Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The Magic Food Counter




“Don’t throw that out,” I said to my husband, “I’ll take it to work.” 
“Nobody’s going to eat this old candy,” he said, “or want this open box of Wheat Thins.”
Of course they will, they’re nurses!  I’ll just put it on The Counter.
No matter where we work, we all have that one counter that magically turns unwanted food items into culinary delights.  Six-month-old Halloween candy that was deemed inedible even by the kids is suddenly a rare delicacy.  Leftover half-stale cookies transform into tasty treats.  Shriveled up Peeps that the dog turned up his nose at now look like the perfect mid-morning snack. 
To nurses, anything left on The Counter is fair game.  Don’t set a box of Girl Scout cookies you just bought from a mom on another unit there and think it will be intact when you get back.  It won’t.
Food from The Counter even tastes better than other food.  Somebody’s brother’s mother-in-law’s birthday cake from last weekend melts in your mouth when wolfed down between getting call lights while standing and eating it with your hands.  That plain-cheese-caramel popcorn that comes in a tin is the lamest imaginable gift from your neighbors when they drop it off at your house; placed on The Counter, it is a culinary delight. 
Another nursing phenomenon, the power of The Counter.

No comments:

Post a Comment