Hi, I’m Finally Out Of Bed

May 4, 2010

I thought I was gonna die yesterday.

Okay, I’m being melodramatic, but seriously, yesterday was not a good day for me. First of all, I woke up with a splitting headaches, chills, and aches all over my body. But I had a research paper to finish, so I staggered over to my laptop and tried to get at least a few paragraphs down.

Then I had a few questions to ask my professor about the paper, to which she kept eluding the questions and instead admonished me, saying that she was “very disappointed” that I didn’t get it. I also got a threat from an anonymous commenter digging up a past mistake I made half a year ago, which really was more ridiculous than upsetting.

Oh, and worse of all, I couldn’t even eat without getting extremely nauseated. Sucks. As. Hell.

What’s a girl to do? Dig into her covers and sleep it off, of course. So I did. I slept the whole day off, and woke up at midnight with an even worse headache than ever. Oh, joy. But honestly, despite having way too much sleep than I needed, I still had a lot of trouble getting out of bed. Now I understood what that saying “bury oneself in a hole” meant…when bad things culminate all at once, you really just want to seclude yourself and never come out.

But I eventually did. Because I really needed to pee. If not, I probably would have stayed under the covers a bit longer. Still, once I was up, I felt oddly better, and my stomach started growling for food. Hunger—always a good sign, I say.

I also strangely had a sudden craving to read the bible. I happened to turn to Psalms, which are mostly songs King David wrote to praise God—most of it written during his worst times of distress. My “horrible” day was nothing compared to David’s own problems: he had enemies from all corners seeking his head, had no home and was constantly on the run for his life, was overridden with guilt over his sin of murder, and his whole family was crumbling apart. And yet, he always, always praised God.

David often symbolizes courage. But I think his true courage is not his defeat of Goliath, but his ability to call upon God immediately during his distress, and hold fast to His faith that God will deliver him. Instead of hiding in his bed (like I did), he grabs his harp and sings praises to God. How freaking incredible is that? This guy is my hero.

I’m not gonna start singing, of course, for the sake of my roommate’s sanity. But I would love to share the same confidence and joy David had, not just during the good times, but especially during the hard times, too.

Oh, and I’m fine now. I suspect that the major reason for my headache was because I slept way too much trying to avoid conflict and that annoying research paper. My stomach is still sensitive to food though, so I’m watching what I eat. I guess I won’t be having greasy gyros anytime soon, as I did last week. Let me just torture myself by recalling that amaaaazing gyro I had…

My church friends and I went to this popular Greek place called Papa Cristos.

Papa Cristos is actually a real person, a diminutive Greek owner of the place. He may be small, but his business is booming!
I was aghast by the line that Sunday afternoon! (By the way, there were more customers lining up outside the door).
I almost wanted to turn to another restaurant because I was hungry, but my friends insisted that we stay, because large customers=good food, right? Well, I’m glad I listened to them, because the food truly was awesome.
Papa Cristos is more than just a restaurant; it is also a deli-takeaway and a little market selling Greek speciality foods like marinated olives, Greek beer, and dolmas.
They also fresh-bake their own bread, which is always a huge plus for me. They even have their own pastries like baklavas!
But I had only one thing in mind that day, and that was to satisfy my craving for gyros. Thus I had no problem deciding on what I wanted, despite the extensive menu:
It took a good 30-40 minutes for our food to be done, so I amused myself by browsing the little Greek market. I also could not resist buying a mound of goat’s brie cheese, despite the fact that I need still need to clear out my pantry:
When the food finally arrived, we had to picnic out because the interior was so crowded. But that’s okay, because guess who was outside, too?
Why, Papa Cristos himself! Aw, he was so small and cute with his little white moustache! Like a teddy bear. But a powerful and smart business teddy bear, of course. This guy really knows how to make a good gyro. Check this out:
This was freaking HUGE. It was absolutely STUFFED with shaved lamb and beef meat.
The pita bread around it seemed to have been lightly fried as well. Either that, or it soaked up all of the meat’s juices and grease to make an utterly flavorful sandwich.
I tried to bite into it with my hands like a sandwich, but my mouth just wouldn’t cooperate, so at last I had to resort to using a fork.
Do you see those chunks of lovely meat? Heaven in a pita!
My friends and I also ordered a couple savory pies to share, the Spanakopita (spinach & feta) and the Tiropita (cheese):
The Spanakopita was the clear favorite with the combination of spinach and feta. The Tiropita was okay, but the cheese was a bit funky.
Oh, and most of my friends ordered the same gyro as me, but one of them ordered the Greek chicken pizza:
Which looked pretty good. Another ordered the spaghetti and meat sauce:
Spaghetti in a Greek restaurant. Hm. No comment. Oh, and Aletheia, Valerie says hi!
Hiiii.