People have vast reservoirs of tenacity and resilience. All those days and nights that I was so sure I couldn't get through have come and gone. I'm still here and so, my friend, are you! It turns out we can only eat chicken potpie in our underwear and watch an endless loop of Law & Order reruns for about a week before a better angel urges us to say goodbye to Sam Waterston, shave our legs, and get back out there.This tidbit hit home, as I happened to be in just such a funk that started with a move that turned into an un-move, and everything I'd so carefully packed had to be un-packed.
Some of the stuff I had no idea what closet, cabinet, drawer or cubbyhole it'd been residing in for the last 9 years, so it went (or will go) to Goodwill instead.
In the midst of un-packing from the un-move came word of the death of a old friend awaiting a lung transplant. Not the result of smoking, mind you, but a rare genetic bombshell inherited from his mother's side that apparently doesn't manifest until after age 50. "Old" only refers to the length of our friendship, btw, he was actually 5 years my junior.
The un-move was an inconvenience, a minor detour on the Road of Life. It was the death of my friend on top of that that kicked me into a lock-the-doors, turn-off-the-phone funk. Knowing the Grim Reaper was waiting to pounce is quite different from learning that he actually did.
Having given up cable years ago, an "endless loop of Law & Order" (or House) was not an option. Instead, I made do with non-kid programs and documentaries on PBS, and when I'd seen them all, I opened an account at Netflix to take advantage of its Instant Movie Download. Oddly, I was watching a rather cute, but old, movie about reincarnation called "Chances Are" when the phone rang with the news of my friend's death.
May isn't the time of year I keep the freezer stocked with chicken potpies, so club sandwiches on fat onion rolls from the neighborhood deli were the comfort food of opportunity. I knew I was returning to the Land of the Functioning when I put the sandwich on a dinner plate instead of carrying it into the living room wrapped in a paper towel.
I'm not talking about shows that feature low-calorie food. I'm talking about those that make the yummiest, most calorie-laden dishes you can imagine.
Even before the above blahs set in, I noticed that instead of making me hungry, or making me rush out and buy the two special ingredients for some yummy concoction, I actually had less of an appetite after watching cooking shows.
I know... This sounds crazy, but I've lost 6 lbs so far...without exercising. The recipes either require several ingredients I'd never buy just for the one dish, or ingredients so exotic that they aren't, won't, and never will be available within 500 miles of where I live.
No comments:
Post a Comment