Leftovers

This morning my car still had a faint odor of last night's dinner from the diner. The lingering smell of liver was a reminder of a pleasant meal out with a friend and some lunch or dinner early this week could feature the remnants in the doggie bag.

My guess is, however, if history is an indication of future behavior, that I will enjoy the untouched baked potato and the liver will end up in the garbage. Somehow I never get around to enjoying leftover liver. While some things are even better a day or two later, stews and soups for example, other foods, like salads already doused with dressing, or for me, liver, are not. 

Leftovers are often planned. I just made a pork roast that will last all week. There's nothing like that first turkey sandwich on the Friday after Thanksgiving. We know which favorite restaurants serve enough food for two or even three meals. Maggiano's has a menu where you can order one entree for dinner and one to go at no additional cost. That's a different kind of leftover program!

As the kitchen kop at the office, I have to keep reminding people to toss their leftovers. The staff has gotten very good at bringing food for only one day, but occasionally it's too much or folks end up going out for lunch and forget they have a container in the fridge. Too soon it becomes that mysterious science experiment in a baggie at the back on the top shelf. Leftovers gone bad.

There are other kinds of leftovers. In a sense, the clothes and items we take to Goodwill are our extras or fashion left over from the last year or decade. I spent part of yesterday at the Kane County flea market, looking over hundreds of leftover items ranging from duct tape from an order too large for a shipment, to antique mirrors, treasures found stuck away in a basement or attic, leftovers of a lifetime. I bought an old shoe shine box, a leftover of an era gone by.

My poker group has about ten dollars in the chip box. There is a bag of coins and bills whose number somehow increases after each party because there is a little leftover once everyone is reimbursed what they are due. Perhaps we are not the best accountants. Soon we'll buy a bottle of wine to have with our meal, knowing we've all contributed somehow. You and I have stood baffled when there is one thing left in our hands after we thought we'd counted so carefully and have to retrace our actions to see what we missed. 

 

Some people, like the generation who lived through the depression, or immigrants who arrived with nothing, have a hard time throwing even bad leftovers away. We can all struggle with getting rid of Items leftover from a relationship or an era of one's life. How many times did you faithfully move your college textbooks or t-shirt?

There are days we all exhaust our resources of emotion and energy and have nothing left to give. And we've experienced times when we need to find some anyway. In relationships one party can feel as though all they get are the feelings and time and attention the other has leftover after dealing with everything else in his or her life. I've been part of choruses or groups where during the rehearsal the director tells us to save it for the performance, that is we need to make sure we have enthusiasm and talent left for the actual show. 

 

Often when I am writing, I have phrases, sentences or whole paragraphs leftover once I piece what I want together. For this topic I've notes on leftover nuclear weapons, trash after an outdoor concert, sports paraphanalia after a team doesn't win, screws after putting something back together, well, there were a lot of leftovers, which I guess is quite apt, and as with all leftovers, I struggle with what to do with them. May any leftovers you find in your life this week be easily handled, and, perhaps, even tasty!

Marilyn