Bad Mood Begone!

Several bloggers I read have mentioned being in a funk this week, but no one can put their finger on exactly what's wrong. Maybe it was the power of suggestion, but I woke up feeling depressed today. It didn't help that it was cloudy when I woke up, raining while I completed my errands, and pouring as I arrived back home mid-afternoon.

I could pretty much predict what would happen the rest of the day. I'd turn the TV on and sit on the couch to read the newspaper, then probably fall asleep for a while. Get up in time to fix dinner, eat it, then clean it up. Maybe take a walk in the neighborhood, then watch the Cardinal game until bedtime. I realized I was stuck in a rut and needed to do something different, but every idea I thought of wasn't "right".

Within a period of 15 minutes, the torrential rain stopped and the sun came out. That almost made it worse; now I was wasting a beautiful day. I needed to do something different to mix things up. There was no money in my checkbook for an "adventure", so I was going to have to be creative.

I went out to the deck to read the newspaper, but the picnic table was wet, as were the chairs and the deck itself, so I went into the garage, grabbed a chair and sat down. Sitting in the sun while turning the pages of the paper started to make me feel better. An idea hatched in my head; before I knew it I was happily buzzing through the kitchen coming up with ideas for a picnic dinner in the park. Our cupboard was pretty bare, so the dinner was anything but gourmet, but:

• I found some challah rolls in the freezer. In the meat drawer, there were two pieces of Swiss cheese, one piece of turkey lunch meat (which I cut in half) and some ham. I layered it all on the rolls, added brown mustard, sandwich pickles, and the first two leaves of lettuce from the garden.

• I made baked tortilla chips with the stale tortillas that were also in the meat drawer, and poured some salsa into a deli container.

• Dessert was chewy granola bars and two pieces of cantaloupe from the fruit bin that I cut up.

• There was one can of Diet Pepsi in the refrigerator, but more in the pantry. I put one in the freezer to chill quickly.
  

I called Tony, who was amenable to my crazy idea. We arranged to meet at a county park that was halfway in between his office and the house. Just in case we couldn't find an empty table, I added a plastic cloth and blanket to the car. We WERE going to have a picnic, no matter what!

The park is relatively small, and we pretty much had it to ourselves. I chose a pavilion by the playground since it had the most sun, and laid the plastic out as a tablecloth. There were some Star-of-Bethlehem blooming in the grass; I picked them and wrapped them in a wet napkin for a "centerpiece". When Tony arrived we got out the food, ate, and talked. After dinner we took a short stroll around the park, then returned to our cars and drove home.

Tonight I feel a bit full, but great. Life is good.