Ice Cream for Dinner

To set up this conversation, I have jaw issues. They started around Easter of this year & I was in so much pain I ended up eating only applesauce & mashed potatoes for about a week. My doctor prescribed me a heavy duty anti-inflammatory & a pain killer to get me through it. What happens is that my jaw pops out of socket when I open my mouth too wide or when I move my jaw side to side. The problem recently flared up again & I can open my mouth just enough to eat. Ugh.

Jacob: What sounds good for dinner?

Me: Nothing.

Jacob: Nothing as in you're not hungry or hungry as in nothing sounds good?

Me: Nothing sounds good...except ice cream!

Jacob: You can't just eat ice cream for dinner. You need real food.

Me: But my jaw hurts too much for anything else.

Jacob: Can I get you to eat some applesauce before your ice cream?

Me: I guess.

5 minutes later he offers me some of the Nutty Bar he's snacking on...I take a bite.

Jacob: Your jaw hurts so bad that you can only eat ice cream, huh?

Me: Damn.

A taste of home...

Jacob sent me this text message today:

"If you need a taste of home, take Outer Circle & turn up Lakewood Blvd."

I spent all day wondering what it could be. Maybe he found great donut shop on his way to work & he mentioned it because we both miss Ike's. Or maybe he found a big sunflower garden. A restaurant with the name Kansas in it. A sign with a PowerCat on it. I got excited thinking of all the possible reminders of home.

But I'm lazy...I didn't go check it out. In my defense, I thought I might enjoy it more if we went together. Jacob said that was a great idea, that it would be even better on the bike.

After he got home from work I asked Jacob if he wanted to go check out the surprise. (By then I had worked this little Kansas reminder into something great...not quite defined in my head...but I knew it was going to be GREAT!)

Jacob warned me that the surprise wasn't all that huge...just a little something. (Again, I thought he was just downplaying this GREAT thing so I would be even more surprised.)

Then he spilled the beans...it was a skunk. A dead skunk. On the way to work & on the way home he smelled (& apparently tasted) a nasty dead skunk. He assumed skunks wouldn't live this close so it would be a nice "taste" of home for me to experience.

Um...no thanks...that's one part of home I don't really care to be reminded of.

Where I didn't respond like my mother would have...

Walking into the Ralph's near our apartment, Jacob & I are constantly asked to sign this petition against online sales tax, sign that petition to help save the oceans, save the tigers, etc. I'm all about political activism & saving the environment...but please leave me be when I'm grocery shopping....I'm already in a bad mood. We've tried being nice & tried ignoring the pair of people (always in pairs) guarding the entrance but I'm still not exactly comfortable with how I want to respond. They are just THERE in your FACE when you leave the grocery store DEMANDING your attention.

Tonight we had to return a Redbox movie & as we left Ralph's we were again asked to sign the sales tax petition. I politely declined & expected to be able to just walk away without any other response as is what normally happens. Nope...not this time...

"I HOPE YOU GET TAXED OUT THE ASS!"

Ugh...I hope you have a nice evening, too, sir. Bless your heart.

What a difference 40 degrees can make...

My plans for today were supposed to include a bit of swimming & sunning (after finishing a job application of course) but then my mom told me it's 40 degrees cooler here than in Kansas today. I think 69 is a bit too cool to get in the pool. Are you having a hard time imagining that right now? Because she did.

Good news for Kansans though...give it another 6 months & it'll be at least 40 degrees cooler there!