We all do it, well, some of us. Pack lunches, that is. A little of this, a little of that. The leftovers from last night, which would make it 2 days old when you have it for lunch the next day.
It is a time hack that is employed. If we make lunches the night before a day of work, we don’t have to think about it the next morning during the crush of getting ourselves, and children, or husbands, off to daycare, school, or work.
I packed my lunch last night. Today is my last RA day of the Spring semester. I halved some cherry tomatoes, sliced up some cucumber (I much prefer it to lettuce for sandwiches), added bacon from Friday’s breakfast in a small container, sliced up some bread to tie it all together. Made a perfect desk BLT. I also added a mandarin, and some chocolate animal crackers. And the rest of the veggies. And a glass for water. All set to go.
The last thing I put in my lunch box was a carrot applesauce mixture. Why? As an extra veggie? I don’t know, I don’t even like carrots.
The bacon was crisping up a bit in the microwave when I found the carrot applesauce and was dumbfounded anew.
It did prompt a conversation with the admin assistant of the department on sometimes we don’t feel like the lunch that we packed the night before.
And it got me to thinking. I’ve been an off shifter for most of my working life. Sometimes last night’s lunch makes just don’t hit right. But, as an OR nurse I shrug and eat is anyway, food is fuel. And the OR the battlefield.
I ate the lunch because I’d packed it and I hate eating out of the vending machines. I know that this is a college town and there are more places to eat, designed for the young appetite just a stone’s throw away.
But, eh, I’ll just have my desk BLT. And mandarin. And animal crackers. Like the adult I am.
The carrot applesauce is still in my lunch box. Maybe I’ll save it for the ride home. It is in a pouch and easily eaten/drunk.
Maybe not.
In celebration of it being my last drive to the university, I had a chocolate malt.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 