Out doing errands trying to be in the now and enjoy my comfortable car, access to almost any food imaginable, quality sound surrounding me in the Honda capsule and general fantastic life. Doing errands alone is boring. And, to be frank, lonely. Sad even.
Remembering errand-doing with my mother in Appleton, Wisconsin when I was too small to be useful, every stop so exciting. Maybe Lester Balliet at the coal company office would pull a nickel from my ear. Maybe I could – this one time – talk my mother into not stepping on a single crack in the square tile linoleum floor at the A&P, provided she let me come in with her. Maybe she would leave me to wait in the A&P parking lot, hunched on the floor of the VW bug, super scratchy carpeting tearing up my tender skin, pretending I was important, left behind to be kept safe.
Remembering errand-doing with my mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, when I was old enough to be useful, we were purposeful and adventurous, exploring a new locale, so far from the midwest and so foreign. She was brave and determined. We stopped for lunch. I felt – and maybe my mother did too – a tiny bit exotic and as though I was growing my sophistication quotient. Steak in a Sack. Oh, that sounds so awful now. We are not new here anymore and we are suspicious of silly names. Steak in a Sack was thinly sliced, seared beef in pita – delicious – unlike anything we had ever seen or tasted or even heard of and I remember a slight sense of reverance when walking into the wafting scent of meat. Pita was new, exciting, warm, tender, and yummy.
Doing errands now, alone, I go for efficiency and wonder why I think that speeding up will make time go more slowly. It will not. This time, this one time, closing in on the German Gourmet, I pull in. The German Gourmet is not for bargain hunters, praise be to Odin.
Okay, okay, I did eat in my car, but only because they do not have tables. Why do they not have tables, I wonder. And why do I not drive the Honda CRV with the picnic table option? That picnic table option is a real thing.
The German Gourmet is a sleeper sandwich mecca.
It is. A mecca. They offer a punch card. And holy cow look at the options on the order sheet. Did somebody say Tyrol Cabbage? Remoulade? Curry Ketchup?
The errand-doing was okay. The sandwich was good. The Muenchner, because it included an unknown to me ingredient, leberkase. So good. Could a person simply slow down for a sandwich mid-errand. Yes, yes and yes. Thanks be to Odin.
Addendum: Thanks be to kramalot who is authorized to order and eat sausage at any turn.
The Lunch Encounter 
