Hidden peril

Some time ago, I resolved to not be like so many families who live off of take out and microwave-prepared foods. Not because we didn't do family dinners when I was growing up (which we didn't, but I couldn't have cared less. I was a teenager), but when I was learning how to be a grownup, it was so much fun to go grocery shopping and make delicious meals in My Apartment. Salmon, walnuts, cranberries, brie, asparagus, herbs...the fancy recipes were endless.

Then, when you serve your time in the restaurant business, you don't get evenings for lovely dinners anymore. No, your Saturday night dinner is the staff meal of restaurant leftovers, eaten standing up. If there ever was an evening that T and I both had off of work (a true rarity), it was certainly not wasted on a Papa Murphy's pizza, Lean Cuisine, or any other aberration. That was for people who didn't value their glorious evenings.

Enter test week.

I haven't had time to shop for groceries in a month, we've eaten out at a Mexican restaurant twice, Papa Murphy's once, and, dare I say it, bought, cooked (in the oven, not the microwave...I'm not a complete heathen), and ate a frozen lasagna from Costco. Oh yeah, we have a microwave now. It came with the house. And I've used it. A lot.

The hidden peril of medical school: you will compromise most of your standards of living.