Bravo, Jesus!

April 17th, 2006

Last night (Easter), I was at my part-time job (I’m really religious.) Every Sunday, the company orders in 30 or so pies from Bravo Pizza. Some of us are cute and call it “diarrhezza,” because OMG, guess what happens when you eat it?

Anyway, the food on the table is never enough, likely because the powers that be keep hiring more and more people who also need to eat to stay alive and no one ever bothered to alter the weekly order. It kind of sucks, especially when I claw through the masses for my trademark slice of soggy, weathered, rubbery-veggie ‘za and the only things left on the table are rings of grease.

Not so on Easter Sunday, sayeth the Lord and the Bravo delivery guy, who together unloaded close to 20 trays of various shitty Italian food that we then arranged into a massive buffet. There was eggplant, chicken marsala, ziti — all low-quality, mind you, but at least it was different — and a “mixed salad,” which was basically an entire tray of iceberg lettuce.

I’m mildly obsessed with iceberg lettuce. I like the sound it makes in my mouth — it’s as if I’m accomplishing a great deal just by crunching down on it. If I buy it in “head” form, I’ll cut it in half, wash it, sprinkle salt all over the cross-section, and just go to town. It feels like my face just decided to take a dip into the ocean, independently of the rest of my body. Maybe this paragraph should end.

Here’s the point: Around 1 a.m., when it was clear no one else would be coming back for seconds (in my case: fifths) of the iceberg lettuce salad, I decided to take matters into my own apartment by stealing all of the remaining salad mix. I couldn’t find a plastic bag, so I settled for the paper bag the plastic silverware had come in. That is disgusting. I knew this at the time, but try to guess whether it stopped me. Spoiler alert: Don’t look down!

I’d give anything to see security camera footage of me pouring the salad into the paper bag. Actually, first I used the plastic scooper, then I lifted up the tray and attempted the pour (harder than you’d think!), and finally I just started grabbing the excess leaves with my hand. Add to this my glamazonian frame and complete inability to be stealth at anything, and it was a pretty funny scene. “Funny” meaning “I should be fired.”

But whatever. I got to make an extra-huge salad (left) when I got home, with better tomatoes (vine-ripened, from Gristedes), croutons (Pepperidge Farm Onion & Garlic), and the creamy vidalia onion dressing I’m still really into. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a phase when you’re me. I once tried to terminate what I thought could have been a phase (dipping Fritos in grape jelly), but couldn’t make it work… which itself might have been my only phase ever.

This verdant treat, in addition to the 40,000 chocolates sent by Dee, made Sunday a very Happy Easter indeed. Bonus points for the shredded carrots and withered cabbage, two things I enjoy looking at in salads but never bother to buy. Why do the colors of these items matter more to me than their tastes? I’m like a little kid.

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