Eat It With Your Face

I think I have a problem.

Hoarding runs in my family. I have relatives that live in fire hazards, not houses. It’s something I actually struggle with - my beloved other half is a big help in that, reminding me when I try to keep something I don’t really need and secretly throwing away things I keep anyway. (This is a spoken agreement between us, not something mean she does.)

But I realized last night that my hoarding goes farther than just keeping every piece of paper that comes across my desk.

Last night, I was making some pasta for dinner. When the water had boiled (and I had already started making the sauce at that point) I discovered that I didn’t have any of the normal, everyday pasta that we normally eat. We did, however, have a couple packets of fancy pasta that my former colleauges had given me as part of my going-away present. (They gave me food. These people know me well.)

I went to the computer room, where the other half was watching YouTube videos. “We don’t have any spiraly pasta left,” I said. “We just have the fancy stuff. But I wanted to save it for…”

And in that moment, I realized there was nothing that I was actually saving it for. I wanted to use it for something “special,” but what exactly was that?

“Never mind,” I said. “I’ll cook up some of that.”

So we had our tomato and veggie pasta sauce with chili pasta last night. It was tasty, although I think the chili pasta probably needed a more creamy sauce to stand up to its spice. But that’s okay! At least it hasn’t sat in my cupboard past its use-by date.