Cancer Conference, Titanium Wedding Bands, Gluttony?

First off, cancer conference rocked! It was a long stressful painful day after which I fell onto the couch with my cat and cried for a bit, but I feel like it was a great overall experience and I left feeling very motivated with my research goals. Also, learning the pathology of rhabdomyosarcoma was really neat because it's so hard to classify. There have been arguments about how to define each type since at least the 1950s, so there was a lot more to look at then just cell differentiation etc. I think it's pretty cool that the subendothelium pushing into the hollow organs creates bunching that looks like grapes- pretty weird for a tumor of this variety! Obviously I don't think cancer = awesome, but it is really interesting to me and I get excited about some really awful things as long as it's just as pathology, not as a person I can't help.

I got my pomegranate tree, but since it's snowing (again) it has to live inside for a bit. It's really beautiful, I hope it blooms this year! Big, orangey flowers :-)

A high-school teacher of mine once said, "Some people plan their meals days ahead. Can you believe that? That's gluttony!"
Any thoughts?

I am so lucky to not have totally fucked eating habits after being told every week for years that I was fat and needed to take ______ diet pill or eat this diet food to be a better person (thank you, riding coaches from Hell!), having a mother who compulsively eats junk food at night but eats healthier than anyone I know during the daytime, working at a place where I got shit for being a size 8, and living in a town where you could always find 8-10s because almost no one is bigger than a 6! I guess the saving grace for me is that the community focus was on health, not weight. Have you seen an ultra-marathon runner? NOT catwalk material! My idea of beauty is skiing all day and still having energy to go ice skating in the evening if you want to, indulging in good food when you're invited to, and belly laughing when you're inspired to.

That teacher's "lesson," though, really messed with my head. I mean, I do sometimes fall asleep planning tomorrow's dinner, so am I a glutton? Or does it just go along with reading Gourmet cover-to-cover, recipes included, the moment it arrives each month? Or does that just REALLY make me a glutton? I love good food, I eat healthier when I plan lovely meals full of fresh produce and good cuts of meat, but I also straight-up refuse to eat a lot of junk food. Twinkies, McD's, soda- all no-nos in my book. I guess I just don't understand what she meant, planning meals = gluttony when in my mind eating too much = gluttony.

Tonight, lemony shrimp and asparagus risotto and bananas foster. Yesterday, JB and I went to the farmer's market and bought local munchies: raw cow's milk cheese from Windsor dairy, goat brie from Haystack Mountain, arugla from one of the co-op organic farms, bread from Udi's bakery in Denver, a tomato from another local farm (that happens to have a greenhouse, I think they make a killing having tomatoes this early in the year!), corn tortillas, apricot strudel... made the world's best paninis with the brie and veggies :-) and I had the cow's milk cheese for breakfast. Uber-Yum!!!