The Food Sucks

Why is it that food in Leesville is like food in a foreign country? And why can't it happen to be like a foreign country with good fodd? :/

Seriously, even the McDonald's, while okay, has a different menu it. The menu includes biscuits with sausage gravy. I know I'm in the minority here (but not as much in the minority as when I thought the legisture should get pay raises), but I hate sausage and I hate sausage gravy. Most of all, I hate that, while I'm eating my hotcakes, MIL pours sausage gravy over her bisquits and eats them with a fork at 7 a.m. Gag. And I need six small meals (pregnant, blood sugar issues during pregnancy, diagnosed issues with my digestive system, and not crashing after a meal...I mean NEED) instead of two HUGE ones.

The Chinese place, for lunch, has reasonable food. The problem? Since no one eats there, the buffet isn't that fresh. (It's buffet only.) Also, the real Chinese food stuff, like meats and veggies with gravy, is sparse. There's a lot of chicken nuggets and warmed up fries. Ick.

Supper at Ryan's was the worse. Cold steak, no Sprite, baked potatoes only at the end of the meal and far undercooked, dressings all creamy with no vinegar selection, no fried chicken until dessert time, lots of overcooked, yucky, nonseasoned vegetables. Blah!

Cooking at home isn't much better. There's margarine instead of butter. Cheese looks fine, but the bag reveals it is past its expiration date. The water has a yellowish hue and the fridge is stuffed with off-brand Dr. Pepper and no bottled water or Sprite (pregnant girl talking here, obviously). Oreo cookies are...gasp...white and not chocolate. There's tons of fruit, but most of it involves peaches or cantaloup (both gag-inducing at this stage of pregnancy). I see a watermelon. There's talk of watermelon. There are promises of watermelon. The watermelon is NEVER actually cut. :( The bread is all white bread (while I'm a whole wheat kind of girl). It's not that I can't eat here. It's just that I'm starving (again, growing baby in tummy), slightly nauseous (tummy full of baby), and want food that is my type of food. I am not looking forward to lunch. It's just roast beef, right? But there's no po-boy bread for a sandwich (which would be perfect, with the garden fresh tomatoes on the counter that MIL...holy cow...wants to refrigerate and slice 'em all up...seriously, it's tomatoe torture...eat teh darn things instead...they are great with just salt and pepper). The sides, as always, will be mashed potatoes (she won't make enough) and corn (bland, from a can). There won't be a good gravy (though she knows how to make one, she won't bother). The food won't be ready at lunch time (because they all like to skip breakfast, eat later, and then gorge themselves). I'll be starving, and even though I'll grab breakfast at McDs, again, my blood sugar will crash and then soar.

For supper, she'll serve leftovers of the lunch that I didn't enjoy. And when I make myself something else, or grab a pizza or a salad, she'll roll her eyes and talk about how picky other people (because she won't dare criticize me one more time, since I threatened to take her out for some fresh sushi if she mentions cantaloup ONE MORE F'ING TIME) are about food.

I need my frozen waffles with butter, lite syrup, and center cut bacon. I need a pB&j (creamy, not crunchy...one wheat...with blackberry preserves). I need a huge salad, with lettuce that isn't white and tomatoes that are diced not sliced, and real balsamic vinegar. {insert sobbing tears of a hungry, pregnant lady here}

Or, really, I'd do with a cup of cafe' au lait and a flaky croissant, but c'est la vie.

Etcetera.

4:23 a.m.

Ugh. I am wide awake. I slept okay last night. I brought my own pillow and was asleep by 10:30 p.m. But the bed is hard and a double (not a queen) and my leg hurts and my eye hurts. My leg swoll up a bit on the ride here and I'm still suffering from it. My eye has a sty in it. I'm thirsty, but MIL only has huge jugs of water, so I need to get some bottles of water if I want to keep something in my room overnight. (Something about certain water systems makes me ill. I suspect it's something the water is treated with, since even eating food cooked in quite a bit of water in certain areas gives me stomach issues.)

Ander is still sleeping great in the other room, in a really big boy bed. It's a double with a lot of height, but he seems very happy there. In fact, when we finally put him to bed at 10 p.m. (after giving him a few minutes after the ride to visit with Grandma), he keep saying, "I not go night night." All the while, he was climbing into bed and falling asleep. ;)

Did I mention I could really do for some bacon. Oh, and waffles. And OJ. And raisin toast. Hmm...and some...

Etcetera.

Killing Time

I have an hour before my meeting. I only brought a certain amount of work with me because I wanted to remember the stuff I'm bringing to deal with at MILs and because I only had about 2 nonmeeting hours of work today. But now I'm done with what I brought and have time left to waste.

I did go to Wal-mart to pick up a couple of things. One is pre-measured servings of Benadryl. My son is so allergic to bugs! He swells up like crazy. So I'm putting some premeasures in my purse and giving my mom some, just in case. The other is a Magna Doodle, for the drive tonight. I hope he likes it. He's been writing i and o a lot, and we are working on m and a and s.

I wonder what the four hours in the car tonight will do to my ankles? And I wonder what sleeping in a strange bed, when I already cannot sleep because of aches and pains and MASSIVE stomach will do to my disposition? Plus, food in Leesville SUCKS, and I'm into eating right now, but having a bit of an overstuffed pregnancy feelings, meaning I have to eat often, but not too much at a time. MIL eat two huge meals a day, and for some unknown reason, my constant eating seems to disturb her. I should be fun. :(

My BIL ONCE AGAIN expressed his concern that about me not going into another room when breastfeeding. Seriously, I am squeamish enough about breastfeeding without having him on my case. I plan to be very discreet. No one will be seeing my girl stuff (a bit for their sake, because I think being discrete is courteous, but mostly for my sake, as I am quite prudish)...except that I might not be as discrete around him, 'cause he is seriously p'ing me off! (Stac Cole, if you are wondering, it's not Tim. But you already knew that, right? ;))

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Drives Me Crazy

On the way to Laplace, on Airline Highway, there are electronic road signs that say things like, "Slow Down" and "One Road Highway Ahead" and "Reduced Speed Limit Ahead." The problem? All untrue. There is no construction or one road roadway and these signs have been up forever. Our tax dollars are probably paying for that. Sigh. Plus, people are learning to ignore the false information. But what happens when/if the information becomes true. Wolf, wolf.

Etcetera.

Heaven

My mom babysits a wonderfully sweet little girl who is just a bit older than Ander. A few weeks ago, her grandpa died suddenly.

Well, this morning, I told the little girl it was my mom's birthday, and that my mom is OLD. And the little girl responded, "when I'm old, I'm going to go to heaven."

Awwww.

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Packing Toys

For a trip to MILs, how much toys shoudl we pack. On one hand, we want to bring some familiar stuff. On the other, MIL always has things Ander can play with, and we don't want to bring our whole house.

For sure, I'll pack a bag of toys for the car and hopefully remember to charge the dvd player.

Etcetera.