Bread, cheese, fruit, and a chocolate bar

So listen, you guys, I just discovered this amazing new show called the West Wing. It’s about the president and his staff and everybody’s relationships and the pressures of being in charge of the whole show. It’s funny, and there’s this character C.J. who L. likes, and I don’t know who my favorite character is yet but maybe Josh. I guess I’ll have to watch three or four more episodes all in a row, over and over again in order to find out. If L. had to contract probably-swine-flu, at least we got one last fevered lunch with some pretty great TV on DVD.

 

Chicken salad sandwich, plus junior mints

It wasn’t the first time this weekend that L. and I tucked into a pair of seats in a darkening theater, but it was the first time we brought lunch. I waited until it got dark to pull out the paper bag, previews of additional upcoming action films masking (I hoped) the rustle. As I ate, chunks of my chicken salad fell out of my sandwich and rolled off my lap to the floor. By the time the movie started I was pretty much done with the savory part of lunch and ready for more than my share of Junior Mints. I ate them one by one and leaned increasingly hard against L.’s shoulder, happy after all.

 

Half a bag of Munchos and a Snickers Dark

You want a bag with that? asked the woman behind the counter at the gas station. Her voice and the question, asked in the face of our candy bars, chips, and K.’s Mountain Berry Blast Powerade–broke the moonspell of the landscape, pelicans scooping whole fish into their mouths just inches from the car like we weren’t even there, oil refineries scenting the air, abandoned boats run aground by man or by storm, we couldn’t imagine which. Louisiana 23 leads directly to the end of the world, but it doesn’t look at all like the world when you get there. I’d had a big breakfast involving rice and beans and eggs and more, so the Snickers? It satisfied.

 

Red lentils with lime over rice, plus a maple chocolate candy

My lentils turned round and round when L. walked into the hallway and said her happy new years and bent to fill her cup of tea with hot water from the red tap on the cooler. The tap looked floppy and broken, and she pushed it this way and that but no avail at all, cup hovering empty and dry. But we had the same one back at my old place and there’s a trick: You have to lift it up, push it back, hold it in, and only then do you push it down like you do with the cold water. L.’s cup was filled a good three-quarters of the way before I remembered my training and stopped. Do you see how I did that? L. topped off her cup and said thank you and I took my lentils and a chocolate maple candy in the shape of a maple leaf back to my cloffice. P.’s from Montreal, so his treats are Canadian. I’m a whole semester out, but I miss the Wisconsin shortbreads and Hong Kong candies and Florida taffies still.

 

Spicy chickpeas with tomatoes over rice, redux, and candy

I stood in the hallway microwaving my dish of chickpeas when the technical services office snack table drew my attention. The holiday plate appeared to be full of candy. I got a little excited. My heart rate rose. I craned my neck and peered. I saw little blue wrappers. Last week, the technical services office snack table featured fun-size boxes of Dots–J. had been eating them at a meeting, and I very nearly asked her for one they looked so bright and tasty, but it turns out I do not like Dots. But the blue wrappers turned out to be what I had only dared hope: mini Nestle crunch bars! I grabbed one, furtively tucked it into my fist, and stepped back to the microwave. And then I did it again. Two! I took my whole catch back to my cloffice where I ate chickpeas and read up on the play I’m seeing tonight and then took a moment and gathered up my breath and ate my candy, just shoved it in my mouth and gobbled it down as fast as I could. Oh, Halloween!