The GGA Project -- Day #51 "Close Your Eyes and Open Your Mouth"

Aren't those just about the scariest words you could be asked to respond to?  Ok, of course there are far scarier things to be imagined, but these are pretty choice.  I feel like I wouldn't even be able to go for the offer/dare these days just because there are so many things I truly don't want to eat.  Many of my friends, despite the fact that it's been 8 years since I stopped eating meat, still offer me meat dishes. I don't blame them; it's tough to keep up with everyone's special food needs.  My own Dad still occasionally offers me meaty food things every now and then and looks genuinely surprised and embarrassed when I remind him about my vegetarianism.  Knowing this, it's hard to imagine just taking that leap of culinary faith.  Not me.


But today I did do something of the sort, because I found myself in a place where there was just about no possible negative outcome when it came to flavors or substances that could land in my mouth.


Today's New Activity: 31 Flavors, Mama Makes the Call


This afternoon my Mom and I took the baby to the park, and driving on the way back, my Ma chimed up with this super awesome sentence:  "Chupi [my son's nickname, one of 14 or so], Nana thinks she might have some Baskin.Robbins gift certificates in her purse."  Mmmmmusic to my ears.


I think I'm going to expose myself as the most boring person who ever lived in admitting that I have been eating the same flavor of ice cream since I lost interest in Bubble Gum flavor, some 26 years ago or so.  Cookies and Cream has been the way to go, without exception, even though I gaze at all the other flavors every singe time, just waiting for one to call out to me.  They never do.  On the rare occasion, Pralines and Cream has volunteered to tag along for a second scoop, but those occasions were indeed rare, and anyway, it's still a pretty unoriginal add-on.  I mean, couldn't I come up with a flavor whose name didn't end in "and Cream?"


Today, I was once again perusing all the options, about to go for tried and true, and then I thought better of it.  I turned to my Ma and asked her to pick one.  Any one.  "Really?!" she asked.  "ANY one?!"


"Yes," I said.  "You choose."  I made only one caveat, purely in the interest of avoiding food waste.  No Cherries Jubilee, please.  I just wouldn't want to eat those dry, gummy cherries.  That left Ma with 30 flavors from which to chose.  She warned me that she wasn't gonna pick chocolate, as if I could be frightened off by that.  I'm really glad she said that, actually.  I don't even like chocolate ice cream much, and especially not the ultra-rich kind they have at Baskin Robbins.


She delivered me the following:

It's called Icing on the Cake, and it has little bits of icing and cake in it (shocking, I know).  It was crazy sweet (I think it came out of the kid section), but I was in just the right mood for it.


The new flavor was a nice change; I definitely needed to get out of that "and Cream"-y rut.  But what was more interesting was the pleasure of letting go and letting somebody else make the call.  I know my Ma would never lead me astray (on anything in life, least of all ICE CREAM (it's kind of a focus area for her)), but still it was an exercise in openness to just remove myself from the thought/decision-making process and allow what may come.


Nice things can sometimes appear when you get yourself out of the way.


Or when you grunt at them until somebody takes pity on you (not that monkey would know anything about that):