Ann Ferro: Breakfast treats

You are happy with what you can have and do.
It was more than twenty years ago that most of our first floor was under construction… new ceilings, walls, etc. And dust, and more dust. It was almost impossible to cook anything, so I found ways to not cook for quite a while. One of my strategies was to eat out, particularly breakfast. At that time I was working in Syracuse and would stop every morning at the McDonalds next to Wegmans in Fairmont to buy a cup of coffee and a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, the equivalent of a Weight Watchers mortal sin. Yes, I knew that my choice was not the best, probably was the worst, but it tasted so good and I didn’t have to cook it. Two pluses against all of the negatives of fat, salt and carbs. I also got to know the woman who took my money, a senior lady who worked the early shift for what she laughingly called “pin money”. I remember when the work downstairs was finished, I made one last run to McD’s to say “goodbye”. It was a thing.
When the construction was over and the kitchen was again open, I didn’t have any excuse to partake of this forbidden food. I rearranged my thinking and put the luscious biscuit on the poison list. Didn’t have one again, until…
It was a Wednesday, an ordinary Wednesday. The cats had awakened us early. Nothing like embracing the day before 7 a.m. When I finally got downstairs to prepare breakfast, I noticed a large advertisement for Wendy’s sitting on the counter. It spoke to me. Loudly, “Hey, Ann!” The ad contained a plethora (upscale word in a less than upscale piece) of coupons that promised an inexpensive breakfast for two. Of course, the fact that someone else was cooking the food added to the seductiveness of the ad. Hmmm. Buy one breakfast biscuit, get one free added to any breakfast biscuit for two dollars equaled a field trip, breakfast out for two people who don’t go many places of late.
So, I convinced my spouse that we needed to buy paper for my printer…which was true. In fact my printer had been flashing the sign, “Add printer paper” on and off for two days. This constituted a minor emergency because I couldn’t print out all of the recipes that I would never make. Walmart had printer paper and fortunately … a kind of voila fortunate …. there was a Wendy’s nearby. Two for the price of one road trip. It all seemed to fall together. A fated breakfast.
Off we went, anticipation high for a breakfast out at a reasonable price. We went through the drive in, got our biscuits and coffee, parked in the Wendy’s lot overlooking one of the main entrances to the shopping plaza, opened the windows and enjoyed our first in years, marginally evil, forbidden food. It was great!
It tasted great, the warm arm that floated through the car windows was great and the coffee was surprisingly quite good. Yes, I know that the salt, fat, carbs and God knows what else in the biscuits, cheese, sausage and egg were not nutritionally up to par, but sometimes the psychology of the thing outweighs the other. I smiled through the whole escapade.
I spent the rest of the day in an exceptionally good mood , no doubt the stuff that behavioral professionals love to analyze. I have no plans to repeat our senior citizen escapade again unless there are coupons and then we will revisit my decision.
Tonight, salad.