Stuffed full of good feelings

OK, now I understand why people are fat.
I never quite got that. I was never judgmental of fat people - not too much, anyway - but I never understood them. What was all that fat for? In case of nuclear war? Or a really bad snowstorm (wait....maybe they DO know what they are doing).
But there's an emotional component to food, much like herion, cocaine or Zima, and that's what I failed to understand.
Now I think I might get it.
All year long, one of the highlights of my annual visit home to Kansas City is a trip to a barbecue joint.
We Kansas City folk pride ourselves at our talents to overglaze, carmelize, juicify, outright candify (is that a word?) large chunks of meat and apply it to coals mixed with 40 different kinds of wood, spices and a special heating system that could power a third-world country. We love putting sausage and sauce and bits of meat and 57 other treats into our baked beans (everything but actual beans) and slow cooking them for 50 years. We do love our corn bread here with three kinds of exotic jelly and a butter that will clog your arteries the moment it hits your tounge.
That's where I went tonight.
This is what I had....




I'm STILL drinking water to counteract the salt that's currently thickening my blood.

Now we eat barbecue because it's crazy good. The beans melt like ice cream and cotton candy on the roof of your mouth, the cheesy corn was creamy and yet crisp, and I had burnt ends. Sausage. And I believe burn ends are the small pieces of meat that fall down into the coals and surface after they clean the grill. But they're damn good.
Really the ribs weren't that great. I've had much better. The meal was wonderful but it wasn't the best meal I've had even in the last two months.
But we don't get that kind of barbecue anywhere else.
Earlier this week I had a Cheesy Crab sandwhich from Planet Sub, an incredible deli that started at the University of Kansas, my school (and why my blood pumps crimson and blue). It was just like being back in college. I had some cheap tacos from a small fast food joint that I used to eat in high school (there must be only three around).
Oh, and I had a peanut butter/hot fudge shake from my favorite old-style burger joint in Salina, Kan., where I worked for five years (and where Kate's grandmother lives).
It's all great food. I love to eat it because it's hard to find food that good anywhere else.
But I love it more because it's home.


Maybe I'm creating new memories for someone else. After all...





Someone else liked it too!


Later I got to play poker with

Gracie

and have a nice talk with her. You gotta love this....






Couldn't have happened to a nicer woman. Later my AA got cracked by JJ by runner, runner straight, so I suppose it's catching, like a bad cold, but I was still happy for her.


Have a great New Year's Eve. I'll post my resolutions that day.


P.S. If you didn't like this post, don't blame me....






It wasn't me.
:)