what is it about me...

…that I cannot sit through a class without getting ridiculously hungry? Even if (especially if) I am the one teaching?

It can be rationalized this way: working on a new course keeps me up all hours. Recent studies indicate that the less you sleep, the more you eat. So true. I have made five separate trips to the grocery store in the last week and still, the fridge seems empty. The culprit? Me.

[Today I remedied that. I rode Mr. B to Whole Foods and panted back with 45 pounds worth of groceries. How do I know it was 45? I weighed in when I returned just to see how many pats on the back I should give myself.]

So why this sudden appetite? Well, if I start having breakfast thoughts at 5 a.m. (actually at 2, but I disregard the early nudge toward granola), then surely, by 10 a.m., I cannot ignore the gnawing feeling that it should be dinnertime soon.

Today I asked my class during break this (n.b. the class runs two and a half hours, three days in a row each week, hence the insane amount of work on nights before; please, no comments about how, had I not hiked, biked or bought bread from the bread lady in Languedoc, perhaps I could have had a more sane month now):
Is it just me, or is anyone else really hungry?
It’s you. (They are an honest lot.)
(I was not deterred. I continued): you know, during my Spring Semester seminar, people brought food to share…
(silence)
…(sigh) I suppose it was different: late afternoon classes require sustenance…
(finally, on a sympathetic note): I was in that class. People brought whole meals!
(with hope in my heart): we don’t have to quite go that far…
(a voice pipes in): I could bake scones…
(another one): I’ll pass a sign up sheet.

And that’s how I got to have in front of me a summer session of good eating. I promised, in exchange, a long enough break so that we could run down the hill and pick up decent coffee. It’s only fair.