Judgement: Olive Garden Recipes Are Comfort Food. Probably.

A comfort meal was required this evening.

Mostly because I spend most of the week exhausted. 

Sleep disrupted. Routines disrupted. Dizziness. Constantly feeling full but also weak from eating so little. Discombobulated from requests coming left and right at me and never ending.  

My need to garner sympathy has now been spewed, so I can now move forward.

But first a little story to illustrate how exhausted I was.

I arrived back to Arizona, to my parents house, late on Thursday. I was dehydrated. Sugared up because I needed to stay away on my cross country flight legs to get work done that had popped up - and I can't tolerate caffeine much these days.

I'd eaten almost an entire bag of Red Vines on one of my flights.

So I was feeling blah and gross. I showered, grabbed a bottle of water, and crawled into bed to read through emails and fall asleep.

I woke up at 6:30 the next morning, chugged my remaining water. And then tried to stand up. But I could't. When I would try, the world would spin. 

"I'm so tired. I'm so tired." I was talking quietly to myself. But George Ruth Bader Ginsburg, my dog, was on the bed with me. She came and laid on me, preventing me from trying to get up again. She was licking my forehead. Practically my eyes.

"Okay. I'll stay right here."

I laid for another 10 minutes, and then insisted to her that I was fine and could get up. 

I made it to the bathroom and turned the shower on to get the hot water going. It took me another 10 minutes un the water to feel like I had the energy to start my day.

I had to get up for some meetings. Then about 9am I drove home, two and half hours, to Tucson. And I continued to work till about 3pm. 

"Why are you doing this to yourself?" a friend texted me.

Honestly, I don't know.

My appetite remained absent most of the weekend. Till I woke up this morning and saw someone on the TikTok making a gnocchi chicken soup.

"It's just like the one at Olive Garden!" they exclaimed. 

The recipe took them less than 20 minutes to make.

So on the way home from teaching a morning yoga class, I picked up the ingredients.

And it did Indeed only take about 20 minutes to make...

And while it's probably been over about 15 years since I ate an Olive Garden, the recipe made me think I should try again soon.

But it would require me leaving the house and voluntarily eating in public.

No thanks.

And since my appetite is pretty light these days, I now have soup for at least a week.

Sigh.

I should probably freeze it.

Though the Presidential debate is Tuesday, so another comfort meal may be required.