Free Lunch

Traveling is a bit trickier these days since I have a much smaller window of "holding power" after eating food. And the kinds of food I can tolerate are restricted, especially when I am traveling and under the added stress of encountering new situations. I don't mind learning to manage this small inconvenience. After all, the alternative is to have an ostemy, and I didn't care for that one bit when I had the temporary one.

I have figured out what I can handle in fast food places (almost nothing), and where to be creative about finding wholesome foods that are not health foods. For me, everything must be cooked, no whole grain stuff, have no seeds or chunks, not be seasoned with certain spices (cinnamon is one of the worst offenders) - its an art form to stay fed on the road.

The other half of the art form is knowing when to eat to time things so that you won't end up having an accident. This whole scenario is what makes me drive whenever I possibly can. I can control what I do and how it gets done much more, and avoid ending up feeling yucky or in distress or worse yet, wearing a diaper. But that is no reason not to take public transportation. You just have to figure out how to do it to minimize potential trouble.

So I only had a half a banana for breakfast, and a half glass of ginger ale for lunch. Even with that, as soon as I reached my destination, I headed straight for a bathroom and spent some quality time there. I built that into my shuttle reservation - I pretty much knew I couldn't just whoosh straight from the luggage pickup area to the shuttle for a 40 minute ride to campus. And I was right.

So my strategy was to get lunch/dinner at the airport before hopping on the shuttle, porting it to campus, and eating once I arrived (there are precious few eating places anywhere near campus, and until you get in the dorm and find a payphone, no way to order anything - cell phones aren't always working on the further shores of almost into Canada). Unfortunately, I didn't think about the size of the airport where I landed, and while there were several eating places, there was nothing I could tolerate in the way of a full meal.

So I opted for a scone and an iced tea. Not much after eating lightly all day. And while I was trying to munch that down and check in all at the same time (which was a pleasant surprise since registration didn't start until four and it was nowhere near four), the tornado alarm went off and we all scurried into the tunnels to wait it out. I gave up on eating.

My hope was that one of the other students would have a car and be planning to go out for a meal and I could hitch a ride. But there weren't many students arriving, and they ate before they came on campus (knowing what isn't there themselves!). So I was out of luck. I sighed and thought of checking the vending machines, but decided I would just pray about it, which I did. I asked the good Lord if He would take me to dinner and provide the kind of food I could eat.

Not twenty minutes later, one of the professors poked his head in the door and said hi, and that he had provided a schedule of when the dining hall would be open this year (they are only open if they have large enough groups on campus - sports campus, conferences, etc. There aren't enough students in our program for them to open up.) This was a vast surprise since last year they were not open the whole first week or so.

We chatted a few minutes, then I talked with some friends from last year, then went to my room. I glanced at the schedule. The dining hall is rarely ever open on a weekend. Lo and behold, they were open for some group called the LutherHostel. I went over to the dining hall to see if I could buy dinner there. I asked the ladies serving, and after they checked my status, told me I could go through the line. Roast chicken, carrots cooked in a butter sauce with basil, fresh salad (which I politely turned down), roast potatoes - perfect! Topped off with a steaming mug of chamomile tea to ward off the chill of the fog rolling off the lake.

While I ate, I got to hear the lecture to the group of retirees. It was an interesting history of the college and a glimpse of future plans. Afterwards, with a happy tummy, I went to pay at the cashiers, and the lady there said they wouldn't take my money - the meal was free! How often does *that* happen? I usually pay not just for my meal, but for my kids as well. What a treat that was.

Not a bad way to start the week. Not bad at all.