one to think about. It asks that you make a list of 10 things I am personally grateful for and it doesn’t matter if they’re superficial. I like that last bit. It makes me feel better about being grateful for material goods. It also asks to show my gratitude towards at least other people. Here are my lists of things and people I’m grateful for.

Personal:

  • I’m grateful that I’m in the Peace Corps doing what I’ve wanted to do for years.
  • I’m grateful for my internet connection because I can call friends back home and ask them if I should eat duck heart.
  • I’m grateful for my motorcycles.
  • I’m grateful for having a job to go to and a roof over my head when I come home.
  • I’m grateful that my coworkers and neighbors look after me and genuinely worry about my well-being.
  • I’m grateful that my parents love each other.
  • I’m grateful I have good relationships with my brother and sister.
  • I’m grateful I have friends who understand my current situation and will still be my friends when I come home next year.
  • I’m grateful for delicious food because bland food sucks.
  • I’m grateful for having hot showers everyday.

People I’m grateful for:

  • I’m grateful for my mother for teaching my how to cook and how to love food. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have eaten duck liver and heart today. Thanks Mom.
  • I’m grateful for my dad for teaching me how to work hard even when there are things I’d rather be doing. If it wasn’t for him, I doubt I would have achieved as much as I have achieved today. Thanks Dad.
  • I’m grateful for my friends. You put up with my day in and day out. I always said that if you can survive the first month of being my friend, then we’ll be friends for life. Thanks Geoff, Joe, Erin, Ben, Aidan, Kate, Caitlyn, Micaela, Zoe, Eileen, Jeramie, Andy, Rose, Kim, Lyuda and all of my other friends.

Today, as promised yesterday, I did work on my novel. I more than made up for yesterday. I almost wrote enough so far that I won’t need to write tomorrow, though I will once I finish everything I have to do tomorrow (laundry, write a newsletter, roast a duck, etc.). So far today, I’m up to 3,498 words. I had my coffee and then sat in the zone all afternoon. Again, it helps that I’m at the interesting parts of the story. I’m looking forward to typing this up, printing it out, and editing it when it’s all done next month. I’ve got a red pen my dad gave me before I left last year with my novel’s name on it.

Push ups and sit ups are coming along well today. It helps, I think, that I got my full eight hours of sleep last night. Same thing tonight.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got for today. I’m off to watch V for Vendetta and then maybe write a little more.

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