I’m going to concentrate only on positive influences. Starting tomorrow. I’m going to burn sage and eat chocolate.

People are just fed up with the Obama administration – that ‘hope and change’ thing, said retail manager Nadine Leder in Milwaukee, Wisconson.
Quotation from Republicans poised for big gains by Andy Smith, Reuters.
(Yes, people are fed up with that “hope” thing. It’s horribly tiring.)

Participants who tested positive for depression consumed an average of 8.4 servings of chocolate per month.
Quotation from Depression and Chocolate: Self-Medication or Perpetuation? by Charles Bankhead
(Only 8.4 servings per month? That surely must be a misprint.)

Out of curiosity, I googled how many days old I am. Then I tried to remember as many of those days as I could. I found eureka moments, childhood memories, people, places, my wedding day, adventures, some Christmases. I remembered important days as well as insignificant days that were somehow important enough to be retained. I regretably confess I cannot remember all 14,368 days.
No, today isn’t my birthday, but I will nonetheless try to make it memorable.

Here is a “How Many Days Young Am I?” calculator. (Derbyshire Guide)

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you’re alive, it isn’t.
Quotation from Richard Bach

“What happened to the chocolate?”
“I ate it. It was there for three days. You had as many opportunities to eat it as I did.”

Symptoms of chocolate toxicity include: hyper-excitability and hyper-irritability; increased heart rate, restlessness and urination; muscle tension and tremors. Complications include hypothermia, seizures, cardiac arrest, even death. Death can result from intoxication… No antidote exists for chocolate poisoning in a dog.
Quotation from VetInfo.com, My Dog Ate Chocolate: How Much is Toxic?

There’s no road map on how to raise a family; it’s always an enormous negotiation.
Quotation from Meryl Streep

Food is seduction. Prepared with fresh ingredients and some imagination, it excites the senses and engages the mind. Food is the ultimate foreplay.

Never trust a woman who doesn’t like to eat. She is probably lousy in bed.
Quotation from Federico Fellini

“Nice cookies.”
Attribution Unknown

My stomach is growling. Some veggie spring rolls please. Or some warm bread with wine and gouda.

Your words are my food, your breath my wine. You are everything to me.
Quotation from Sarah Bernhardt

Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn.
Quotation from Garrison Keillor

“I’m doing you a favor,” she said.

She is too kind and fond
Ever to grieve me,
She has too pure a heart
E’er to deceive me.
Poem by Padraic Colum, Maire My Girl

You may have noticed fewer updates to Encore Seraphine lately. I’m lethargic, exhausted, depressed. My chest hurts and my throat burns. I dread turning off the lights at night to (try to) sleep. My blood, urine and xrays are all normal. The doctor thinks it’s likely stress, so he’s given me the antianxiety drug Ativan. I’ve given up coffee and chocolate. I’m not visiting my friend’s blogs like I should. I feel like I’m letting everyone down: my readers, my friends, my spouse, even (especially) myself. I’d like my life back. Haven’t you felt that way too?

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.
Quotation from Richard Carlson

Food companies are warning that sugar shortages may soon affect the supply of cookies, breakfast cereals, chewing gum and chocolate. I’m going to hoard animal cookies. Also M&Ms because they can be used as cash currency in an emergency. What will you hoard?

Sugar shortage means higher grocery prices (Examiner.com) Will people actually try fresh, real food for a change?

My name is Sera, and I’m a chocoholic.

My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M’s and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.
Quotation from Dave Barry

I’m glad cyber-thiefs haven’t disrupted the world’s chocolate supply. But if they ever do, watch out! The public reaction to a worldwide chocolate shortage will make puppy-stealing seem like child’s play.

Intelligence officials worry about cyber attacks taking control of electrical facilities, a nuclear power plant or financial networks via the internet… Officials said water, sewage and other infrastructure systems were also at risk.
Quotation from Electricity Grid in US Penetrated by Spies by Siobhan Gorman (The Wall Street Journal)

All we ever wanted was everything
All we ever got was cold
Get up, eat jelly
Sandwich bars, and barbed wire
Squash every week into a day.
Lyric from Bauhaus, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (YouTube)