W is for Wake up Call Today and a Wake Tomorrow

A different kind of wake up call

My wake up call this morning wasn't quite like the one depicted in the photo (thank you Wikimedia Commons!), but it sure felt that way. My friend TG decided that we should go to breakfast and then drive to the college so I would know where to take his notebook on Monday because he's going to AZ tomorrow for a few days and it has to be turned in. It is the final assignment of his internship for the Paralegal program.

I was still asleep when he called at about 8:40, and considering he and I had been talking on the phone until after 3AM, I was pretty tired. He said he'd be over as soon as he got dressed. Ugh. It takes me longer than that to wake up, but I managed to pull myself together and be all ready except for my glasses by the time he got here. That doesn't mean I was actually fully awake, though.

We went to Metro Diner for breakfast. He had eggs benedict with a side of scrapple and I had eggs with scrapple and grits and a side of well-done bacon. We split the bacon. He got potatoes. I can't eat potatoes much any more, so the grits were perfect. I'm glad they're an option because I feel so much better after eating them than I do when I eat potatoes.

Then we drove to the college so he could show me where I had to go on Monday (he's leaving me his car) and then we went shopping at Target. They actually had some really nice tops my size that I liked, but even on clearance, they were $18! So, they stayed on the rack. :-( They didn't have the brand of bra I wear, so I wasn't able to buy any of those, either, although I do need to buy some somewhere.

I forgot that they had a Starbucks in the front of the store, so when he was checking out, I went there and ordered myself a trenta Orange Spice Iced coffee. It really is very good! I'll be doing that again soon.

Then we stopped at ShopRite on the way home because he wanted to buy some orange juice and now we're back at my house. He's napping (it's usually me still asleep on the couch at this time of day) and I'm taking advantage of the silence.

When he finally wakes up, we have to finish (yes, we - he dictates, I type) the summary for his Internship Notebook so that he can print it out and put it together. I'll be taking him to the airport in the morning for his 7AM flight and that's when he'll give it to me. Then at 11AM, I have a funeral memorial service to attend for my friend-since-diapers' baby sister who passed this Monday from metastatic lymph cancer that spread to her brain. 

I feel so bad, yet she refused treatment when they discovered it. We don't know why. She never even told her sister, so when she came to see her before she passed, she was shocked to see that she was literally just skin and bones and was blind and mostly deaf. She just kept it all to herself, so it was really hard for my friend to process. When the call came that it was almost time, they left home for the six hour drive to come up, but didn't make it on time. Her brother-in-law kept her sister's body in the bed until she got there because they weren't going to have a viewing. I never had any brothers or sisters, so I'm not sure how I would have handled it - but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have done what she did when she got to her sister's room. She told me she grabbed her sister's leg, shook it and told her to wake up! But, then just stood next to her and talked to her. I have no idea what she said, but I'm sure it was all about memories and such. Each of us has our own way of dealing.

Anyway, that's my W topic for the AtoZChallenge. It kind of thrust itself upon me

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

This was previously published on Bubblews.

F is for French Toast

I was just finishing up my French Toast and scrambled egg when I realized I had the perfect topic for my sixth letter of the AtoZ Challenge.

French Toast is that wonderfully delicious breakfast made with bread (stale is better) that is submerged in an egg and milk blend and then pan-fried on each side to thoroughly cook the egg and brown each side nicely before adding butter and syrup (or powdered sugar). I also sprinkle cinnamon on mine when I put it in the pan. I then take the leftover egg and milk mixture and cook that as a scrambled egg so that I don't waste any of what I'm using.

But, why do we call French Toast FRENCH Toast? Is it because they resemble the popular Croque Monsieur of France? Is it because it sounds better than the English translation of "pain perdu" (lost bread)? It's interesting that in France, they once referred to this style of bread as Roman bread (pain a la Romaine) before they began calling it "lost bread". In fact, a recipe for a very similar style of bread has been found in a 4th Century work where it was referred to as "another sweet dish".

So, then.....why FRENCH toast? Apparently, for the same reason we have FRENCH fries. French immigrants to the US popularized both items and, because they were originally associated with those French immigrants, those items were called French. Although, I wonder if, with regard to French fries, it might not also be related to the culinary term of Frenching which refers to a style of cutting something into long thin strips (French-style Green Beans). I don't think that is an impossibility. Still, I can see the French bringing a cooking technique with them that becomes popular here, so we call it French because they brought it with them. I think that explanation does cover French Toast well.

References:
What is Frenched Food?
French Toast was not Invented in France.