Copps, 10:45 p.m.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Last night, I was exhausted. It was one of those days where I started looking forward to going to bed around two o'clock yesterday afternoon.
I was also stah-ving after my two-hour interval workout (on the trainer...bleh) -- even after leftover carbonara and a piece of quiche. And, at 10:45 last night, I found myself in the most curious of places -- Copps grocery store -- trying to fulfill the most curious of cravings.
All of the things that I've craved during this time of Ironman-training -- lots of diet Sprite and chicken, just to name a couple -- last night's was by far the weirdest craving I've ever had: cereal.
Seriously, who craves cereal? I'm not even normally a cereal eater. I have a box of Smart Start in my office that dates to November 10th of last year. Since then, I haven't gotten desperate enough, even at work, to have more than one bowl (thinking of, I should probably toss it).
So, at 10:45 last night, long after I should have been in bed, I decided that I would not, could not get to sleep without a bowl of cereal, so I went in search of.
But I was not prepared for what I found.
I'm one of those shop around the outside of the store types. I rarely venture into the middle aisles, save for the need to pick up toilet paper or chicken broth (and yet, somehow, I still manage to not eat as well as I should). And being a non-cereal eater, I never have a reason to hit the cereal aisle.
I had initially been leaning toward Lucky Charms. But then I started scanning the boxes. Coco Puffs, chocolate Lucky Charms, organic Raisin Bran (and regular), Eggo bites, chocolate-peanut butter Pops, smoothie-flavored, Fruit Loops, some Cinnamon mini-buns variety. I could keep going, endlessly. And for a while, I did. Up and down the aisle, taking it all in, trying to narrow things down.
I was overwhelmed. You see, as a kid, my sister and I were not allowed to have sugar cereal -- at all. King Vitamin was the only thing close that my mom would allow into our house. But it had a medicinal name and tasted a bit like sawdust, and only if we got really desperate would we ask for that (eventually, when we were in high school or thereabouts, she relented and bought Oh's once in a while). Our other standard choices? Homemade granola, Grape Nuts, and my personal favorite, Fiber One.
The cupboards of my best friend growing up, Pam, were the exact opposite of at our house, stocked with Fruity Pebbles, Kix, Frosted Flakes, Sugar Snaps, Crunchberries, and an array of other sugary goodness. She wasn't always nice to me back then (Pam learned to share slowly, although she did bequeath to me her very first, which became my very first, horse -- the beloved Sir Chet), which included her announcing on a weekly basis during our sleepovers that I wasn't "allowed" to have either Crunchberries or the fruity pebbles. Those were hers. Once in a while, she'd relent and let me have a bowl of the Fruity Pebbles. And I think like a mouse trained on intermittent reinforcement, that's why I kept accepting her offers of sleepovers. I wondered more than once if our friendship would survive once I was old enough to buy my own sugar cereal. (Update: it has -- I'm heading to Iron Mountain to help throw her a baby shower next week)
But I digress. So here I was, in Copps, trying in vain to pick out one kind of sugar cereal. I had gone in thinking Lucky Charms, but here were all these choices. And there, on the bottom shelf, was the one cereal that had always been banned from me -- both by my mom and Pam -- Crunchberries.
I didn't know what to do. Back and forth. Back and forth. Eventually, I decided on both, and then headed to the dairy section to grab some milk. (Nope, I don't buy that either)
Checking out, I looked down and felt a wave of guilt wash over me. I could just feel my mom's tisk-tisking presence, and it was dead-on. For so long, I had felt cheated out of a right of childhood. I could only watch the new blue or green or purple flavored cereals being trotted out every week on Saturday morning cartoons...I could never hope to taste them. But there in my grocery bag were two boxes of just what I had always wanted, and now, I wasn't so sure I wanted them.
Thinking about the complete lack of nutritional value contained in those boxes, I wondered if I might be better off just downing a bowl of ice cream. And I said, out loud, "I can't imagine buying this stuff for my kids." I had a sudden and unexpected flash of respect for my mom -- the woman who made her own granola, fed us stir fry night after night, and asked for tofu in the Iron Mountian IGA long before tofu went mainstream (I'll never forget the look on the stockboys' faces that day). I'm not sure if it's straight-up guilt that's been drummed into me or a solid respect for nutrition -- or both -- but either way, it's served me well.
I went home and enjoyed 1.5 bowls of Crunchberries. And although it seems like a waste, I'm guessing the other box and three-quarters will likely see the same fate as my Smart Start.
Posted by Erin 12:04 PM
1. I crave cereal and so does the big goat. A nice big bowl of cereal in cold milk--maybe a mix of corn flakes and quaker granola (the one with the figs and raisons in it), or how about some all natural vanilla almond crisp with some big, fresh strawberries--mmm. Me and the big goat eating big bowls of cereal in front of a baseball game is a great childhood memory for GtG.
2. I believe I detect some dubiousness towards Grape Nuts in your post. Outrageous. Despite the ill informed and vicious Grape Nuts attacks launched by one of your former colleagues (now in Iowa defending pouffy hair), sometimes Grape Nuts hits the spot. While it may not have the fancy taste of your Fruit Loops or of the mysterious (and some suspect fictional) Vitamin King, its just right when you want the combo of rib sticking food and soul fortifying goodness.
3. As any cereal aficionado knows, sugar cereal is just another way to say nothing left to lose. Come on big E! If you're in the cereal isle venture for something a little more substantial. Crunchberries?! Good God almighty.
4. All that being said, I wholeheartedly endorse the ice cream impulse. GtG likes the ice cream. But then, GtG's adding some padding around the middle these days. Ah well.
I don't buy them though because I would eat the whole box. Or my kids would eat them before I got hold of them myself and I would have to poke their eyes out.....
So, I eat my cranberry oatmeal every day ((sigh))
I have said it before and will say it again, breakfast is my favorite meal anytime of the day!
I'm glad I never got a taste for the sugary stuff - now I feel like I'm indulging if I buy the occasional box of Honey Nut Cheerios instead of plain ones and I have insisted repeatedly to my husband (who would happily eat any number of gawd-awful sugar cereal concoctions) that our soon-to-be children will not be eating that crap.
lolikneri havaqatsu