Circular thinking

Because I recall popcorn having a starring role in my dreams last night, this post at Plooble caught my eye this morning. I had never visited Plooble before, but it caught my eye while visiting One Good Thing today because of its similarity to a word I used in my post from Friday, which I thought I'd made up, but apparently I didn't.

(Disclaimer: Friday's post had no connection whatsoever with the Neopets of the same name. One Ping Only, its employees, agents and assigns do not endorse the use, misuse, abuse, adoration, or Googling of Poogles, or any other Neopets, in any way. This is primarily because we do not really have any idea what they are or exactly what purpose they serve. Any similarity or negative implication inferred in said post is entirely unintended and we respect the copyright and trademark rights Neopets may hold over the Poogle name. Please do not sue us.)

One Good Thing had caught my eye while visiting Frogblog a few weeks back because of the very fleeting similarity between its name and this blog's name. I thought for an equally fleeting moment that I had finally made frog's blog list, as she has been on mine pretty much from the start. But I am aware that not everyone you like, or at least like to read, in the blog world is necessarily going to like you or your blogging style in return, should they even be aware of your admiration from afar. All that aside, I have really enjoyed reading flea's posts at One Good Thing so I keep going back for more. I completely admire what she does for a living and, while our lives are almost completely dissimilar apart from being likeminded on the matter of people and couples being in charge of and responsible for their own pleasure regardless of how prudish this country is in general (and if I am mischaracterizing that, I do hope she will set me straight!), I think she is one heck of an entertaining writer.

Frogblog caught my eye early in the year while I was spending a good deal of my time trying to wrap my head around what blogging was and could be for me by compulsively checking the then easier-to-use "Recently published" list on Blogger and clicking links like crazy, because of a minor affection I have for frogs. At the time, my bathroom was done in a frog theme in a nod to that affection, which was sparked by a memorable backpacking trip last year where frogs seemed to be the theme.

I thought when I started this blog that it would be a good place to talk about my backpacking and camping trips, since I usually come back with so much to say about the experience and I don't really have any other outlet to express my observations, as I am a miserable journal-keeper. The irony is that I have not been able to go on a backpacking trip since I started the blog in January, through no fault of my own other than perhaps a lack of perseverance in meeting new people who share my interests.

Meeting new people used to be a lot easier, in my opinion. I can't put my finger on exactly what changed. I do know that as time has gone by and the mix of people at work has changed over the years, my enthusiasm for sharing pieces of myself with them has diminished, and that seems to have extended to other new acquaintences. I've also seen that there are other things that I have become unwilling to share with people at work. I keep a dish of candy on my desk that everyone is welcome to hit whenever one of those "I need chocolate NOW" moments occur; people seem to appreciate it and I enjoy having it there, since I'm not one of those people who can't resist sweets if they're right in front of me. But I was delighted to come across something last year that had previously escaped my attention: mini bags of microwave popcorn.

Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks, and even given the limitations of the microwave version as so aptly described at Plooble, there is something irresistable about it. I think most people agree that a regular-sized bag is more than they should eat by themselves on a regular basis, especially the super, mongo, all-the-butter-flavor-we-can-manage types I prefer. But it is, in my opinion, the ultimate snacking food and once you start it's hard to stop until you find yourself searching the leftover kernels for semi-popped ones that you can justify eating without a trip to the dentist for a cracked tooth. And since I like to be able to pick through the batch to find the tastiest morsels to eat first, and it's not polite to put your work-grubby fingers all over the pieces someone else might eat, I don't like to share.

This makes the discovery of the mini bags a seminal moment in my snacking life. I can polish off a whole bag without much guilt -- the nutritional information says there is only one serving in a bag instead of the three servings in a full-sized bag -- and it can be gone before the scent of faux butter and somewhat singed pieces wafts its way from the breakroom microwave out to my work area, where people then pick up their heads and sniff, trying to figure out where it's coming from and who has the goods in their cube.

Because I will share my chocolate, I will share my knowledge, I will share the passenger seat in my car whenever you want, I will share my thoughts, and I will share my toys because my mom taught me that was the right thing to do.

But share my popcorn? In your dreams.