you are how you eat

food is important to me...my friends and my waist line might say VERY IMPORTANT, the only thing more important than food...that i can mention without shaming my sweetheart...is EATING! (you thought i was going to say drinking, didn't you)

Eating is an old and sacred ritual. I didn't realize how i felt about it until i moved to the states where people eat crummy food by themselves -but it's the later that i don't condone under any circumstance, barring the untimely deaths of the other members of your polar exploration party.

nearly every day i do a strange thing at lunch time, which is to drive home rapidly and procure or make lunch for my sweetheart. it takes a lot of time and energy. everyone thinks this is some "sweet" or incredibly loving gesture on my part, but just like most of what i do, it's pure selfishness successfully gussied up as something more noble.

the truth is i have this phobia about eating alone or with anyone i don't like a lot. i feel like bad ju jus will get me if i don't at least stick to the part of the ritual that involves breaking bread with people one is really fond of. So midday finds me hauling my cookies to a bicycles shop where i eat standing up and dribbling a bit-part meal over orders for wheel sets and repairs. usually i have to check my work email at least once to ascertain if anyone's noticed my absence and thrown a fit. it's a little stressful, but i wouldn't have it any other way.

i just have to share my meals with someone i can talk to and laugh a little with, otherwise, frankly, i'd rather not eat at all...and we all know that's not going to happen!

i realized i'm not so much a food snob (I get this accusation often) as a meal snob. I love to feed myself while i look at people i like, or think i might like in the near future. i don't care what i am eating so much as who i am eating it with. much to luke's dismay i am forever inviting such and such neighbor or friend for a meal he will no doubt get roped into helping with. I can't help it! if i meet someone i think is interesting the first thing i want to do is eat with them.

luckily for all of you who have been tolerating this for years...my cooking seems to be improving.

i am illustrating this with a picture of my hot car for reasons known only to myself.