Who Knew?

By Belinda

Two separate parts of my psyche are constantly at war. One half of me gives the impression of being organized, but I have an alter ego that sprouts piles of paper like a pumpkins in a pumkin patch.

I love organizational tools that help keep the "messy me" at bay.

When a flyer arrived with the weekly newspaper, announcing the open of a new Solutions Store in nearby Newmarket I could not wait to pay them a visit.

They advertise themselves as being, "Your Organized Living Store."  Well, the promise of "organized living" is a hook that will reel me in every time.

So on Saturday, I went, and was not disappointed. It was hard to not get completely carried away with all of the amazing tools there. One thing I splurged on was a new lunch bag in a beautiful turquoise blue. They were on sale, 20% off, and I rationalized the purchase by thinking of all the money I save each week by making my lunch faithfully every day. It was time to retire my old faithful black zippered lunch bag and after carefully considering all of the sizes and shapes, I made my choice. I loved the colour and it even had a neatly designed spoon and fork attached.

Today, like a child with a new backpack for school, I tried out my new lunch bag for the first time.

Before leaving for work I packed a big container of tossed salad with a little home made oil and vinegar dressing, and in another small container I made a quick penne pasta, celery, tuna and mayonnaise, salad. I threw in half a banana left over from breakfast, and a small container of yogurt.


Lunchtime found me in my car on my way back to the office from somewhere, so I decided to stop at Chapters, the book store, and pick up a book I'd been meaning to get.  Then I decided to have lunch in my car in the parking lot. At this point I should have noticed that I was morphing into "Messy Me," just like the Incredible Hulk in the old TV series.

I undid the silver chain holding the fork and spoon together and tried to eat my salad. Did I mention that I was dressed in a black shirt and black pants?

Before starting to eat I had the brilliant idea of expediting lunch by mixing the two salads together and putting the pasta with tuna and celery on top of the tossed salad. Both salads now formed a precarious pile.

At first stab, I noticed that the fork was not penetrating the vegetables in my salad. Cherry tomatoes and crisp chunks of cucumber and celery began to shoot out of the bowl and land on the car seats or various places on my lap. I mopped several white splodges of mayonnaise from my pants before acknowledging that something was wrong with the fork, which seemed to be made out of very soft material that bent under any slight pressure.

I was faced with a bowl of salad and no hope of stabbing into anything, especially anything round.

This is why, if you had been parked in the car next to mine today, you could have looked over and seen me eating salad with my fingers, with an elegant lunchbag on the seat beside me.

It was only after getting home that it occurred to me that the fork and spoon on the outside of the lunchbag might be ornamental! Sort of a fashion accessory. I was trying to eat lunch with the decorative spoon and fork.

They are safely back where they belong, on the outside of the lunch bag. "Messy Me" is safely zippered inside my skin again--for the moment at least. :)

Comments

Marilyn Yocum said…
I LOVE the lunch bag and applaud your efforts!

"....like a child with a new backpack for school...." really captures the feeling. I enjoyed that sentence (and the whole post).
Belinda said…
Why thank you Miss Marilyn! :) I am smiling again at the thought of my lunch exploding all over the place yesterday. I didn't mention that the odour of tuna pervaded the car too. Oh, dear! :)

Yes, I do think I get A for effort though. :)
Janet Sketchley said…
Oh, Belinda, I can see myself doing that! Minus the elegant part of course, because I've never gotten the hang of that.

I suspect most of us have that dual persona of organized and overflowing. We're works in progress!

Thanks for the giggle today.
Belinda said…
Ha ha Janet. And we sat next to one another at lunch in blissful ignorance. We could have had a food fight!
I understand your mistake, I would have thought those were utensils too! By the way when food falls on me, as it often does, I call the 'mark' a food broach.
Dena Dyer said…
What a fun post! Love your pics, too. Last week, I started a new job and forgot to bring a fork to eat my lunch with. Before I finally found a plastic fork in one of the drawers in the kitchen, I seriously considered eating my meatloaf with my fingers. :) Good to find you through High Calling Blogs--I look forward to reading more of your work!
Susan said…
You in a food fight??? Ha ha ha. WhatEVer!!
Belinda said…
Dena, so nice to meet you! Welcome.
Doesn't this give "finger food" a whole new meaning? :) ha ha!
Belinda said…
Oh, Susan, that sounds suspiciously like a challenge.

The term "living dangerously" springs to mind. :)
Jan said…
Oh Belinda,
This reminds me of the yogurt we had in the car in Poland - but no spoon. Some of us tried licking out the yogurt or pouring it down our throats. But, I had an aha moment when I realized I had a bag of pretzels. As I used the pretzel to extract the yogurt I would chew it - then get another one. A fascinating way to eat yogurt and I would do it again.
:)
Belinda said…
Ha ha Jan! I have laughed so much at people's stories in the comments! But eating yogurt with a pretzel sounds like a very slow process to me!:) I would have LAUGHED at the lickers. I confess--I have licked yogurt. What we do when we are hungry.:)
Susan said…
Guess WHAT????? This lovely lunch bag not only comes in aqua and lime green, but also in a deep royal purple. How do I know??? Because my sister just bought me one - with the same "utensils" and all! Thanks for the warning not to eat with them. (How's that for mystical?)
Brenda said…
And I have one too! But it's not as nice as yours and Susan's. Mine is black - plain boring black.. :(

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