In Need of Holiday Spirits

For weeks I've been listening to Christmas music on-demand; for not until recently have I allowed an Amazon gizmo into my home:  their Firestick.  I only use it for their Prime channels, since I already pay for that; plus a friend introduced me to PlutoTV, so I can binge-watch Captain Kirk any time I wish.

Ahhh, life is good.  I realize I'm mentally slipping back in time but who cares?  Why worry about my faculties at this point?  Besides, for decades I walk out of my home and look down to make sure I'm wearing pants; I don't know why that is.

I splurged on comfort food while grocery shopping at Walmart, too:  a box of Strawberry Pop Tarts (Unfrosted).  When they first came out in 1964, Strawberry became an immediate hit with me.  Kudos for Mom but unfortunately for me, she rarely bought them (because of all the sugar, I guess).  When the Frosted kind emerged in 1967 I disliked it immediately for they really were too sweet, ack.

I think it's sneaky that Kellogg's only seems to sell the Unfrosted variety in large sizes, so I'm stuck with 16.  From the Smithsonian Magazine:

"Pop-Tarts are “the antithesis of a balanced breakfast.” This sentiment is shared by Howard Markel, an American physician and medical historian who wrote 2017’s The Kelloggs: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek. He jokes that he “objects” to eating Pop-Tarts on every level, adding, “As a pediatrician, I still have to say, even in 1964, what were they thinking?”

"Here’s what happens when you eat a Pop-Tart: “It raises your blood glucose to astronomical highs, which then makes your pancreas squeeze out a ton of insulin. This bottoms you out so you’re hungry for another Pop-Tart, which you have, then you get fat, and you get diabetes.” This is all the more ironic because Will Keith Kellogg and John Harvey Kellogg, two brothers from Battle Creek, Michigan, were initially invested in providing healthy foods and cereals to improve digestion when launching their company in 1906.

"Kellogg’s was able to make Pop-Tarts look even more irresistible and mouthwatering to younger viewers thanks to the emergence of color televisions, which were overtaking their black-and-white counterparts in the 1960s. “It really is a packaging story. An ingredient story. A marketing story. The moment it debuts is in this specific sweet spot between the wartime technologies and the birth of the U.S. food marketplace,” notes Carbone."

I picked up some instant Mac & Cheese, too; don't know how I expect to lose weight this winter, but I need all the cheering up I can get. Here's my thing: dealing with new management styles plus upper management behavior reminiscent of DOGE.

The thrashing about inside my head was challenging...until it became clear:  I must process the current changes with as little emotional intensity as I must with current events.  I was about to write "...at least I'm trying," until one of my father's favorite admonishments popped into the mix,

"Don't try - DO."  OK, Dad, here goes:

My new manager is very sweet, mid-to-late 30s, who I have difficulty understanding.  We're from different generations but at least we're both from 'Jersey, which helps.  Still, to me she's speaking a foreign language, accompanied by arm gestures which would put my Italian friends to shame; it's dizzying to follow.

Friends who have children and grandchildren simply say, "Oh, you don't know..." 

No, and I didn't want to have to learn, either; but it's my livlihood so I will.  And mix up a spirited batch of Egg Nog! (Photos: from Dead Santas)