Rebecca A. Foster

The Peace Corps doesn't fill prescriptions for Ambien. I have started rationing my remaining supply. Goodbye, sweet sleep. It's been nice knowing you.

There are a few things I like a little too much for my own good: Diet Coke, Ambien, men, and luggage. Or travel bags, as I like to call them. Because unlike a set of matched luggage (ick, btw) you can never have too many travel bags. Here are three I love: 1. My North Face messengery-type bag. I got it because it had flowers on it, a bit cuter than the utilitarian styles, but not so cute it looks like I wear a fanny-pack too. (In general, it's important that things be cute, but not too cute. I err on the side of not-cute.) It has a couple of zippered outer compartments, very good for not getting pick-pocketed, as well as interior mesh pockets and more zippered compartments in logical and helpful places. My favorite thing is that the front flap closes with magnets, so no tearing velcro or snapping sounds when you open it in public. I use this one all the time. 2. 27-inch wheeled backpack. The best feature of this bag is the removable mini-backpack on the front, which turns into an...

I was cleaning out my pantry and found a little cellophane bag tied with red ribbon, full of red foil Rolos and homemade caramels. Cellophane bag + red foil Rolos means someone must have given this to me last Christmas. And because it also contains a weird Christmas broach, I can't imagine anyone who gave this to me actually knows me that well. I assume the weird Christmas broach thing is why it ended up in the back of the pantry. I set out the bag for tossing, but then after taking Zyrtec AND Ambien I decided it was a good idea to try one of the caramels. Pretty much I hate caramels, so why I'd want to eat eight month old caramels made by someone with poor fashion taste, I have no idea. Drugs are bad, mmmkay? I took a bite and suddenly the soft, rich flavor of dulce de leche is melting in my mouth and I don't care for caramel, but dulce de leche is like liquid gold with rubies mixed in. Simply wonderful. I remember my mom giving us a heaping teaspoon of homemade dulce de l...

One good thing about getting older: if you keep in touch with your peeps, gradually you all thin out across the country/globe, which means you have friends (sometimes with spare beds/couches) all over the place. Awesome! It also means you get e-mails and text messages that contain such random comments as to make you stop and marvel that THIS SENTENCE is how your lives are still converging. A sampling from the past week (from memory, I am too lazy to go look them up): 1. Florida friend: "Just got back from Hemingway's house. I heart Jim!" This friend and I often send each other random "I heart Jim"* texts because it sets off a volly of "I know! He is so cute! Funny! Charming! Awww" blah blah blah. Then we go back to our regularly scheduled lives. But throwing Hemingway into the mix? She wins. 2. Traveling friend: " Your sweet nature, darling, was too hard to swallow, my heart goes bang bang bang bang. FYI I'm in NYC, heading out in a few...

I have very few vices. Diet Coke is always at the top of the list. (Current #2? Ambien. Current #3? Jim/Pam videos on YouTube.) Six things I believe about Diet Coke: 1. From the fountain tastes better than in the can, which tastes better than in the bottle. 2. Best tasting fountain: Holiday Oil on Highland Drive and 39th (SLC), Valero on San Pedro and Basse (San Antonio). 3. The flavored versions lose their fizz too quickly. Weak. And the Cherry tastes like cough syrup. 4. There is no point to Caffeine Free, except that my little niece Meg loves it. An early adopter. 5. Winger's makes an excellent Vanilla Diet Coke. They get the ratio just right. 6. Diet Coke (Coke Light in Mexico) is sweeter everywhere else in the world I've been. And extremely plentiful in Thailand; not so much in Quebec (where Pepsi is the drink of choice). Amount of Diet Coke I can drink before I get caffeine shakes: About 144 oz. Top Four Memorable Diet Coke Experiences: 1. Seth walking me to the bathtroom...