Happy Days - or one piece of gum at 10:30 AM

I went to go see Fiona Shaw in Happy Days at BAM last week. I love Fiona Shaw, in fact she is the only person of whom I can do relatively accurate impression (well to be completely honest, I can only successfully recreate her performance in Three Men and a Little Lady, but I think even Tom Selleck would be impressed.) Anyway, I've seen the play before, but this time I was really struck (read depressed) by the first act. She spends all of her time passing time. Each of her activities - holding open an umbrella, taking the gun out of her bag, combing her hair, must be performed at a specific time and not too early, for fear that she'll be left with nothing to do and hours still before sleep.

Watching this, I realized that this is not dissimilar from the way I pass my day at work, only for me each milestone in the day is marked by food, drink, or sometimes gum. On weekends and evenings I love to be adventurous in my eating, but for weekday breakfasts, lunches, and snacks, I am very regimented. How else will I know it's 2:30 if I'm not eating a turkey sandwich?

Here's the day:

9:30 - 9:45 AM arrive at work; log onto computer, try to while away 15 minutes so that at precisely
10:00 AM breakfast -large cup 0f decaf coffee with skim milk (yes I'm a bad ass); piece of fruit (this week clementines); and toasted Thomas' whole grain light English muffin, with Laughing Cow spreadable cheese and some sort of jam or other fruit spread (right now I'm enjoying a blood orange marmalade; other recent choices include apricot jam, mango chutney, and fig paste)
10:30 AM chew one piece of gum (today strawberry lime - I hate that I've become a gum chewer, but I read it was good for acid reflux, and now I'm addicted)
11:00 AM make a cup of tea with soy milk (have recently been enjoying green tea with mango)
12:00 PM a couple of pieces of dried fruit - apples usually
12:30 PM sometimes (it's a bad day when this is necessary) another cup of tea with soy milk
1:30 PM carrots, celery, or bell peppers
1:45 PM another piece of gum
2:30 PM LUNCH! best part of the day; always some riff on a turkey sandwich and a salad; the sandwich is on either whole wheat toast or cranberry nut toast and in addition to the turkey features either more Laughing Cow cheese and a sweet or savory spread (chili lime chutney is great here) or hummus and some kind of relish; the salad varies, but is some combination of arugula, spinach, red cabbage, radishes, tomato, broccoli, peppers, pickled okra, and cucumber
3:00 PM last piece of gum
4:00 PM more tea and soy or coffee and skim
5:00 PM an apple or pear in winter peach or nectarine in summer
6:00 - 7:00 PM return to the world not measured by sticks of gum and warm beverages