Shards of Glass

I am in the throes of preparation for Homecoming weekend, happening April 6-9. My life is consumed with lists and checking each item off one by one. I'm pretty sure that for every item I check off, I add an additional 17. It's never-ending. I don't have enough time in my day, enough hands, enough of me.

My desk is a giant pile of papers, scattered and strewn from one side to the other. I barely have time for lunch and I have even forgotten to eat a couple of times.

What??! That hasn't happened since I was 21!

When Roy and I were newly married and I went to school at the University of Northern Colorado, we lived on pocket change. Roy's salary amounted to about $17000, if I remember correctly, and we barely had enough left over for groceries at the end of the month. I can remember one time that Roy wanted to buy an $8 tool, and we sat in the parking lot, discussing whether we should wait another month to purchase it.

But I will say, I think every married couple should start out like that. It didn't hurt us one bit.

But my point was, I never bought a lunch -- I would simply wait until I got home from school to eat. But sometimes when I got home, I simply forgot...

And then later I would think, I don't feel so good...

Oh yeah. I think I forgot to eat.

Roy often made fun of me for this strange phenomenon. I mean really...who forgets to eat? I certainly don't.

One time my sister Lori was visiting and she went to school with me. Now I will say-- the three of us girls were all created from the same mold. Food wasn't an issue for any of us when we were young. (I have solved this issue.) And so she happily obliged my daily routine of going all day without lunch and then eating once I got home. But by the time we got home? We were starving.

Hangry.

We quickly worked together to make Chicken Rotel -- a spicy concoction comprised of cream of mushroom soup, chicken, onions, tortillas, and topped with a can of Rotel tomatoes. It's comfort food at its best. I threw it in a glass dish and popped it in the oven.

And we waited, stomachs growling.

By the time I pulled it out an hour later, we thought we were going to die of starvation...

We both eyed it hungrily as I grasped it with my oven mitts and pulled it out of the oven....

....and promptly dropped it, sending it crashing to the tile floor and shattering.

But no worries...we simply scooped it up and ate it anyway.

Yeah. We did that.

Glass and all.

It was delicious.

For the record, I haven't forgotten to eat in well over twenty years.

I. Love. Food.

I don't anticipate it happening again in the near future...though if it does, I shall rejoice.

Meanwhile, I am headed back to the office today...back to my desk laden with papers, back to my lists that continue to grow exponentially, back to my dreams of comfort food (minus the shards of glass).