Cravings

I rarely crave anything very deeply. At times, yes, but not often. Where do cravings come from anyway? Why are they so powerful? Who knows. But what I do know is that Thursday afternoon along about one o'clock I found myself wanting Arizona Ice Tea with Lemon something awful.

The thing is, although I used to drink it on occasion and did like it well enough, it's been every bit of 20 years since my last sip. Even then it was never a taste I simply had to have. It just seemed like a good option at whatever time it was, in whatever store I was in. But Thursday; I wanted Arizona Tea with Lemon, period. Nothing else, nothing, I stress, would suffice.

I threw the locks on the door of the old barn and drove the four blocks to a party store where I noticed it before and prayed absurdly hard that they had that particular Arizona variety. They did. I bought one 24 ounce can and, on return to the Shop, downed it in 15 minutes. Man, did it taste good. I almost went for another, yet my craving was basically satisfied.

I still have no idea where the desire came from. I don't think I'm pregnant, although I understand from certain corners of that Internet thing that men can be with child. Then too, with the gender fluidity that's getting bandied about, perhaps I am in fact a nubile 24 year old woman. 

That's a joke, such as it is. Yet the craving was very real.

Not Knowing What You Want

The other day I walked into a party store because I had thought I wanted a snack. But then the strangest thing happened.

The potato chips in all their myriad flavors did not appeal to me. The candy bars in all their grandeur, well, they also failed an appeal to me. The hard candies or the gummies or even the chewing gum did not call my name. I began to look over the beef jerky and other meat and cheese snacks and lo, I didn't really have a taste for any of them either. And that's when I remembered one of me Grandpa Joe's standards.

"If you don't know what you want, you don't want nuthin." I actually heard his voice saying it as I thought it.

It struck me that is a great truth in that. So I made exit from the store and was quickly back on the road.