Friday afternoon got a LITTLE crazy, as both Jesse and I got done working at 5pm and still tried to make it to Pre-Sanctified Liturgy in Dallas by 6:30.
I hadn’t eaten since 3pm (I know, 2 hours doesn’t seem like a lot, but for me, it is!), so I was STARVING. I told Jesse that I was going to need to grab something to eat.
“McDonalds”, he said. “It’s on the way, and we don’t have much time”.
“Are you sure?” I asked. I knew he had been fasting from food and water since noon so that he could take communion. Being locked in a car with someone eating McDonalds would be akin to a torture camp.
But I have a very selfless husband. He assured me it was okay.
By the time we got the drive-through, I was ravenous. I knew that $1 cheeseburgers weren’t gonna cut it.
I’ll never know what got into me. I ordered the Double Quarter pounder with 2 slices of cheese. With fries. And a coke. I’ve never had one before, but I figured that more meat is better, right?
It wasn’t until I was 5 bites into it that I realized.
BIG MISTAKE.
There was sooo much more meat than I’m used to. I couldn’t even swallow and started to gag.
Unfortunately, this happened as I was trying to tell Jesse something.
So he noticed the gagging, the watery eyes, the panicked look on my face as I choked.
“What??” he asked, as he was trying to keep us alive in the sea of Dallas-Kamikaze drivers trying to hit us on the freeway.
I managed to swallow, but still kept coughing. And then, I didn’t know what to say. I mean, what was I gonna complain about? Too much meat? Oh Jesse, this awful burger! It just has wayyy too much meat in it. Poor, poor me!!
That’s not gonna come across well to a guy who hasn’t had any since the beginning of Lent.
And then, I looked up and caught him staring wistfully at my burger. He had the “Gollum with Ring” look.
“That smells soooo good….” he said quietly. I think I even detected a tear in his eye.
After that, of course, I kept quiet about how there was way too much meat in my burger. I finished it– I MADE myself, because, after all, I spent $4 on that thing, and I needed enough fuel to get me through until we went out to dinner after Liturgy.
We weren’t even in the church parking lot before my stomach started hurting. On top of that, I had told Jenny I would sing in the choir because she was leading (instead of our usual choir director) and she wanted to make sure there was help.
Naturally, singing for 2 hours is better when you aren’t LOADED DOWN with a 1/2 lb. of beef and 64g of fat.
Man, oh man. By the time Liturgy was over, my stomach ache had progressed into a full-on battle in my abdomen. All I wanted to do was crawl up in my bed at home.
Unfortunately, Jason and Jesse were starving, and so they took us all to Gengis Grill, a Mongolian BBQ place. I couldn’t bring myself to get more food, but I did order a little dessert– some vanilla icecream– to munch on while everyone ate. Drinking water helped as well.
Oh well. Better choices next time, eh?
Slow For The Cone Zone 