As I left the house this evening, there was an enormous crescent moon descending in the northwest. It was one of those nights where you could see the outline of the whole moon behind the glare of the crescent. It looked like a celestial fingernail. It's made of cheese. We all know that.
Cheese is one of my comfort foods. Sometimes I feel that a meal isn't really a meal unless it has cheese. My other main comfort foods are ice cream and coffee. I could say pizza too, but that would be like putting cheese on the list twice. Comfort foods bring ritual into our lives. It elevates eating to a level that doesn't have anything to do with nourishment. Of course, one could argue that foods like ice cream and coffee don't have anything to do with nourishment no matter how you look at them. I wish that I could latch onto a comfort food of higher nutritional value. Does that ever happen? Maybe I should train myself to ingest avocados in times of duress. Perhaps I could wolf down a salad every night before going to work.
My pets have developed some interesting food preferences. The iguana ate some of Lexy's leftover chicken today, while ignoring the much more wholesome peas on the plate next to it. The Water monitor ate most of a piece of toast a couple of weeks ago. The millipede will scrape dead skin off of human hands and eat it. Yum! Crickets will do that too. It's a very interesting feeling to have a cricket perched on the tip of your finger, chewing on the accumulated grime under your fingernail. When I was a kid I had an Anole who liked those little pink and white after-dinner mints.

Speaking of rituals and comfort, Sophie has a comfort corner. Whenever she's upset about something, I take her to this corner where one wall has a mirror and the other has a picture of myself, Jen, and Sophie. All I have to do is ask, "where's Sophie?" and she calms down and starts pointing. She'll either point to her reflection or to the picture. Jen says it works because it's something I always do. It has become a calming ritual. ...and it's much healthier than eating ice cream or twinkies or cookies.

...and speaking of food:

Cat sits by the food bowl and waits. Perhaps somebody will drop new food into it. Here comes somebody now. Does he have food. No, alas! It is the Crazy Running Guy. Cat has forgotten. Almost every night the Crazy Running Guy comes running up and throws something at Cat. Cat does not know what he throws. Crazy Running Guy always misses and the object always lands on the landing two stories above Cat. Cat does not take chances. He always runs away from his food bowl. He hopes that Crazy Running Guy does not steal his food. Even though the food is old, it is still Cat's food, and he is protective of it. So far, Crazy Running Guy has left Cat's food alone, but one never knows... Cat wishes that Crazy Running Guy would slow down and not throw things. Just looking at all of that activity makes Cat tired.

cds I listened to while stuffing my face with great ginger snap cookies and feeling comforted: Mirror "Solaris" (thanks Troy!), Dead Can Dance "Spiritchaser", Amber Asylum "The Natural Philosophy of Love", and Laibach "Rekapitulacija"

cd I'm listening to while finishing my tea: Hector Zazou "Songs from the Cold Seas"