Although chewing gum (as both noun and verb) is my most prominent obsession, I have a few close contenders: wolves and Woot!. I’ve always loved wolves for many reasons. First, they’re absolutely beautiful animals. Next, they travel in a pack that hunts, plays, and sleeps together, which means they have an understood hierarchy that includes respecting and supporting each other, usually without question. And finally, they are one of only a few dozen animals in the world that mate for life, and I think that’s pretty awesome. I also have a wolf tattoo, which is covering up a long-since-abandoned obsession for a band from my homeland of Northeast Ohio; you might have heard of them—Nine Inch Nails. Whoops!

And then there’s that Shirt Woot! obsession. A different ironic T-shirt every day? Even though I’m not a hipster, I have to say, “Yes, please!” I probably own about 25 Woot! shirts, and I wear them with pride.

So it finally happened: All three of my obsessions came together in one fantastic way called Bubble Moon. Here I am at Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market blowing my own howling moon bubble, courtesy of Stride’s new Sour Patch Watermelon gum.

Breaking News: Wolf chews bubble gum, howls, replaces moon!