Comiendo Sola

From Sugarspeak Baking by Jenny Weber

May 7, 2009

I can’t recall the last time I ate dinner alone. My job dictates that dinner is gobbled down in the moments between the maestro taking the stage and the complaining patrons at intermission. I am never alone. There is security checking in, ushers at the window, colleagues seated beside me. My evenings off become filled with some sort of activity or interaction so that I am not alone at dinner.

Tonight I was alone for dinner. A situation I am still getting used to after almost a full year in this apartment. But I did not find myself feeling the same melancholy as I have on other nights when I find myself alone. Or on the nights following dinner with friends or family. There is something about the fullness of one evening that makes the subsequent ones all the lonelier.

I thought to myself this evening to make it different. Write a blog while you eat. Keep yourself connected, occupied, and help yourself to eat slower and enjoy the dinner. And, for goodness sake, do not settle for granola and yogurt or another reheated leftover waffle. The next best thing (I was starving after a full day running around this city) was a simple grilled cheese sandwich. Whole wheat bread, gouda and fontina cheese, sliced smoked turkey, a touch of spicy mustard, and a cup of coffee.

The coffee will be the subject of another blog.