8 Eggs, 16 Yolks

Last night I wanted to test my top secret recipe, so I ran down to Johnny’s Foodmaster for a few things. Normally I don’t trust Johnny’s for much of anything, but I figured that since I was going to use the stuff right away, it would be OK. Among the items I needed was an undisclosed number of eggs. I cracked open the first egg and it had two yolks. I wasn’t too surprised, though you don’t see that every day. I cracked open another egg and it too was a twin. I didn’t want to use it because I’m trying to optimize the recipe, and don’t know how the number of twin eggs will correlate to normal eggs. I cracked open the next one, and it was another twin. The next egg was normal, but it was followed by a triplet. The rest of the eggs in the carton were doubles. I thought maybe it was an omen, like my recipe was cursed or something. Then I thought maybe all the eggs came from one very fucked-up chicken. Maybe they’ve started doing IVF treatment or something to have the chickens produce more eggs. More likely, they have pumped every type of hormone into these chickens.

This was something of a breaking point for me. I don’t really want to be bearing children with extra body parts, so I don’t think I should eat eggs from Johnny’s anymore. I don’t want to eat from a contaminated food supply anymore. I have no problem going to Charlie’s for a double mega burger every once and awhile, but I’m going to start buying organic foods. It isn’t just the food supply, it is everything. Yesterday it rained all day, but it should have been a snowstorm. The only time I needed to shovel this winter was during the ice storm we had a few weeks back. The stock market crashed this week, despite many companies (especially oil) posting record profits. Oh, and then there is this war in Iraq. Our school system is crap and don’t even get me started on healthcare.

Perhaps I am arriving at all of this now because of where I am in my own life. I’ve got about a year left on my PhD, and dank is writing his thesis right now. I am thinking about what is next in my life. I’ve come to think that I am not going to have a normal job, but rather find a way to play a role in some of these issues. I’ve thought about this before. There is no way that I will work for a pharmaceutical company, and I do not want to be an academic. The only way I can see staying in research is if I work in a government lab. This is kind of taboo in the science, since we are all supposed to want to run our own research labs. I thought about patent law, but it seems like I’d just be carrying a briefcase for the same people I don’t want to work at the lab bench for. I want to do something important with my life, but I am not sure how to approach it. Maybe it won’t be about the job I have, but about how I live my life. I just don’t know yet.