There, I was just a secretary-shaped confederation of atoms, fighting the inevitability of mediocrity and decay. But here, in the Juliaverse... energy was never lost, merely converted from one form to another. Here, I took butter and cream and meat and eggs and I made delicious sustenance.

The road to hell is paved with leeks and potatoes

But hard bitten cynicism leaves one feeling peevish, and too much of it can do lasting damage to your heart.

It's sad, but a relief as well, to know that two things so closely bound together can separate with so little violence.

There are times with your friends when you just have to put their whole mess out of your mind for a while.

Cooking saved my life! Sure, there were some miserable moments, but that was sort of the point, to find something challenging and consuming enough to take a place in the center of my life into which was creeping a horrible feeling of stasis and the doom of mediocrity.

Physically it's exhausting to cook every night. Existentially speaking, I have so much more energy having that time to myself in this project, this gift to myself at the end of the day. Even if it didn't go smoothly, it was still a gift.