Jack in the Box

Yesterday was a gorgeous day.  The marine layer successfully dissipated before lunchtime, and the house had a wonderful bay breeze flowing throughout.  I really was enjoying my time in the house, so when Mounds asked if I wanted to accompany him and Butterfinger on a boat ride I regretfully declined.  The first hour or so of my much needed solitude went well.  I caught up on some emails, wrote a few articles for a client, updated some of my sites, chatted with some friends, and did a bit of research.  Then it hit me, like a brick to the face, I was hungry.

My hunger tends to frequently get into the way of working, and to alleviate some of the issues associated with this type of non-productive hunger, I err on the side of immediately feeding the beast before it is able to get into the phase known as “starvation mind control”.  I still had a few things to do before I wanted to relax with my dinner, so I downed a handful of trail mix, which was actually more like a handful of raisins since I had already eaten the tasty morsels, and continued on the task at hand.

The raisins filled me up for a grand total of about 15 minutes, and the hunger was back, this time with a vengeance equal to a brick chimney being launched into my face with a catapult.  Now, at this point in time, we are watching our spending, a phrase I use lightly to actually mean – not spending any money on anything unless we will die without it.  Frivolous food purchases fall under this catchall category that includes things I will not die without, but for some reason, I just could not get the image of Jack in the Box seasoned curly fries out of my head.

I tried to think of something to make with the food we had in the house, but for some reason fried rice and an egg sandwich just were not stirring up the same feelings of satisfaction as a steaming carton of squiggly fries.  I looked around for a moment, realized I was all alone (I really did this), and began gathering all of the change in the house to raise enough funds for some deep fried pleasure.

I felt like a fast food fiend searching through pants pockets, dumping out purses, and scouring the cars for change.  After a good 15 minutes of dissecting the well-known coin hotspots, I came to a grand total of $5.38, way more than enough to get myself a kids meal!  With the change in my pocket, I grabbed my sunglasses and keys and walked down the street to Jack in the Box for my heavily seasoned reward.

After much deliberation on my walk, I decided to go with a chicken fingers kids meal, with curly fries and a coke.  A brisk walk and $3.85 cents later, I was back at my desk unpacking the contents of my forbidden kids meal.  As I slid the chicken fingers out of their holder onto a napkin I felt as though I had just pulled of a heist, my blood was pumping, mouth watering, and adrenalin going.

I am ashamed to even be writing this tale in such a dramatic fashion, but this really was an epic Jack in the Box event.  That first bite of curly fry was perhaps one of the most delicious food morsels I have ever eaten.  I do not so much think it was due to the fact that the food was that spectacular, but more because of the fact that I had foraged for change, walked to Jack in the Box, skipped home like a giddy schoolgirl with my kids meal, and ate the food in complete alone-ness, as if it was some sort of protected international war secret.

Those 45 minutes I sat and ate my food while catching up on the most recent episode of House were something I should have allowed myself more of in the past few weeks.  Despite the poor nutritional quality of the food itself, those kids meal processed chicken particles and flash fried fries made me realize that it is ok to splurge sometimes and act out on a completely self-indulgent whim for no other reason than “just because”.

It’s either that or I am addicted to fast food…