Thanks guys - the last two sentences were the hardest.

Gus, you are worth your weight in bauxite.

Heh.

Guys, since this is going to be shorter than the Seal essay - BTW, if anyone hasn't read that and wants to, give a yell, because I think it may be the best nonfiction I've ever written and I'm seriously pleased with it - I'm going to finish it up in the morning, and beg for beta reads.

Satiation

The salad was huge: romaine hearts, roasted red peppers, artichokes, pine nuts, feta cheese, figs, apples and the thinnest of prosciuttos laid over the top. A caddy holding the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar sat in the middle of the table. Fresh ground pepper from a knurled wooden grinder floated down over the salad like a black ash fall of flavor—a wake up call to a healthy dinner.

Later that evening, she dug through the snotty tissues, vegetable peelings, coffee grounds and egg shells searching for the half of a Snickers bar she’d thrown out that morning.

You've got a nice way with the the food issues, Sail.

Edited to be specific: that one leaves me feeling "Oh, we've all been there, haven't we?" even though I haven't.

Hee, thanks, -t. My brain does seem to be a little obsessed with food lately.

I think I finished this essay. Anyone wanto to beta?

I'll read it, deb, but I have doubts about how helpful I can be.

The Circle of Life

There’s a huge haul of rotten produce and empty bottles of cleaning product at the beginning. Maybe a vitamin bottle. Then the kitchen garbage gets simple: vegetable trimmings, meat scraps, egg shells. The bathroom wastebasket is just tissues, cotton balls, and Q-Tips. Ovulation tests make a significant layer when they appear – like the iridium strata that marks the extinction of the dinosaurs. The early detection pregnancy tests show up before the manufacturer’s recommendation. By the time the bloody pads start accumulating, the kitchen trash undergoes its metamorphosis to mostly wine bottles, candy wrappers, and pizza boxes.

While I'm serial posting, i think I forgot to say BELA FLECK! AWESOME! I love his music, and he seems like such a nice guy and has the witty if laconic stage banter, he should be able to give you a good blurb, deb.

I looooove Bela. Blurb from him will be of the good. Also going to see John Renbourne in a couple of weeks (idol of mine), and will give him Matty and maybe one of my precious galleys of Cruel Sister. He already has FFoSM.

_t, which email addy for essay? I'll probably send it to the editor at the same I send it out; this is purely as a favour and I'm not going to sweat bullets over it. Nice straightforward little thing.