Day Four

Where do I begin.  Day four I was feeling pretty confident I would be able to accomplish what I had set out to do.  I woke up.  Eggs on toast for breakfast, fixed a sandwich of shredded chicken, Greek yogurt, lettuce and a little salt and pepper to go and headed up to Stevens Pass for an afternoon of hitting the slopes.  The day was gorgeous and I realized that if I was truly living on $7/day I would not be escaping city life for a fun day in the mountains.  My time, energy and money would be put towards planning what I food I could afford and how I would pay for transportation.

But back to the task at hand...before leaving I made plans for dinner.  Left over chicken bones went into the crock-pot along with onions, water, salt and pepper to begin a flavorful broth to make chicken soup.  In my mind it would be a simple task to toss in left over veggies and shredded chicken and put it all over rice for a toasty warm dinner after an afternoon shushing in the mountains.  The chicken soup worked just fine, however my plans on how the evening would go did not.

On the way home from a lovely blue bird day at the pass I got a call from work.  It was busy and they were short staffed, could I come in and help.  Always willing to help I agreed to work from 7pm-3am.  Given that it was nearing 5pm, the commute time of the greater Seattle area, I calculated that I wouldn't make it home and then back to work in time.  I would have to go straight to work.  My chicken soup would have to wait and I was forced to go over my allotment of $$ to get food for dinner.

As I saw it it was a trade off.   It was more important for me to go into work and I realized that maybe this is a situation that some people face.  Getting food or going to work.  Or having to go to work hungry.  I have a hard time working without eating.  In my first post I mentioned the "hangry" that happens when I can't eat and it only is intensified at work.  Food fuels my body and helps me to think clearly and safely take care of patients.  It also makes me a way nicer person.  On our honeymoon it took my husband only 2 days to realize that packing a bag of almonds and some oranges made touring sites and listening to the history of a country and a people a lot more bearable without me complaining.

Last night I coudln't sacrifice the excellent care I could provide patients because I wasn't able to go home and get food.  And so I stepped outside the challenge, bought food for dinner which put me over my budget by $5.21.