Egg salad sandwich

[amethyst73]

I arrived at the airport tonight, only to find that my flight was delayed by at least an hour and a half.  As I've taken this flight back to Boston several times, I was not particularly surprised, but I did mentally kick myself - I should know better than to sign up for this flight by now.

Anyway, that left me with oodles of time to enjoy the free wifi, check the status of the plane on its way here from JFK, chat with online buddies, call Huz, and find a meal-sized snack, to be eaten around an hour before scheduled boarding.

There's a decent little cafe in the A gates of SFO that does sandwiches and the like for only about the average amount of overpricing.  (Their bottled drinks do edge towards the border of scandalously priced, however.  I had a bottle of Orangina identical to the one I'd had at dinner and for which I'd paid $2 back on campus; here at the airport concession I had to concede something well over $3 to walk away with my drink legally.)  But I digress.

One of the several types of premade sandwiches they sold was (unsurprisingly, given the title of this entry) was egg salad.  Normally I go for something a little more exciting, but egg salad is pleasantly bland with a nice smooth texture, and late at night when I'm already tired and anticipating becoming more so, those have a certain appeal.  So, an egg salad sandwich was got.

Smells have the power to bring back memories of certain places and events.  Foods do too.

As soon as I took my first bite of that sandwich, I was brought back to the last time I'd eaten an egg salad sandwich.  It was back in early March, when we were in Auckland, we'd just climbed a volcano, and I was discovering that rocket was indeed quite similar to lettuce.  Auckland, a city I'd love to go back to, a hallmark of the marvelous vacation we had in New Zealand and Australia before coming back and having everything go merrily - or otherwise - to hell.

I cried over that sandwich, I did.  For that vacation, and the beauty we enjoyed and the time we spent together.  For my mother, lost so desperately soon afterwards.  For my father, whose birthday it is today, and who I'm visiting once this delayed flight finally departs. 

Life has changed so much since that last egg salad sandwich.  Hopefully the next time I eat it, it won't hurt quite so much.

Comments

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey. I hope the next egg salad sandwich is less sad, too. *hugs*

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

It likely will be. I had a somewhat similar experience the first time I made a particular soup after my mom died; I'd eaten a great deal of that soup immediately after her death, and the first time we ate it a couple of months later, it was hard. But the rest of that batch didn't do anything weird, emotionally; I'm assuming that the next egg salad sandwich will be better too.

[ladybird97.livejournal.com]

HUGS. Oh, I understand. Sense memory is a strange, strong thing.

Happy birthday to your father, and hugs and safe travels to you.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Here safely; flight was completely uneventful other than being ~2 hrs late when all was said and done.

[catagon3.livejournal.com]

Glad you made it at last. I hope that purge was it for this trip and you enjoy it as much as possible.

Missed you Wednesday, we read through a big pile of stuff, some new, some pre-Matthew. He wants to do Haydn Missa Brevis again sometime when we're all going to be there.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun - I'm sorry I had to miss it, but I was busy eating dinner (in Emeryville) at 7:30 Wednesday night!