Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Ruined my a commercial

This was going to be an AWESOME day!  I woke up a little early, snuggled Austin a little before Jim and he headed off to daycare, checked my e-mail, watched a little NBC5 morning news.  Being my late night at work, and not having to leave my house until 9:30AM, I elected not to shower before dropping the kids off at school, and instead giving us all about 10 extra wake-up minutes.  The girls woke up at the same time, both smiley and excited.  (perhaps this should have been my first clue that the morning was going to tank).  They got dressed without argument, helped me vacuum the living room, they ate breakfast pleasantly, and we were out the door, with 5 minutes to spare (clue number 2). 

After dropping them off, I came home, made my lunch, and flipped the TV back on in the bedroom as I picked out my outfit.  Golden Girls was on, and who doesn't feel better about themselves after hearing Rose talk.  So, I was doing that game where I was trying to figure out if I watched just one more segment of the show what I could do to get out the house faster (put contacts in at work, not blow dry my hair, etc.)

And then it happened.  The commercial that (I have allowed to) ruin my day.  Marie Callender's Microwave Lasagna.  Three Meat and Four Cheese Lasagna, to be exact.

The commercial starts with some deep throaty male talking about good fresh ingredients that you want to serve to your family.  Fresh noodles.  Bubbling cheeses.  Ripe tomatoes.  Cut to a smiling mother setting a fork and knife on a cloth napkin.  (Cloth?  Really?  I am all about saving the Earth, but get real).  She sets the table with love, dons her oven mitts, and SURPRISE!  This meal came from your microwave! She beckons her family who come in from gardening and something else.  You, too, can now feed your family this wonderful meal!  Look at how happy and peaceful they are sitting around the rustic wooden table with a crusty loaf of bread and having great conversation!

Irritated, I jump into the shower.  And then I am lost in that mad daydream world where you think about how you want you life to be, and try and plan for how to get there.  I want to be there.  I want to be the mom who stays at home and sews her own cloth napkins, and then has time to dry and iron them.  I want to be the mom who slips the lasagna noodles into a pot of boiling water and remembers in 11 minutes to come and pull them out gently.  I want to then go to my fruitful garden and pick fresh tomatoes, green peppers, and onions.  I would then chop, peel, and dice until I had the perfect sauce.  Right about this time I would start working on a crusty sour-dough loaf, letting to rise and pounding it down gently.  The kids would come through the door happy, showing off wonderful works of art and math test with giant A+'s on them.

Then the water got cold and I was jerked back into reality.  My reality ~ paper napkins, when I rememeber, otherwise your sleeve is fine.  Mac and cheese is about as creative as we get with pasta, and the garden certainly has more weeds than tomatoes.  And I should be ok with that....but today it irritates me. 

The End