Morning post...morning oatmeal...morning postmeal--see what I did there?This is a ridiculous post for sure, but I just have to share my morning "aha" moment.
I eat this Quaker Fruit & Cream oatmeal nearly every morning. I know there's probably much better breakfast options, even much better oatmeal options, but these are 130 calories a packet and super portable for when I'm at work. In fact I have a box sitting in my work locker, and I make it with hot water from the coffee machines. (Sometimes I even get to eat it before lunch time...)
But that's not the point.
The package comes with strawberries & cream, blueberries & cream, bananas & cream, and peaches & cream. Of the 4 flavors, my least favorite is the peaches & cream. Not that I have anything against peaches, but of all of them in the box, peaches are the least sexy, most ordinary flavor.
I like to play a little game with myself in the morning, and reach into the box blindly, to see what flavor I get. It's fun to me, because like the mystical iPod Shuffle always picking a pertinent song, it seems that I end up with a flavor that suits my day. You know, like a gastronomical horoscope. A breakfast fortune cookie.
I equate bananas & cream to having a crazy day--as is apt to happen on an ICU from time to time. I associate strawberries & cream with the strawberry patches from when I was child, so these days tend to be nostalgic. Blueberries & cream tend to point to an all around excellent day. Peaches & cream, well, just an ordinary day.
See what I mean? Being told you're going to have a peaches & cream day is a little bit of a disappointment.
And it seems like I pull peaches & cream so much more often than the other flavors. Disproportionately so.
As I thought about this, I ruminated on what implications that concept bears on my life, my goals, my aspirations. Why did I feel like, more often than not, I was living a peaches & cream life? I pondered the thought of how to create more blueberries & cream days; how to enjoy the strawberries & cream days, and just roll with the bananas & cream days.
And then I noticed something on the box. Turns out in every box there's 2 bananas & cream packets, 2 strawberries & cream packets, 2 blueberries & cream packets, and 4 peaches & cream packets.Maybe my life isn't as ordinary as I was lamenting.
And...sometimes I make my own head hurt.
Regardless, eat your oatmeal!
As Wilford Brimley says, "It's the right thing to do."
