Wrapped in Wax Paper

I recently started taking my lunch to work instead of going out (as I had done for years). I had a couple goals in mind: conserve money and conserve time. I managed doing it several days straight and then I needed Taco Bell. Yes. It was a need.

On the first morning of this experiment I opted to fix sandwiches made with white bread, ham, and mustard. Yes, it was white bread - thank you very much! I can hear the health nu... conscious... among us groaning at me even now, telling me that my white bread is "unhealthy". Well to that I say "I counteracted the unhealthy white bread by using mustard, the world's perfect condiment". Enough said.

So I fixed two sandwiches - I was expecting to be really hungry - and looked for Ziploc bags to put them in. To my shock and horror, we had very few of the right size bags. Since my daughter has been taking her lunch to school and she is only 10 and fixes it herself. I opted to leave the remaining bags for her. I was the adult. I would find another solution.

I looked around. I had plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and wax paper. I was about to grab the plastic wrap when an image from elementary school flashed through my head. I remembered sitting in the lunch room in fourth grade with my little U.F.O. lunchbox. Anyone remember that TV show? It ran from 1970 to 1973. And I had a lunchbox that proudly showed that I was a nerdling.

I distinctly remember my mother packing my lunch many times. She put just what I wanted in there. Usually it was a ham and mustard sandwich, celery (see? I liked celery as a kid, that's healthy!), a "mixed fruit" fruit cup (basically sugar water with bits of fruit), and a cookie or something. Oh yeah, and a thermos of grape Kool-Aid! 

I don't know why I remember these kinds of things. I stopped asking "why" a long time ago when I found that I could remember so many mundane things but forget important stuff. Like sometimes, instead of my fruit cup, mom would give me chocolate pudding cup. And Freddie got me mad at him one day in fourth grade because he said it "looked like poop". See? Why do I remember that stuff?

And the mundane thing that came to mind was the look of the sandwiches my mother made for me, wrapped neatly in wax paper. She folded the ends together a few times until they were snug against the bread, and then tucked the ends underneath. I remember distinctly how they looked. I wanted my sandwiches to look like that.

Pulling out the wax paper, I went to wrapping. I wasted a piece of the wax paper because I did not get the length right, but I figured it out soon enough. And in under 2 minutes I had both sandwiches wrapped.

I looked at them intently. The bread was nearly square for some reason. With the sandwiches wrapped in wax paper, they looked like something you would get at an old-fashioned deli. I was proud of myself.

I brought sandwiches so far every day, each wrapped in wax paper. Maybe that is why I needed Taco Bell. And even though I have more Ziploc bags, I think I will continue to use the wax paper. Mostly because I like the way they look wrapped up.

And to think, only recently I thought there was almost no use for wax paper anymore. I was wrong. Wax paper made me happy for a little while. And that makes it a good thing.

Copyright 2012, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)