Day 2

Rough day.

Several people are having e-mail trouble and looking to me for a fix, the phone was ringing off the hook, I'm unprepared to help close our books for the past month, and, since we've been short-staffed the past few days, I had to go do multiple food drive pick-ups that required lots of lifting. I was worried that I would run out of energy. But I haven't. Yet. I am feeling a little frazzled. I don't feel terribly hungry, but who the heck knows.

Let's see - Hunger Challenge. Well, last night I had a grilled chicken breast, a raw carrot and a giant red potato. Almost had a meal just with the potato. We often have a little snack in the evening (dessert, if you will), and last night my wife says she does not want to eat any good snacks in front of me. I play the stalwart and tell her to eat what she will - I have Schnucks Duplex Cookies to enjoy. She said the same thing tonight. Again, I tell her to eat what she will. She's been eating warm pretzels dipped in cheese. I can deal with that, for now. But I think that one of these days, if she starts eating ice cream with that Magic Shell in front of me, I'm going to have to bump the spoon out of her hand.

This morning I did the Cinnamon Crunch Total again. That's going to get dull real quick. I had to sneak in one of my bananas around 10:00am before doing my first round of food drive pick-ups. For lunch it was a bagel with PB&J again. Then a couple of cookies. Those cookies are currently what are keeping me sane. Needs me some sweets.

A funny thing - someone came into my office yesterday and asked for one of the company gas cards. I opened the drawer and low and behold - there was an open bag of Peanut M&M's I had forgotten about. Now I will have to forget about it some more. Don't worry folks, I didn't stray.

For dinner tonight I had another chicken breast with a steamed carrot and some Ramen noodles. Ramen noodles are a much maligned treat. I drank the broth, folks, and I ain't gonna apologize. Then I cut up another cooked breast and put it in a pot with a shredded carrot. Brought that to a boil and added chicken- flavored Ramen. Cooked the noodles and let the whole thing cool. Put the concoction in a tupperware bowl and plan to eat that soup for lunch one day.

You want to know what I miss the most so far? Beverages. On a day like today when I was out doing labor, I would have stopped and gotten something to drink. But all I had was water.

Tomorrow is a different story. There is work that needs to be done before the warehouse can open for food distribution. Since I left some of that work, I feel the need to go in early and do it. I would normally stay late but it was already close to 6:00pm when I left and my tummy was growling. But I know I won't be able to do it ealry in the morning on just a bowl of cereal. So I think I'm going to spend part of my remaining cash and buy something cheap but satisfying in the morning. Like a donut.

Yes, $0.65 for a donut. That would leave me with about $0.85 for the next four days.