Food your friend food my enemy

So what to do when your fiancé is so exhausted from work and such he passed out on the floor and was asleep in less then 30 seconds, and me exhausted from battling this flare-up, but after multiple tries and treatments nap is a big negative, so perfect time to post.

After a very long day, I am drained both physically and mentally, so I have decided to take a little road block, sending us back a little ways.  Back to before I had NG tubes, G and J tubes, back to before when I could eat real food and not rely on TPN( IV nutrition), back to when I could be an athlete, back to when I could be a college student and party without the fear that one sip of alcohol could kill me now because of one of my meds, back to when I was "normal" whatever that means.


So I challenge you......
If you woke up tomorrow morning and found out you could no longer eat real food, what foods would you miss the most??  What restaurant would you miss most?
If you woke up tomorrow morning and realized that your energy level was so low you had to minimize your activities, which activities would you miss most???


please comment with your answers if you accept the challenge.


So growing up I was very picky but I loved to eat and I had a very fast metabolism and my mom had us in so many activities, soccer, dance, cheerleading.... so I was always very thin.  Throughout my middle school and high school  years  my noni ( Italian for grandmother) and I had a very special bond and we still have that today.  I speak to her almost every day and no post is posted without her hearing it first. 
My family life, like all others was different.  For a lot of it my mom played both mom and dad, and worked a lot to pay the bills and no matter what we always had a hot home cooked meal every night even if dinner was ready as soon as we got off the school bus, 3:30. But my mom kept all, 5 of us, involved in as much as she could.  As we got older and the demands and commitments got harder, noni helped a lot.


I think one the reason my noni and I were so close was because starting in 6th grade noni worked in the same building I went to school in.  So I have a lot of memories of my noni picking me up in the morning  and driving in to school with her.  I still remember every night noni would take my order for breakfast from the Bread Basket for the next morning, don't remember 100% but I think it probably was a chocolate chip muffin.  The bread Basket has been gone for years, however my primary pharmacy is in its spot and sometimes when I go to the pharmacy I kind of get flash backs of where cases were and that fresh bread smell. Noni worked a little earlier then school started and left a little after school ended, so I spent a lot of time there with her.  I have a lot of memories and they seem to all be around food.  Throughout middle school till I was 14 I remember spending a lot of time driving and eating with my noni.  Sometimes I would take the bus, but most of the time noni would drive me home or take me and or my sisters to dance classes which were in Ashland down the street from her home.  Depending on class schedules sometimes we would do dinner before class, many memories at Papa Gino's, a lot of them involving my sister and her walrus teeth, her ziti.  Also a favorite was Tasty Treat, since I was and still are obsessed with chicken salad sandwiches, although noni's chicken salad cannot be beat!!  If it was a day that we did not have time to get dinner first, we would stop at the "store on the hill" to fill up on "healthy snacks," Oreos and combos and candy...:)  The people that owned and worked there all knew us by name and noni well.  He would even save us a parking spot on marathon day.  Depending on my mom's schedule and our schedules sometimes noni would have to pick us up from dance as well and usually taking us to cheer practice or soccer.  Sometimes she would take us home but usually on those nights I can remember going to friendly's with her for dinner and although I have not been to that friendly's in a while, but a couple of years, the waitress still remembered us and would always ask about my noni. 


At the age of 14 I got my first job, so instead of going to dance she would drive me to Nobscot to work. All through HS, noni chauffeured me around a lot helping my mom out. My high school was within walking distance of noni's work so I would sometimes walk over or she would pick me up after track practice sometimes to go to work or just to go home.  And still no matter where I was going she would make sure I had dinner or money for dinner.  Throughout H.S., I split my time living with my mom and living with noni.  When I was staying with noni, school mornings, we would go to honey dew first to get noni a corn muffin and a jelly donut, and then we would stop at dunkin donuts for me because I didn't and don't like honey dew.  But again most of my memories have something to do with food.  And trust me when I say Dunkin Donuts is definitely not on the gastroparesis diet.


As long as I can remember I never really fit into a specific "clique."  I had friends but not many.  I have always been awkward in social situations and I really don't like confrontation.  I am a  self guarded person, I have a large wall and it is very hard to get past.  Going to a expensive private catholic high school, as the "scholarship kid" made me more anti social.  I didn't like to party, I didn't smoke, I didn't drink I didn't drive a mustang however I did train hard, I competed hard and I was my hardest critic. I did make a few close  friends however I did not go there for the "social", aspect, I went there to be challenged and to be pushed and to be ready for college.  I didn't care about the "mustang club" or the parties I cared about working hard and achieving as much as I could.


I started working at he age of 14 and throughout high school I worked a lot.  When I had down time  rather then going to the mall or hanging out with friends, I would go on lunch dates with noni and my 2 aunts, Rita and jean.  We used to be known at a lot of different restaurants.  We had some favorites, Carbone's, Tjs, Applebee's and even some pubs,   When it came to types of food we were not discriminatory.  I'm sure people thought I was a loser because my free times were spent with "three little old ladies", but honestly those are some of the best memories I have.  When I first started having the gastroparesis symptoms, we still made it a priority to get together weather it was just me and noni or me an the "three little old ladies" to have lunch and laugh. As I got sicker we had to adjust more, so we could only go to restaurants close to my house or there's, and then it just got to the point where lunch dates stopped for a while.  When noni would go out with her sisters some of the staff at restaurants would ask about me.  Noni still tries to make me things and Javier says keep it coming.:)  My aunts have moved on to being butterflies but my noni is still here and even though my food intake is not the same, we still try to go out to "eat" as much as possible. I think at first people were uncomfortable even inviting me to anywhere that has food, however now if I feel they are being secretive I just jump in and invite myself.  I think sometimes people forget that yes, restaurants and parties have food, but they are also a time to make memories.  
MEMORIES LAST FOR EVER, EVENTUALLY YOUR FOOD AND BEER RUN OUT