Ugly dates

Had a few bumps in the road lately- not feeling well (chest pains, shoulder blade, can't take a deep breath). After freaking my Dr. out (WHY DIDN'T YOU GO TO THE ER????), all is fine except I still can't breathe very well, and my shoulder still hurts.So more tests this week (my dear Dr. calls from Las Vegas today to see if I got the results on Friday.I talked to her on Friday. Glad to see you can be young and still not remember anything). My self diagnosis is allergies and a strained muscle pull from the weights I carried walking Abbie around the park. We'll see.

In our teacher's lounge at school, there is a table where people put things they want to share (treats, goodies, books, bulletin board leftovers, etc). Friday there was a box that said take. Inside were delicious looking tomatoes and a baggie of some brown looking things. The two other teachers that were with me were pondering the identify of these ...brown looking... things. Being the adventurer that I am, (not!), I opened the bag and drew one out. Mmmm. Smells like a fruit-maybe a date?-as I bite into it, my friend says, maybe its a fig. BIG problem if it is, as I can't have seeds. So I take the remainder and kind of smoosh through it to see if there are any seeds. Nope! Must be a date. Actually kind of good. And on the $50 a week food budget, I am sure I can find something to do with the bag full. No problem. As I am walking back to class with my treasures, a teacher pops out of her office and says, Oh I see you got some tomatoes! I thanked her for them and the dates and she said that she left the bag of dates because to her they looked like....roaches!
Up to this point that thought had not entered my mind, but as I looked down at the bag of brown...looking ...things, I could see the resemblance. Now I have never seen roaches of this magnitude, except in National Geographic pictures, thankfully, but the shape and skin texture could possibly fall into the look alike category. (Have to save that idea for a Fear Factor party!) But I was thrilled to have my little package of dates to take home and create a recipe with.

Sometimes you have to overlook what is on the outside to get to the inside. Which reminds me of Susan Boyle, what an incredible story. But I think the world needs to enjoy her amazing voice and leave her outsides alone. Here is a perfect chance for society to learn a lesson on not judging a book by its cover, and acknowledging the beauty inside of someone, instead of trying to make her over. Enough said for today on that.

To finish my date story.

Enter my college age daughter. I told her I got free tomatoes and dates today at school. She apparently had never had a date and asked what they looked like. Perfect lead in,(right?) but I wanted to see her unbiased opinion. So I showed her and asked- what do you think? "Yuck! They look like roaches, Mom". She is not her mother's daughter.
OK, but they were free. My husband keeps telling me we have to make sacrifices. Wait til he sees what's for dinner.