Gluttony

Have you ever noticed that when someone is complaining or raging about something, the topic usually revolves around something that person is often guilty of?

I'm always chastising my fellow Americans for how much they eat. I probably write about overeating because I'm so guilty of it and my guilt cannot be emotionally hidden or dammed up with my compensating exercise regimen.

At the sake of embarrassing myself, I will describe my day out yesterday as an example of how a "typical" in-shape American eats. My French readers will not believe that it is possible for one person to eat as much BAD food as I ate yesterday.

For my husband's birthday, I bought him a Cuisinart Professional Ice Cream Maker. So yesterday morning, I made a batch of vanilla ice cream with Scharffen Berger chocolate. One cup of whole milk with two cups of cream. That's what I ate for breakfast.

Our plan for the day was to go to a movie and then eat dinner afterwards around six.

On our way to the movie, we passed through North Beach/Chinatown and since we had plenty of time, it having been our intention to go for a long, healthy walk before the movie, I suggested that we stop for a "snack" at our favorite North Beach restaurant, Brandy Ho's Hunan. We stopped.

We were amazingly restrained, drinking tea and only ordering an order of deep fried dumplings and a plate of sizzling rice shrimp. The rice sizzles because it has just come out of a deep fat fryer.

We continued downtown, and after purchasing a large loaf of walnut bread from the Acme Bakery at the newly renovated Ferry Building we headed to the Embarcadero Center to see the movie. I noticed a new place at the Ferry Building called the Czar Nicholas Caviar Bar -- I made the comment to my husband that we must be nearing the end of the American Empire if a place with such an arrogant name and aristocratic aspirations would be packed on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

At the Embarcadero Center, my husband asked me if he could buy me a truffle at Godiva, and of course I wouldn't refuse him. I was happy to see that this year's Easter promotion at Godiva features the cute and precocious Lucy the Lamb. http://www.godiva.com/catalog/collections.aspx?id=23

We arrived at the theatre and purchased tickets an hour before the show. While sitting on a bench waiting, I suggested to my husband that we take a walk. He agreed, but we only made it about fifty feet away from the theatre door because my husband suggested we get a drink at Chevy's.

I had a margarita, he had a Negro Modelo, we devoured an entire basket of tortilla chips and still there remained a half an hour to kill before the movie.

The movie was Gunner Palace, a documentary about American soldiers in Iraq living in Uday Hussein's palace. During the trailers, my husband announced that he was going to go to the restroom. I said, "Hurry back," and he said, "Why?" and I replied, "Because I love you." Well that was a mistake, because he was so moved by my words of adoration that he brought us back a large, movie-sized box of Red Vines, which only took us about five minutes to devour.

After the movie, we headed towards home, walking. I asked if we were going to go to a restaurant for dinner and my husband said he was too full to think about eating.

Arriving back at the house, I ordered a large pizza. I was well-behaved and only ate two pieces, then for dessert I ate my delicious homemade ice cream.

Analyzing our gluttonous rampage yesterday, I was wondering if it had anything to do with our friend Pierre-Yves' health problems. P-Y is our hero. He's seventy-five. He runs two hours a day. He doesn't drink. He doesn't smoke. He eats healthy, biologique foods.

This year, the doctors discovered that he had prostate cancer and he yesterday on the telephone, he told me that they just discovered that he has lung cancer. The lung cancer seems to be asbestos related, and as my husband pointed out, all men eventually get prostrate cancer depending upon how long they live so his cancer's don't seem to have anything to do with lifestyle issues: for no one could have been living a healthier life than Pierre-Yves did.

So perhaps, my husband and I subconsciously went out on an eating bender because we were telling ourselves that it didn't matter what we did to take care of ourselves, if Pierre-Yves can get sick, then no amount of behavior modification can make us live past the expiration date encoded on our DNA.

Again, proof that you can't control your destiny. The cold hand of fate eventually grabs you by the shoulder.

Enjoy today.