The time in my life where I preached the Word of Chicken

Then, I met Debi, and she was awesome, and we got along well.  She smoked, and I didn’t, but we made concessions.  She’d go outside to smoke, and I go out with her, upwind, and talk to her while she smoked. That kind of partnership.  Turns out she didn’t like chicken meat.  Honestly can’t tell you why, I’m sure she said it, but I don’t think it ever made any sense to me.  Simply didn’t like it.  Except in Gumbo, there, she liked it. So maybe twice a year I’d have some chicken I couldn’t really taste anyway.

We stopped living together, and dating, but both of us stayed in the same complex, and ate dinner with each other most of the time anyway.  It kind of turned into a silly relationship where we weren’t dating each other, but didn’t want to date anyone else, or have anyone date the other.  (Yeah, I still loved her, and I suspect she loved me, so there you go.)

Then, I got called up for a long-tour.  I was in the Army Reserves, and they had need of my skills out East at Ft. Meade, so off I went for 6 months.  I was back to cooking for myself, and choosing my own food.  Deb and I spoke often and emailed, and IMed, so that wasn’t much of a big deal, but the lack of meals together sparked a pretty big change in me.  I’d drive by a Popeye’s Chicken, and go in. A KFC, a Church’s, any place that sold chicken, I’d go in.  At first it was just to see if they’d changed much in the last few years, or what’s new, etc…  Then, it was like that was the only food that made sense to me. I’d go into Carl Jr’s and get a chicken sandwich.  Go to a Steak House and get chicken.  It’s not like it was unhealthy, or anything, it was quite good, but that was all I craved for quite a while.

After a bit, I’d bring it up to folks at work, or at a house-warming party I threw.  Not that I was having chicken again, after a long lack of it, but that “chicken is the bomb!” (it was the 90’s)  “Boston Market has the best roasted chicken!” “Oh, this little place has the best twice cooked potatoes, and the chicken is awesome!”  I KNOW I was annoying about it.  I don’t think I helped a single person find chicken they didn’t already know about.  It’s not like Boston Market is a secret.  The Mexican place with the twice cooked potatoes was a minor revelation, but for the potatoes, not the chicken.  (Can’t even remember the name, actually)

Fortunately, I realized what I was doing after a month or two.  Folks hadn’t gotten to the point of avoiding me, but it was a close thing, I think.  I just realized that I was going overboard because I’d gone so very long denying myself something I took for granted.  I didn’t set out to compensate for the lost years, but in effect, that’s what I was doing.  If that was all I did, fine, I’m not hurting anyone.  But the proselytizing was way out of character.  I’m NOT a chicken evangelist!  But that’s how I ended up acting.

 Well, after realizing my issues, I got over it.  Got back to eating beef, even, and chicken became just a normal part of the diet.  If I see a good burger or a chicken breast, chances are I’ll go for the burger. But if all I have in the freezer is some chicken, I’ll be quite happy to eat that.  Life gets odd sometimes.  Just a good idea to notice it and fix it.  Or play it up, perhaps.  Odd isn’t always bad.  But I’m glad I don’t preach about chicken, anymore.