I have always been one to seriously like food. I remember being 9 or 10 and having to decide whether to continue playing with my friends in the cul-de-sac or accompany my parents to Waldbaum’s to grocery shop. That sounds like a no brainer for a kid, right? Who would pick the supermarket over kickball and skateboarding, freeze tag and pogo sticking? I have to admit that I was 50/50 on the stay or go stats and I never regretted my decision either way.
When I’m hungry, I overuse the term “starving.” I tend to have low blood sugar so if it’s been more than three hours, you might want to stand aside if you find yourself perched precariously between me and a meal I’m craving.
A few months into the pandemic, having not much to keep me busy after I finished writing my novel, I started jotting down recipes in a document I called, “Jeez I’m Starving And There’s Nothing To Eat.” (This condition is quite similar to the Closet Full Of Nothing To Wear syndrome.) Isn’t this the truth though? Even after a big food shop where I followed a specific list that I carefully created, sometimes I find myself staring aimlessly into the fridge disappointed by the choices that excited me in the grocery store just a short time ago. Then I think about making the chicken or dicing the veggies and I don’t feel like cooking at all.
It’s culinary carelessness on my part and I detest having to throw away food that I thought I wanted and then decided that I wanted everything but. There have been neglected nectarines, discarded deviled eggs, rejected radishes, shunned salsa, and a seemingly nice piece of scorned salmon steak that I sadly let spoil. Sorry for all the daytime drama–I feel like I’m a bit of a Krabby Patty these days.
I’m not happy waiting on line to get into Fairway or Trader Joe’s. I hate that we have to pay for paper bags now. The schlep home seems so much heavier than it used to feel. When I order online from Whole Foods, they swap out a lot of my choices and the organic things they select raise the bill by double digits. None of it seems fun anymore. Okay, you can say it… “Hey, Jen. Do you want some cheese with that whine?” I definitely think we all have a bit of food fatigue.
Remember when Goldie Hawn, playing the lead in the movie Private Benjamin, cried out, “I wanna wear my sandals. I wanna go out to lunch! I want to be NORMAL again.” Poor Judy Benjamin was not cut out for the grueling treachery of basic training. I think we can all relate to her misery in this COVID bootcamp of sorts. Basic training is usually no longer than 12 weeks and we’ve gone almost 12 months already. Hopefully we will ALL be part of a vaccination celebration when the world has a new sense of normalcy. Maybe I’ll invite a few friends over for a home-cooked meal to celebrate. On second thought, we will be going OUT of course, and I promise to ditch the Krabby Patty attitude just as soon as our food arrives.
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