Day 2 - A Salad, French Fries, and a Tear

Good news - I stayed the course today...salad with light dressing for lunch....YAWN.  It is not that I wanted too, but I didn't want to be that chick...the chick that falls off the diet band wagon on Day 2; maybe Day 3, but not Day 2.  As I was walking to get my "New Year's Resolution, Have a Class Reunion coming up in six months and my ass looks a possum trying to escape from a burlap bag" bowl of greens - I cursed the air - hand raised with a defiant a fist.....some crazy fry-cook had dropped a basket and was frying French Fries.  You know the smell.  Sweet perfume of coconut oil, maybe a day or two old, or possibly old-fashioned lard heated to about 375 degrees with the slight scent of warm salt.  It is a perfect smell - a freshly fried potato with sea salt....intoxicating as a shot of Tuaca (which makes my clothes fall off, but I digress).  So I followed my nose all the way to the bistro counter and lovingly stared at my potato friends - all stacked haphazardly like a game of tater Jenga just waiting for me.  Last year, which was really just two days ago, I would not  have thought twice about just fries for lunch and anyone who knows me - knows I love the potato, I will take a potato chip over a piece of chocolate any day.  And with all the internal strength I could muster, I turned right , headed toward the cold, pre-packaged salads, purchased my bowl of greens with chopped egg and two obligatory cherry tomatoes - I made my way back to my desk. It was on my walk back that it hit me.  A wonderfully, genius idea.....three small words that will revolutionize diets.....French Fry Dressing.

If salad dressing tasted like French fries - I would eat a damn salad everyday, 3 x a day, and give Twiggy a run for her money. Just like that, on a brisk January day,  I had solved the century old problem that diet food had to taste bland and bad. Equally as quick, I started making my mental list of considerations:

• money: someone has to front the money for this crazy yet perfect idea;
• production location: some place in Idaho would be ideal;
• flavor team: someone to design an original and spicy version and for the super dieter's - a light version;
• packaging: tall, slender bottles reminiscent of the long cut fry and for the special occasions - a waffle fry shaped bottle

And in my Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban creative fog, I walked a block back to my desk smiling like a deranged circus clown, tripped up the stairs, juggled my salad, and only dropped my crackers and fork. And for the rest of the day, I smiled when I thought about my brilliant idea.  I am giving anyone and everyone full permission to embrace this idea and run with it.....I guarantee - you will have a customer for life in me!!!

However there is a sad note to this story, although nothing I can actually confirm.  But I do believe as I left the bistro with my salad,  I heard the tater Jenga fall and a small river of sea salt tears fell gently on the floor.  Until after my class reunion, my tater friends, until after my class reunion.

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