Friday morning thoughts

 * Once again, the "eat mealworms!" stories are cycling through the news, and I have a couple thoughts:

- I will consider it as an alternative protein source when I see rich people - and not just life-hacking techbros - eating them regularly (and not just as a "We must show those 'lesser' than us that they are okay to eat" thing - I mean eating them as a "normal to them" food)

- while yes, some cultures do have traditions of entomophagy, in terms of cheap and environmentally friendly proteins? BEANS ARE RIGHT THERE. And culturally we have a lot of good bean recipes, from just plain baked beans, to bean burritos, to bean patties (think falafel). I think most warm-weather cultures have a big bean recipe repertoire (because beans grow and produce well even in warm dry-ish climates), and even places like France had some bean dishes.

But I guess bean stories don't get eyeballs or outrage? Or maybe there's some kind of hair-shirt sense necessary in "eating in a way that's good for the Earth" stories and beans taste too good for that? I don't know; I like beans and use them a lot.

* Thinking this morning about some of the things I bought in bulk online (I opened a new bag of chocolate chips to add in to my oatmeal this morning) and every time when I opened the big case lot I would think "by the time I've worked through this, maybe the pandemic will be over, or at least things will be a lot better" and not yet, and that makes me sad.

* Sea shanties have become a thing, I guess, and some are quick to point out the fact that historically they were connected to the slave trade, and to me it feels related to the questions I was asking a few years ago about "why are pirates seen as exciting, cool figures? Many of them were pretty murderous and in some cases women they ran up against don't come out very well in the interaction" and I wonder if we do just wipe clean things from the past and make them seem nicer than they were? I mean, look at modern-day "pirates" - pretty scary for people having to navigate cargo ships through that area. 

I dunno; maybe we downplay the violence of the past.

* Still tired after yesterday but at least my hip bursitis went away so maybe I do just need to be on my feet more?

* And hoping I don't hear anything from the nurse about "you really should isolate too" - I assume she would have told me yesterday if I should be - if I don't, I'll assume a quick early masked-and-distanced trip out tomorrow will be okay. Because I NEED something. I need to get out of town, I need a little distraction, I need something that feels vaguely normal.

* This is a hard time to be even SLIGHTLY Chidi Anagonye in your makeup; I agonized all evening last night about "well should I just give up the trip to Sherman I've been looking forward too all week because I had someone test positive in class and I want to do the Right Thing and not risk exposing anyone else if I might have it?" but also I don't want to go get tested because of the expense (no it is not free) and also the discomfort.

I am assuming that since the nurse did not tell me "OMG, stay home the rest of the week and teach from home" I am probably safe? But who knows? No one knows and that's what bugs me so much. Doing the right thing is hard because in some cases it's not clear what the right thing is, and in other cases avoiding the small chance of doing a wrong thing means more effort and difficulty and maybe cost and also discomfort. 

I do not like this reality; can I petition to get a different one?