5-4-12 Friday (To Err Is Human To ER Really Sucks)

While at work Friday, the supervisors passed out ice cream.  It was a “just because we appreciate what you do” gesture.  I have a rant… several really.  Please don’t think me as ungrateful.  There’s humor in it and irony.  I love that my company does stuff like this.  It’s really a great feel-good thing.  Here comes the but…

First thought: Ice cream in a call center?  We work on the phones.  That means I have to talk, type, listen, etc. Some processes take 45 minutes on the phone.  If I’m not ready to take a call at the time I receive said ice cream, I could get in trouble.  If I’m in the middle of a call, it’s extremely difficult to eat ice cream and talk on the phone at the same time.  Maybe it will just melt while I’m reading a 3 1/2 minute long disclosure only to have you say in the near future, “no one ever told me that” because you were too busy yelling at your kids.

Second thought: Most of the games, competitions or whatever that we play at work have prizes.  Most of the time it’s food.  If you win you get a treat.  (wagging tail)  Have you seen the size of me?  Yes, I like to eat so in general I’m all for the junk food shoved in my face.  Sometimes I’ll even chose the healthier peanut snack things instead of the candy but even those are loaded with sugary goodness.  They try.  Maybe they should have a mini fridge with bags of carrots?  Hand out fruit maybe?  Oops, off topic.  Anyway, junk food is already used by so many for completely opposite reasons.  “Hey, that was difficult.  I did great.  I’m rewarding myself with junk food.”  OR  “What a crappy day.  I need junk food.”  Junk food for feeling bad or feeling glad.  As my friend Norma said in a post, “emotional eating”:

On that note, I responded recently to another blogger's post about how to handle sweets/treats with kids.  I'm the first to brag tell you that there's no junk in my house and my Spawn understand that ice cream is not an everyday thing and that they eat cherry tomatoes for an after school snack, which is all true.  But they of course have their special treats; Emma  can put away a massive plate of blueberry cake French toast at our favorite breakfast place and Veronica is still talking about the dessert cart at the Brazilian Grill from our visit there in February.  What I have tried to do these past four years is NOT paint junk food as a reward or a comfort or something to be earned; i.e., a good report card does not equal going out for ice cream.  A hurt knee or hurt feelings does not equal going out for ice cream.  Behaving at a boring function does not equal going out for ice cream.  Ice cream should just be enjoyed once in a while for its own sake, not tied in with the emotions of daily life events, right?

Norma is a previously overweight woman who is now very fit and very active, takes care of 2 intelligent young daughters while maintaining a relationship with a younger studly guy who shares her love of fitness.  Her blog is 90% about the healthy stuff she eats, while “preaching” about the evils of junk food, preservatives, sugars and the like.  I’m so opposite of her and she accepts that.  She’s even jabbed at weightloss programs I’ve been on in the past but I don’t take it personally and definitely listen to what she says.   She’s spot on but alas, I continue to ignore and eat my way to fluffiness.  Sigh.

With that awesome segue… I bought cookies.  On Thursday a coworker brought in 3 different kinds of cookies to try.  Her friend has a new home based cookie business.  She offered up a Salted Chocolate Chip cookie.  This was heavenly!  Next a Honey Maple Peanut Butter.  Holy crap.  The name of her business?  “The Best Cookies I’ve Ever Tasted”.  It’s totally true.  They were.  She had another kind.  Some chocolate chipotle something or another that I was too much of a wuss to try.   I immediately ordered a dozen ($10) of those peanut butter cookies.  Next time I’ll order the salted chocolate chip.  Today, my order was waiting for me.  Believe it or not, I behaved and waited to get home to share them with Jim!  You’ll see how that went.  Read on.

I came home from work and Jim was upstairs, still clothed and in bed.  He said he left work a little early, had to stop roadside to puke, made it home and crawled into bed.  His stomach was hurting a lot.  Some bad Wendy’s that he had for lunch?  I got him some water and darkened the room.  He puked up the water.  He puked a dozen times.  I asked if he wanted to go to the Emergency Room but he wanted to wait a little.  Eventually we were off to the ER.  Our very first ER visit for one another as a couple.  It was to be an hour and a half wait.  After about a half hour he was feeling better and decided to leave. Frankly the characters waiting for care were probably enough to make him feel better.  Through the evening he felt much better. 

We   rewarded ourselves   celebrated   ate cookies.