Lunch with Friends

97?!

Ha!  That reminded me of Clerks.  (You know what scene I'm talking about, don't you?  Of course you do.)

I'm creeping up on 100 friends/readers/followers/awesome people.  That's pretty freakin' special, folks.  To me, it is.  You guys are so cool.  As soon as I hit a hundred, I'm totally going to do a giveaway of some sort.  But I'm not crafty or anything, so likely the "prizes" will be shit that I found around my house and stuck in a box to mail to you.  Cool, huh?  I know, you're hardly able to contain your excitement.

Until then, though, let's talk about lunch.  Food is one of my favorite things.  Eating makes me happy.  But I'm a picky eater, oh yes I am.  I'm very finicky and difficult, and one of the reasons I love Jimi so much is that he's managed to somehow memorize my very long list of dislikes and I'm-not-a-fan-of's and uses that information to (accurately, most of the time) help find new food and flavor combinations I'd never consider without him standing over me and saying "Try it Natalie.  I think you'll really like it.  Come on, just a bite.  Please?  For me?"  Who does that?  Well, Moms do that, but boyfriends typically don't.

I can turn any topic around to talk about how awesome Jimi is.  Have you noticed that?  I'm sorry - I'm sure it's annoying as hell.

Anyhow, back to the foods.

Since I was a small child, my favorite lunch in the whole entire world is this:

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich  (these days its made on low sugar, low carb, whole grain whole wheat bread.  That, I assure you, was not the case back in the day.)

Kosher Dill Pickle (or three)

Chips (any variety will do, but good ol' regular potato chips or corn chips are really the best.  Today I'm having Veggie Straws - they're "eh")

A big glass of cold milk

Cookies or yogurt or carrots or some other sort of sweet something can be added, but the meal is complete with just those four main ingredients.

This is the lunch I'd come home to in the summertime, after spending my morning and afternoon swimming, swimming, swimming until my fingers and toes were all pruny and my freckles had turned dark brown and multiplied several times over, feeling that deep physical hunger that makes it feel like even your arms are hungry - the sort of hunger that comes after completely exhausting yourself.  Peanut Butter & Jelly is forever in my mind merged with pickles and milk and swimming and happy childhood thoughts.

And it's so freakin' easy.  It's the epitome of a perfect "I'm hungry and I'm lazy and what can I fix that isn't hard?" meal.

Kimmie says it's weird.  She says that peanut butter and pickles don't go together unless you're weird or pregnant.  I'm not pregnant, and I wasn't pregnant when I was 9 and decided this was the best lunch evar, better even than Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli with a side of buttered bread.  Weird?  Maybe.  But not because this is my favorite lunch.

I swear I can smell the chlorine by the time I'm halfway through my sandwich.

Peanut butter & jelly with a pickle on the side.  Not so weird, right?

What's your favorite lunch?  Has it always be the same, or did you like something as a kid that now you're all like "EWW!!! Gross!  I can't believe I ate that!!!"? (Mini ravioli and buttered bread, anyone?)

UR THOTS?

Edit to add:  I just, for the first time that I can remember in my whole life, coughed while taking a drink and the milk came out my nose.  You know that feeling when you're swimming and you get dunked without warning and you suck the water up your nose and it makes you feel like you're going to die?  Yeah, my visceral memory is now complete.

Edit #2:  And now my jeans are covered in pickle juice.  No, that's not a euphemism.