A Bad Choice

Yesterday, I made another bad choice in a series of bad choices.

Because I have been so busy for the past...oh three years, I have seldom made it to the grocery store. So, in my typical muzzy morning state, I searched through the cupboards for some breakfast. But, they were empty with the exception of some uncooked pasta, brown rice and quinoa.

'Alright, option two,' I thought to myself. I opened to the refrigerator to scrounge up something edible. Hmm, some maple syrup, super salty green olives, raw onions, and an array of salad dressings. Well, no luck there either. Oooh, wait, what was that. Ah ha! I spied some coffee creamer which was set to expire tomorrow. "I know what I'll do," I excitedly thought to myself, "I'll have coffee for breakfast on an empty stomach. What a brilliant idea; yeah!"

And so, I proceeded to make myself a giant pot of coffee. I poured it into a cup and away I went.

After having gotten about four hours of sleep the night before (due to too much excitement or just perhaps general restlessness) I was already in a funk. So, all day, I felt horrible. It felt like there was some sort of black hole in my stomach. My eyes did not want to stay open and my mind was foggy. Luckily, I managed to escape from one of my classes an hour early because I felt funky.

What's the point of this exposition? I just want to teach you something so that you don't make the same mistake/bad choice that I did. Please, don't drink coffee on an empty stomach after having gotten very little sleep. Just don't do it.

Ooh but on a positive note, I was inspired to go grocery food shopping—a habit I highly recommend one starts.

Wow! Just what I wanted!

Down vests
Penut brittle
Holiday music
Toothpaste
Ibuprofen
Ham
Rice pudding
Apple cider
Carmels
Peppermint Bark
Fudge

Those are some of the words that came to mind when I reflected upon this years Christmas. Please take note—the majority of the items on the list refer to food. Yes, this year’s Christmas was one big bad food extravaganza. And, that’s the way it should be.

On Christmas Eve, we feasted on prime rib, festive tossed salad, candied yams and an array of accompanying side dishes. Then after all that, we feasted some more. We indulged in my mom’s county-wide famous tapioca fruit soup, jam bars, Jenny’s life-changing peanut brittle, rocky road bars, coconut macaroons, rice pudding, plain fudge, fudge with nuts (compliments of Inger), caramels, caramels with nuts (thanks to Karina), homemade toffee with chocolate and more.

After all that exhausting amount of food, we opened presents. But this year, the gifts were even more practical than normal thanks to the tanking economy. No, there were no ipods, wii’s, electric guitars or anything requiring a large (or even relatively large) amount of money.

Instead we faked out gratitude when we opened up a bottle of headache tablets, a tube of toothpaste, a pack of gum, a bottle of Rolaids, several hours of recorded TV on VHS from ten years ago, or a package of pens from the dollar store. Yes, we enjoyed the appearance of a large amount of gifts, but the gifts were, on a whole, rather practical and cheap. People actually went the trouble of wrapping up a tube of toothpaste and calling it a present.

And, I’m all for that. I hate buying necessary items. I would much rather have them given to me in the form of a present. After all, the point of Christmas should not be the presents; it should be the food. Yum.

(Okay, okay. I know what you’re thinking… “Um, isn’t the point of Christmas spending time with your love ones?” Fine, you’re right.)