Familiar

Sometimes I like things, particularly edible things, not because they are good, but because they remind me of other things.

Sometimes when I have to work on a Saturday morning, I will treat myself to a Tim Hortons sausage breakfast sandwich on a biscuit. It might be my favorite food item on their menu.

I was eating one a couple of weeks ago when I realized that they don't actually taste that great. What I also realized is that they remind me of the biscuits and sausage gravy that Gram, my great-grandma who passed away a couple of years ago, used to make me for breakfast when I visited her as a child. Mmmmm, it was my favorite breakfast. Many Canadians do not understand how a person can consume such a heavy meal in the morning like that (many Canadians also do not understand the idea of donuts for breakfast, something that I can agree with), but my Gram was a true southern woman and that is what we ate at her house.

I think the only reason that I like the breakfast sandwich is that it reminds me of Gram.

Something that I am not particularly fond of is Nestea. To me, iced tea is made when you brew some tea, make it cold, then add some sugar and lemon to it. It does not come from a can. I've tried to learn to enjoy Nestea. I even started calling it "special lemonade" in hopes that I would forget that it had any relation to iced tea, but the stuff is just not very good.

One time, when I was working at camp, I was having a really bad day. I was sitting on the couch with Cassy in Sam's cabin (it was the summer before Sam and I shared the nurse's cabin). I think we were sitting in the dark, too, so that nobody would know that we were not working.

That summer, Sam and I took several trips to America to buy brown cream soda and our fridge was literally full of it. I love brown cream soda, so I figured that drinking one might make me feel better. So, I grabbed a can out of the fridge, opened it, and took a big sip.

Wouldn't you know, someone had put a can of "special lemonade" in our fridge. A single can of "special lemonade" amidst about 100 cans of brown cream soda. That is the can I picked, and it was terrible. It was so terrible that it was hilarious and it made me feel better.

Today I had a crappy day. I was bustling around work and got to thinking about the sausage biscuit and how it doesn't really taste good but I like it anyways because of the familiar feeling it gives me. I remembered that bad day I had at camp a few years back and how funny it was when I drank the "special lemonade."

"Maybe if I drink some Nestea," I thought to myself, "I will laugh and feel better."

So, I got my Nalgene, went to the fountain machine, and poured myself some "special lemonade." I drank it, and it was terrible, but I kept on drinking it in hopes that it would make me feel better. When I finished, I was mostly thinking about how terrible it tasted and how I needed to drink something else to get the taste out of my mouth. Then, I realized that my plan for feeling better was a little bit ridiculous and not very effective, so I chuckled at myself.

It didn't really end up making me feel better (arriving home from work did make me feel better), but it was kind of humorous.