The best tea I ever had on a plane was, not surprisingly, on British Airways. The tea here on Delta is a close second. It tastes like it was brewed fresh rather than from tea bags (although I’m not much of a tea snob, brewing both Irish and English breakfast teas at home from bags). I’ve been drinking a lot of tea lately, mostly when I’ve been working from home. Tea is the beverage equivalent of a comfort food. Most of the actual solid foods on my comfort list are now off-limits under the Nazi-like South Beach regime (down 19 pounds so far). No mashed potatoes, no macaroni and cheese, no chocolate chip cookies, no sourdough bread. All of those have been relegated to the “bad carb” waste pile.

There is lots of research about losing weight that suggests if you don’t ever consume some of your favorite foods, you will crave them all the more, causing you to binge eat, thus dooming your healthy eating habits to that same waste heap. The South Beach regimen has, on the contrary, helped me to make not eating heavily processed carbs into a habit. Eating a small amount of the banned foods does not seem to work for me – I cannot eat two Entenmann’s chocolate chip cookies, nor can I tear off a scrap of a piece of light and airy, chewy and wonderful Blue Room bread and not go whole hog and eat way too much. That would be rather like an alcoholic subscribing to a 4 and a half step program – it’s either all or nothing for me. I am sure there are people who can modulate their eating (or drinking or drug or sex) habits in a way that allows them to take part in small quantities of things that are, in grossly larger amounts, hazardous to your health. We will see if I am so smug after my next cholesterol check.

Music: Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Essence came close to this, but Car Wheels will remain my favorite CD of hers.
Gillian Welch, Soul Journey. The first time since I’ve had the iPod that I’ve actually remembered to get it out on a plane. I still need to figure out how to adjust the volume. You’d think that I would read the manual, but you’d be wrong. These Shure headphone block out an amazing amount of airplane noise, including the flight attendant’s voices. About 1/10 the size of the bulky Bose noise canceling headphones and about 1/3 the price.
Five for Fighting, 100 Years. One of the recent songs that always makes me stop what I’m doing and smile, just a little. The fact that Caitlin was 15 and I was 45 when this song was released is part of the coincidental magic (I’m ignoring ages 22 and 33, which are both mentioned as well). “Chasing the years of my life” is a pretty sound bite description of age 45…

Movies: Master and Commander is playing on the plane. I’ve been catching glimpse every few moments when I glance up. It looks like a lot of guys on boats in very drab clothing. Where’s the fun in that, even if Russell Crowe is one of the guys?