everydaywithvj

Don’t you love those fresh fruit pies at Marie Callender’s? Big, juicy, ripe, strawberries. Gorgeous, ripe, boysenberries. Golden, sweet, perfectly ripe, peaches. Each in a perfectly flaky crust, covered with a wonderful glaze, and with a big scoop of freshly whipped cream on top. Ahhhh, such sweet memories. I haven’t had any of those pies in many years.

So yesterday, at the Marie Callender’s in Ranch Palos Verdes, I saw the peach pie as I walked in, Mom and her caregiver, Agnes, in tow. I thought “I shouldn’t”. Then I read the menu and thought about how long it had been since I’d had that fresh peach pie. I pictured the pie slice being served to me as I remembered it from the past. A generous cut from a freshly prepared pie. Perfectly sliced, fresh, juicy ripe peaches, in a delicious glaze, falling all over the crust in a big bowl. The big splash of whipped cream on top obviously just spooned from a bowl. Yes. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa. I decided to splurge.

We ordered. We wait. Mom gets her potato soup. Agnes gets her shrimp tacos. And then my pie arrives. Are you kidding me? How long has this been going on? A small size aluminum foil type pie plate. Big pieces of a not yet ripe peaches looking as though they were cut with a hatchet. In a crust. An ordinary crust. With whipped cream squirted around the edge. Luckily there was a knife and fork at my place because I used them to cut the peaches into bite sized portion.

I was crushed! But, I was sitting with my mother, and 103 or not, she was already giving me the evil eye for ordering the pie, and I didn’t feel like going through the angst of explaining to her why I was disappointed. So, gamely, I sat there and smiled, and cut the peaches into bite sizes and said, YUM! But inside, in that little place where I secretly know the calorie and fat count. There, where I convince myself to splurge now and then. In that place it was a dark day. I had splurged on a sinful number of calories and it didn’t even come close to very good, let alone wonderful, absolutely delicious, amazing, awesome, and all the other adjectives I’d planned on using.

Nevertheless . . . . . .

Every Day Is A Good Day – VJ