Chemical Imbalance

I’ve been going through a bit of a tough time lately.

I’d like to think that I’m normally a happy, well-adjusted guy. Someone who can see the good in things and people and places and television shows on the CW. Someone who has a good sense of humor about things at least 99.44% of the time, and who can see the lighter side of life more often than not. I feel that I learned this from the family and friends with whom I choose to surround myself.

Lately, however? Things haven’t been so hot.  Work has been a bit tense — with fewer people to do the increasing workload we have due to “the economic climate lately.”  I suppose I should count my blessings that I still have a job which pays me for doing things which (a) I’m good at; and (b) I find to be interesting (most of the time).  But as with any job — there are those days and moments and people which can simply get to you. And when they do, it’s hard to let one’s emotions break free from that downward spiral.

The weather changes haven’t been helping, either. We’ve gone from a snowstorm to 70 degree weather back to snow back to 70 degrees. And now it’s just plain gray. I’m waiting for spring to just come and stay with sure footing instead of jumping back and forth across an imaginary line like [Similies and Metaphors 2.2! You have exceeded the 30-day limit for this trial version.]

I’m beginning to realize that much of March has been a total roller coaster for me! And I’m trying to pinpoint what may have changed during this time which would have brought upon a less stable emotional environment for me. I refilled some prescriptions in March, but there were no changes in dosage.  Perhaps I exercised a bit less than I did in February (thus far) — not something I’m proud of, but likely more of a symptom than a cause.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to assign causality beyond a shadow of a doubt for the change of my state of mind. But I do have a pretty educated guess:  this may be due to a chemical imbalance.  The composition of certain substances in my body has been a bit out of whack over the past few weeks.

Namely — I haven’t been able to purchase this substance lately:

It’s a bizarre phenomemon:  In all of the supermarkets I have frequented over the past month, I have not been able to find these Rold Gold hard sourdough pretzels.  It’s as if they’ve been recalled off of all of the shelves in Northern Virginia (and, perhaps, beyond).  Sure — the other regional brands of hard pretzels (Synder’s of Hanover, Utz) are okay. But these pretzels? They set the *ahem* gold standard.

Yet I continue to find the other brands and not these. It’s not as if Rold Gold has disappeared altogether.  They have plenty of other varieties of pretzel snacks out there. I’m one of the 53 people in this world who can stomach their honey mustard minis.  They still have their pretzel thins and pretzel rods. (I never understood pretzel rods.)  But still — I can’t find the Rold Gold sourdough.

You know the flavor of a hot pretzel from one of those vendors? Where you can get it with that perfect amount of mustard to complement it?  Not too salty — glazed just enough with the right, subtle amount of egg?  Rold Gold did us a service with their hard sourdough pretzels — in that they gave us that experience of being at a ball park. But in a non-perishable package. And without the creepiness factor when the pretzel guy would stare at your sister.  It simply made me think fondly of the entire hot pretzel experience — while allowing it to age properly in a cellophane bag.

Where did these pretzels go?!?

I’m not trying to correlate the absence of these pretzels to my tense experiences at work over the past few days. But I will say this: If we had more of these pretzels around — more specifically in the Washington, DC metropolitan area — I think the world, in general, would be a happier place. Spring would arrive boldly and stay. Work wouldn’t be so bad.

The imbalance would be balanced yet again.

(Note: I am not writing this in a capacity in some way related to Rold Gold and/or the FritoLay brand name. I’m not writing this as a paid advertisement to promote any product through placement on my blog. However — if the appropriate folks happen to send me a case of Rold Gold hard sourdough pretzels anyway — I’d be more than happy to oblige in this fashion. Thanks!)

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Totally Unrelated Aside: (Yes. I know that’s not original.)  My new buddy LeSombre wrote a very nice piece about me on his blog. He uses words like “awesome,” “curious,” “piques,” “re-purposed” and “pretentious” in his entry about me. Please visit him and chastise him thoroughly. Thanks.