Idiosyncracies

Once in a while shayla gets blogger's block. She has had one of those episodes these past couple days. In these cases she browses around, snooping for blog-fodder. And came across a short list on sarina's site. Sarina only came up with five. She must be awfully easy to get along with. So here are shayla's idiosyncracies...

1. She has Rule #1: Never, ever go where you're not wanted. This applies to everyone, friends, family, co-workers, total strangers, you name it. If there's implied consent or a clear invitation, fine, shayla'll be happy to jump right in. But if there's clear indication that shayla's not welcome somewhere, nothing, not even a herd of wild horses, can drag her there.
The only exception to this is Master. She'd obey if he ordered her to. But there'd still be an instant when something like, 'wait, i can't, i'm not wanted there' would flash through her head.

2. She always seems to approach situations in a different manner than the norm. This has often caused people to jump in and 'help' or 'correct' shayla in what she's doing, thinking that she doesn't have a clear understanding of what's taking place. Nothing could be further from the truth. She knows just how she's going to approach things, and how she anticipates accomplishing something.

3. She's anal-retentive about bed-covers. Sheets & blanket have to be straight, untucked, aligned with each other, and unwrinkled. Her sister, back when we were kids, would often wait 'til shayla was sound asleep, then sneak out of her bed, go to shayla's & unceremoniously yank off shayla's covers. She'd compleately separate the sheet & blanket, leave them both crumpled at the foot of shayla's bed, and then head back for her own, playing possum while shayla woke and fixed the mess. Shayla never learned about the cause of this until she was in her late 20's.

4. To this day she's got a thing with keeping her foods separate. Meat, vegetables, starches, all need to be kept separate on the plate (this excludes such things as spaghetti & so forth). Master discovered this while being served lunch some weeks ago, and hasn't stopped teasing shayla about it since.

5. She has to sleep with the closet door closed. Yes, she's 34 years old, but she still has a hard time sleeping if the closet door has been left open.

shayla

Taste

Something that shayla occasionally misses (some times more often than others) is some of the stronger-tasting foods such as ice creams or chocolate. Of course, the diet that shayla is allowed doesn't include those types of things. It's pretty simple, just takes a bit of self-discipline to change those old eating habits. No processed sugars, limited fruits and starches. Yes, she still gets all the nutrients she requires, and how much shayla eats isn't limited (within reason). So long as it's low in fats and sugars.

At first it seemed rather bland, but her tastes have been changing in the past few months. What used to be almost tasteless now is very flavorful to her. And the stronger flavors are too much for her. She made the mistake of having a regular soda the other day. And she couldn't finish it all in one setting, it was far too sweet & strong for her, actually made shayla a little nauseous.

A good example of this took place a couple weeks ago. Shayla had a baked potato, one of the first she's had in months. She didn't douse it with a bunch of stuff, just salt, pepper, and a little low-fat margerine. The odd thing is it tasted sweet. Not all that odd, when you really think about it. Most of us know that starches convert to sugar upon digestion, starting in the mouth. This is why Master's limited shayla's starch intake, it just changes to sugar when it hits her system.

But it's really made shayla think the past few weeks. Here our modern diet is saturated with strong flavors. Lots of highly processed foods loaded with sugar & salt. And a simpler diet, shayla finds that she doesn't often crave the stronger types of foods.

Only during certain times, & then it seems that she has an almost irresistable urge for chocolate. The other night was one of them. And while she wasn't serious, she did let Master know what she was tempted for. A big bowl of vanilla ice cream, with hot fudge & whipped cream & about 6 maraschino cherries. Master's response, "You don't even want to know how badly I'd beat your ass if you tried, girlie" He's right. She doesn't even want to go there.

shayla

Caught

No, not caught getting into the candy. Or watching a movie when she should be exercising.

Shayla'd gone out for her bike ride yesterday afternoon. She tries to get out for an hour-long ride every day, though occasionally things happen that she has to miss it. And she'd missed the previous day's ride. So yesterday after catching up on some housework shayla changed & was out the door. There were some storm clouds in the distance that she noticed about 1/3 the way through the ride, but she didn't think much of them. Until she'd started heading home, and noticed that instead of bypassing the area where she lives, the storm was heading right for it. There wasn't much else she could do except flip the bike into a higher gear & start pedaling harder. Which she did. Only the rain caught her when she was about 1 1/2 miles away from home.

Most people would consider a summer rain to be nice, gentle, lazy. They've never been in the Houston area during a late summer rainstorm. It started out easy, but in a minute the drops were coming down so hard they were bouncing off shayla's legs when they hit. It having been a hot day, shayla was in shorts & a sports bra. Not much protection against the rain. In all of 2 minutes shayla, her clothes, and the bike were soaked. Turns out that legs make excellent funnels for rain-water to follow and fill one's shoes, as well. It's a bit weird, feeling one's shoes squish while you're biking.

So shayla just tucked her head down, pedaled her ass off, and tried to get back home as quick as she could. Puddles had already begun to accumulate on the road-way, so the cars passing by were giving shayla an extra dose of water when they passed her. Just riding through those puddles was something; shayla could feel the bike slow as it hit the density of the water. She moved onto the bike path when she got to the street that led home. Which was also interesting, given the rivulets of water coming off driveways and yards. Like biking through a stream. And the rain coming down just as hard as ever. That itself wasn't too bad, just awfully wet.

What bugged shayla was the thunder & lightening. Most of the time shayla was riding underneath tall trees, but there's one wide-open stretch that she had to go through that gave her the willies. The high-power electrical lines she had to go under in that stretch didn't help to comfort her, either. At one stage a bolt cracked directly over-head (she was under trees at the time). It's not often shayla screams from fear, but she's not ashamed to admit that she did so then. A little adrenaline in the blood's good for an extra boost of energy, though.

There was a slight delay at a major intersection that shayla had to cross, & then she got back home. It took her a couple minutes to get the bike locked up on the patio, & remove her shoes & socks. After dumping the water from her shoes (yes, dumping), she started to unlock the door. Kinda hard when your hands & knees are trembling, and you're panting hard from exertion. Master heard her though & let her in, "Didn't you notice we were fixin' to get dumped on, girlie?"

"Yes, Master, but shayla thought it'd bypass us."

Turns out Master'd tried to call shayla twice while she was heading home. She'd not heard her phone ring either time, the rain was that loud.

She made a bee-line for the shower, rinsing off the sweat & rainwater. Master was still laughing at her when she came out, asking if she'd had to warm up. The odd thing is, the rain that was falling had been warm.

The whole thing would have been more fun if shayla'd not had to deal with the lightening. Though she'll be passing up the opprotunity to ride in the rain. Something tells her he'd Not Be Pleased. She feels bad enough soaking her shoes the way she did this time around.

shayla