Ice Cream Saved Me $60 And About Three Hours of Grief

“It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

My home health nurse adores me. Let’s just leave it at that.

Today she brought me ice cream and it saved me so much money and I got to keep my sanity as well before heading into this upcoming weekend.

How?

It was late enough in the afternoon and just early enough in the evening when she stopped by with the dessert that my stomach was starting to tell me that I was getting hungry.

Having to eat all of that ice cream began to fill my stomach with food and the thought of eating anything else was not as pleasing any more.

But how is it that so much money was saved?

Pretty simple. For those of you who don’t know or don’t know how to pay attention…. I don’t drive. And today would have been one of those times where I was feeling like cabin fever was setting in and I was wanting to actually GO OUT and sit down and eat somewhere.

The only way to do that is to have a neighbor drive me somewhere. The only person with the capability to deal with storing the wheelchair in the trunk or in the back of their vehicle is a guy who is married.

And of course it would be horrible of me to ask this guy to drop me off at a restaurant by myself and expect him to pick me up when I was finished. Of course, I’d have to have him come along with me. But then again this is food. And these vultures here at SGC are all the same. They lose themselves when it comes to food. Whether its homemade or going out to eat.

There is only so many times a person can eat here and not go crazy.

So the outing would be a party of three. And here’s the kicker: the couple has a short list of  “approved” restaurants.

For example, if I was to go to them wanting a ride to go out to eat at some fast food place and I knew that I was going to have to take them with me and said “Hey, I want to go to McDonald’s…” they would decline the entire adventure and I would not go.

If my taste buds were not in line with what THEY cared for, I would not be going out to eat. Pretty sad.

Golden Corral is in fact one of the top approved places that they enjoy eating at. In fact that’s all I ever hear them talk about . With the exception of this afternoon when I heard the husband say that he and the wife was taken out to eat as a treat and they went to Red Lobster.

Ummm huh??

And yet an adventure or trip to the Golden Corral would have cost me about $20 a person. So about $60. Meal and drinks and then tip included.

Not to mention the awkward socialization on the way to/from the restaurant and the not so small talk that they consider dinner conversation which is hardly things that people would want to discuss while “going out and having a good time.”  All of that time of wanting to stab myself in my full stomach to just get away from the mind-numbing conversations.

And to be honest, the last SEVERAL times this same arrangement happened that I am talking about  it was a poor experience overall. I often get tired of having these bad experiences and then having to come home and tell you all about it on this blog.

Now I could take the metro bus system but that’s tricky as there’s no worth while restaurant that would be close by and therefore I wouldn’t know what the routes would be and I would hate to be sitting on a bus just to go one way for an hour to reach a place to eat.

The saving grace of the ice cream being bought earlier saved it all from disaster. I am soooooooo thankful!!!!!

BACON!!

If I don’t eat breakfast or another breakfast food item ever again, that will be just fine. But then again, give me a few weeks and I’ll be over this miserable feeling and be right back at it again!

The group went out today for an early lunch. However with the disappearance of Denny’s “Baconalia”, I was extremely disappointed.

I had promised one of my best friends that when I went out today for lunch, that I would attack the short menu of “Baconalia” just to say I tried it out. But alas, Denny’s has discontinued that and moved on to another promotion.

Wasn’t thrilled. So instead, I went and ate somewhere else where I knew that there would be bacon. What would happen next, nobody could have predicted. Not even Madam Cleo.

Nothing else looked that good on the menu, so I simply ordered a plate of bacon. That’s it! That’s what I set out for really, and nothing else. And so I ate that. And then the waitress asked me if I wanted more, I said “yes” and another plate was brought out.  Over and over again until the amount of bacon that was being served on each plate grew larger and larger. Apparently the manager of the restaurant was keeping tabs on me, and was counting how many strips of bacon I was consuming.

He came over to me and made a deal. If I could eat three more plates of bacon in a certain amount of time, my lunch would be free and they would begin a “bacon eating championship” for those customers who were interested.

I didn’t think I had anything to lose, so I went for it. The neighbors though, that went along weren’t too pleased. So I ate those three extra plates. That last one and a quarter plates of bacon though were extremely tough to swallow. But it got done. The manager took my picture with his cell phone and said he was going to post it on the wall of the restaurant.

So now I’ve set some sort of restaurant record. The manager claims it was three pounds of bacon in total. Although I have a very difficult time believing him as my mind is still swimming in maple flavored pork.

I do agree that I went too far with this adventure.  Sometimes my dedication to keep a promise overwhelms me and I just simply take things too far. Who knows what the damage could have been once I received the bill? Its something I truly don’t want to think about at this point. But I still argue just how much bacon I did consume.

Now I am waiting for that all important belch to relieve some of the pressure in my stomach. People in Oklahoma are gonna feel it once it comes.

Oh well, at least I won’t have to worry about eating supper tonight and my breath now smells like maple syrup.