Fit Perspective Salad

My eyes were blurry, as though I were looking through Vaseline smeared lenses. I arrived at the lab at 5:30. Under the microscope of the lab’s stillness I became aware that the weeks worth of mild sleep deprivation was beginning to affect me, altering my state of consciousness. It took four hours for me to complete what should have been a two hour experiment. In frustration, I left the lab and went to stand by the window in hallway, too tired to be upset. I brought an apple a packet of peanut butter with me so that I could have some breakfast.

It was 9:30, and already I had accomplished a half a day’s worth of work. I looked out of the window. The lot was oddly sparse. I wondered if people were taking off work to go to the state fair, or maybe just to enjoy the final days of summer. With the promise of a warm weekend ahead, who could blame them?

When I looked back toward the corridor, a woman was walking briskly toward me, her gaze locked on me. I saw myself through her eyes: a tired, young looking woman with a long brown ponytail, eating peanut butter off of her fingers and wearing a long white lab coat. She looked at me as though she were going to say something, but she didn’t slow her pace as she approached. The wall dead ended behind me, and for a moment I thought that the woman was going to walk right into me, but she swiftly u-turned as though rounding an imaginary cone, and tossed me a cheerful “good morning” as she sped away.

That’s when I noticed that the woman had paired sneakers with her skirt suit, and that her calves were oddly muscular for her size. She was a power walker. I am not sure why, but I found the encounter oddly comforting. In a world where we are supposed to hate our jobs, look forward to retirement, and daydream about the weekend, it is nice to see people making themselves comfortable at work.

The woman made me realize that I had been making myself into a victim. I had begun sliding into a pattern of trying to fulfill imaginary expectations, and chase the illusion of an end which would justify all of these means. How easily I demonize the vulnerable ones who try to offer advice, inventing them as great punishers who are out to spoil my fun.

One day I will look back at all my battles and realize that I was alone in the ring, as both the champion and the opponent, sometimes winning sometimes losing, but always playing to the crowd.

Fit Perspective Salad
3 small peppers, fresh, diced
8 Heirloom cherry tomatoes mainly yellow and orange
1 small cucumber, peeled and diced
2-3 cups frisee
4 diced green onions

Dress with:
2 Tbsp lime juice
3 Tbsp grape seed oil
3/4 Tbsp raw honey
1/4 tsp ume plum vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves minced garlic

Christina's vote: "A mighty taste"
Everett's vote: "The freshest tasting salad I have had the pleasure of enjoying. Mmmm"