Hello again, kids.
This past weekend has been long and not wholly enjoyable for me, or for several of my loved ones, and it hasn’t quite ended yet, and I’m not sure when or if it even will finally get resolved.
Sometimes life blindsides you.
Do you ever encounter a certain food that reminds you so strongly of someone you love that just hearing about it forces an involuntary smile to wash over your face? One of those smiles you just can’t get rid of and don’t even know you’re smiling until someone points it out?
Olives are one of these foods for me.
Mind you, I am one of the pickiest eaters you’re likely to meet LOL. I drove my parents crazy as a child for a lot of reasons, but a good portion of their frustration came out of dealing with my finicky palate. There are just a lot of foods that I don’t like to eat.
Like olives.
Back when I first met my boyfriend, he was intensely curious about how our grocery shopping list might look, and about which restaurants I enjoyed eating at, and about which foods I could eat all the time and never tire of, and it eventually brought me to tell him that we may wind up shopping for our groceries separately some day LOL. He loves a variety of foods. Lots of spicy and rich foods that I can’t handle, exotic foods that I’m too scared to try, different spreads (he’s the reason they sell salmon-flavored cream cheese in your local grocery stores, kids lol) that I actually have tried and just can’t stomach, and… well…
Olives.
We were talking one night when I was eating dinner, and dinner that night happened to be tuna casserole. My father hasn’t been a very active parent from what I remember, but one contribution I always remember him making on occasion is tuna casserole. If my mom felt too tired to care about cooking dinner for my brother and me when we were kids, my dad would sometimes come home and make tuna casserole. The only dish he ever learned how to cook. Now, this wasn’t as selfless an act as it sounds lol. He only made it because he liked it, so if we didn’t like it, I’m pretty sure he would have made it anyway just to have some food for dinner… but, as it happens, we all do like it. However, there is one aspect to his classic tuna casserole that I can’t stand.
He douses it with olives.
I actually ate them for a while, but soon found that I just couldn’t stomach it. I voiced my complaint, saying it basically ruined the food for me when I couldn’t taste anything but olives, and I suggested that he leave a bowl of olives out next to the food so he, my mom, and my brother could add them to their own bowls as they pleased and leave the rest of the food untouched.
Apparently, that was a shitty idea, and to this day, my father douses his tuna casserole in olives.
And I still hate them.
So, when I was talking to my boyfriend on this fateful night while getting dinner, I was dismayed once more to find that what could be excellent food had been killed with olive overload, and I’m pretty sure that I was so sick of them at one point that I told him even one olive would kill it LOL. I was picking them out of my food so I could get rid of most of the taste before eating, so I wasn’t being unreasonable about it, but it was still incredibly aggravating.
“You don’t like olives???”
Not particularly LOL.
This may have been the beginning of our trail down the grocery shopping lane, discovering which foods he loves that I hate, because he followed it up by telling me he loved them LOL. It’s a shame he lives so far away because I would gladly have let him eat mine, and I told him so.
Since then, whenever tuna casserole has been served for dinner, I always tell him about the olives, and I can’t see an olive without thinking of him, and it never fails to make me smile.
Care to guess what my father made for dinner last night? LOL
Another batch of tuna casserole, of course. Showered to bloody fucking hell with olives. And I smiled.
But it was a little bit painful this time around.
I haven’t really gotten a chance to talk to my boyfriend since Saturday morning. His mom is completely under his care and living with him, as she has been since late 2005. She had a stroke just before I met him, but we didn’t find out about it until about 6 months into the relationship. She lived over 500 miles away from him, so even when they talked, he didn’t have any idea of what was going on… and it became clear soon afterward that his mom didn’t either. Since that time, she’s undergone some stroke-related form of dementia and can’t take care of herself, as she doesn’t even know who she is, so he basically became her legal guardian and she’s been living with him ever since. He has no brothers or sisters, and his father died when he was 16, so it was really the only option, and it’s been hard on him having to take over that role after being independent and care free for so long… but he’s managing it better than I ever could.
And now she’s terribly sick, kids. She’s been in the hospital since Sunday, and he’s been there with her for most of that time. She’s got some kind of infection, but they don’t know what it is yet, and it doesn’t sound very good. It’s hard enough being in a long distance relationship on any normal day, but when you really want to be there for situations like these and you can’t, it gets physically painful. The hospital wants to keep his mom for tests and observation until this coming Sunday at the very least, but who knows what happens after that?
Or even while we wait?
I don’t know, kids. But I don’t like the way it’s sounding so far, and I can only hope that they figure out what’s infecting her quickly so she can get on the road to recovery. Prayers or good thoughts would be appreciated, if you’re so inclined. Life seems very still for me right now, and I’m afraid of what happens when it starts moving again.
We’ll see how it goes when we get there…
Signing off for now.
<3 Goldy <3
I hate olives too. But I also hate all seafood. The only kind I can stand is fish sticks and then only if I have plenty of tartar sauce.
I love Olives, but HATE anything Fishy!
I hope b/f Mother recovers very soon, it must be a very worring time for him and you too.
Ugh! I hate olives too…. but I love seafood!!!
I really hope your boyfriend’s mom gets out of the hospital soon… *pout* Hospitals are creepy…
*huggles* <3 <3 <3
*Healthy good vibes to boyfriend’s mom*
My wonderful boyfriend has similar tastes to yours…he won’t eat anything spicy, sea food, anything green…the list goes on and on, I love shrimp and salads and cooking for him is horrendus.
Never liked olives. But then again I used to hate quite a lot of foods that I don’t mind eating these days. Sometimes it’s just down to how it’s used. Like for instance I don’t generally like onions either, but I don’t mind eating it in certain foods, just as long as it’s chopped finely enough.
And hope she gets well soon.
Mr. F: I like some seafood… Crab, salmon, tuna and fish sticks are generally okay by me. I used to like shrimp, but then I found out how they’re prepared and I can’t eat them anymore LOL. Ick.
Mike: LOL I understand your pain, to some extent. Seafood doesn’t have the best smell ever… even considering the random seafood items I do like eating LOL. Thanks for the well wishing. She’s still not out of the hopsital and they’re still searching for the infection, so it’s going to be trying for a while, I think.
Miss Aly: Thanks muchly, lovey. The closest I’ve been to being in a hospital is having my X-rays and ultrasounds done in an outpatient hospital, and even that can be creepy. It’s not as “sterile” as regular hospitals, though, so it’s a little friendlier. *huggles right back*
Oyster: Thanks for the good vibes! They’re very much needed, I think… And I have one-up on your boyfriend. I LOVE salads and veggies, so I’m good there LOL. It’s meat products that I have the most issues with, followed closely by spicy things lol. But a good salad is alright by me.
MrIQ: See, I really like onions and will eat them on their own if they’re red onions lol, but I can’t do that with everything. They’re generally better minced up in food, though lol. I wonder if olives taste better when placed in martinis LOL.
And thanks for the get-well hoping.