Day 39 DP - Salivation, NOT salvation

Day 39 - WOW!  Day 39! Can you believe it?  Another SDC is almost in the books.  I usually take this time to reflect a little about what I did, what I learned and what new life experiences I encountered on my journey.  Unfortunately, I just don't feel like doing that right now.  I'm beat.  I'm tired.  And most of all, I'm hungry.

I'm not hungry in the sense that I'm starving or feel like I need more food to survive - so don't misunderstand.  I'm hungry for
a chocolate milk shake.  I'm hungry for a big juicy hamburger.  I'm hungry for a piece of Bazooka bubble gum, a glass of orange juice, an apple, chocolate covered strawberries, devil dogs, marshmallows toasted over a camp fire smooshed together with a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers, a nice sandwich - ANY sandwich! as long as it's on a delicious Italian roll, how about a big juicy ribeye steak, a banana, some garlic smashed potatoes, a turkey wing, Heavenly ham, Caesar salad, a big artichoke with melted butter and some popcorn since you've gone through all the trouble of melting the butter and all.

Uhg!  I'm literally salivating while writing this.  Sometime soon I will sit down and reflect on the SDC 2011 and come up with some quirky, yet profound revelations that I have discovered along the way.  However, now is not that time.  I would rather take this time to start planning my own personal celebration - because damnit, I really feel like I earned it.  This time around was particularly difficult and I tried to stay true to my Official Guidelines all the way through.

I strayed a little bit from the rules with some of the condiments I used to prepare my caught meals and I stretched the boundaries of the SDC this year with the addition of the chickens.  However, I sacrificed 3 of my weekly rewards of: 1) a basket full of vegetables, 2) megaburger with all of the fixin's, fries, and beer, and 3) a full course meal of my choice.  I think my add-ins were more than appropriate trade-offs for the rewards that I did not partake in.

Thank god for the coming of the spring run of striped bass!  Those first two fish on Day 21 REALLY turned the whole thing around.  Although the garden was kind of a bust (only now are my seeds starting to sprout) there were a couple things that proved to be helpful - the arugula, the hold over kale and broccoli from last year's garden, parsley, and that one big wonderful leek (from Wendy's garden) that I used many, many times.  The dandelions and especially the wild violets were also a huge help early on in the vegetable department.

More to come tomorrow, my last day.

"Most successful people have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand."