The Chicken That Knocked Me Out

I had to go to the chiropractor today. I always feel like such an old lady when I tell people I have a bad hip. I mean, only old ladies have bad hips, right? Nope! So I go in once every few months and the doctor gets me back into proper working order. 

The chiropractic office is in a town about 40 miles away, and Mom, N. and I decided to make a day of shopping around my appointment. There is a cute Main Street with craft stores and antique shops. While we were in the General Store, I looked down to discover a medium brown spider reclining on my cardigan. I flicked him off with a gasp of disgust, and he landed somewhere among the old fashioned candy display... I would recommend checking the next time you buy candy. You never know what might be lurking there. I felt creepy the rest of the time we were there, like the spider might be watching me or waiting to leave with us.

My Dad has Crohn's and is thus very limited in what he can and cannot eat. Usually, we all try to stick with his restrictions so that he doesn't feel left out, but every so often we will make a pizza or buy ravioli or eat steak and make him something else. Today he had decided not to spend 'girl time' shopping, so we had unlimited choices. We decided on the large deli attached to the grocery store and spent 15 minutes looking at all the menus. There was so much to choose from! Pastrami sandwich, mozzarella sticks, macaroni and cheese, corn dogs, creamy tomato soup, chili, etc. I think it was too overwhelming, because you know what we did? We got the chicken dinner. All of those delectable things, and we all picked a meal that we can eat any day of the week at home. In fact, 'chicken and green beans' is the standard answer we give people when they ask what Dad can eat. He can eat more than just that, but that is the simplest answer to give people without going through the entire list of 'Nope, nope, definitely not, etc.' 

It was the best chicken dinner I have ever had. The chicken breast was fried to perfection, the roll was soft, and there was a mountain of potatoes flowing with gravy. We all ate like we had never had anything like it before in our lives. 

I was so stuffed when we got up, I could barely scoot out of the booth. Three hours later on the way home, we were still talking about how full we were. And sleepy. You know how after puppies eat, their bellies get all full and they just flop over into a pile and take a nap? That is all I could think about the minute I finished that lunch. Sleep. I needed sleep.

By the time we got home I felt like the back half of my brain had simply shut down. The other half had a task to finish before turning off. It had now been five hours since lunch and I was still full, but it is my duty as a housewife to make dinner and keep the troops fed, so I stumbled around with pots and pans until I finally dumped the spaghetti noodles into a colander and stirred the pasta sauce one more time. I called for dinner and told them to clean up after they ate, because I wasn't doing one more thing until I got some sleep. Now that DST has pushed the clocks back an hour, it is getting dark at five o'clock, so my room was completely black when I hit the pillow. Usually I have very vivid dreams and never get past the REM stage of sleeping because I can wake at the drop of a hat. This was more like the drop of a bomb... I remember nothing, and I never even twitched a muscle. 

I woke up two hours ago like it was a new day. I feel like I could do Mensa puzzles and actually solve them. However, I want to know what was in that chicken... it gave me the best two hour nap in my life.

Have a naptime story you want to share? I'd love to hear it!