(Such haters being rather epitomized in this tweet by my pal tj, who actually knows plenty about matters of hunger, poverty, and benevolence, and so, I trust, will not take personally my using him as a playful example of Anti-Oatmeal-Raisin-Cookie zealotry.)
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Note: Want to skip the personal story (conveyed though it may be through an oblique discussion concerning the relative virtues of the oatmeal raisin cookie), and get right to the point? Leave this blog and go here.
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Hey, folks. Long time, no blog. Have had a few things going on, not least of which has been anxiously shuffling piles of debt from creditor to creditor in order to help keep a roof over our heads, as we continue to cope with my husband’s extended unemployment. We have two children, ages 14 and 9; we are not homeowners (have never owned real estate); our sole car has nearly 200,000 miles on it; we have no savings; and we are hanging on by thread. (But, yes, hanging on – by the grace of God and any number of gracious human beings.) Through FAMIS, a program of low-cost health insurance for children here in Virginia, we are grateful that our kids receive all necessary medical and dental care; however, my husband has no health insurance, and my own coverage is limited. (My medical and hospital visits are, thankfully, covered after a copay; but my prescription copays are high enough that I routinely go without medications I’m supposed to have on a daily basis, to save money for utilities and the like.)
Incidentally, when I refer to my husband’s “extended period of unemployment,” I mean that my husband has now been laid off since April 22 of 2008. For all 11 months since his job was eliminated, he has been diligently applying for new positions, but the competition is fierce. He hasn’t collected unemployment benefits for the entirety of this period (or they would have expired by now), but we are nearing the end of our eligibility, and frankly, we’re terrified. The employment sector – most broadly: consumer electronics and the cable industry – which constitutes the entirety of his work history, has taken major, repeated blows in our community, most recently with the closing of Circuit City, which had been headquartered here in Richmond, Virginia. (More on this – with bonus awkwardness! here.)
But back to the truly critical issue at hand: the esteem in which various factions hold the oatmeal cookie.
I just wanted to say that when I recently posted this to Twitter, it was no joke. Nor was this, as long as we’re discussing the economy. (Post continues below image.)
Oatmeal cookies, 10 weeks expired.
You will note in the above picture: there is but a single cookie remaining in this container. This is to say, we eated1 them. (And after this post, I will eat the last one, unless one of the kids calls dibs.)
Would we have preferred chocolate chip? Sure. Would we also have preferred that these cookies not have an expiration date in 2008? Obviously.
But we eated them anyway, and we were grateful.
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So, what’s my point today? Only this: if you are able to donate to the Central Virginia Food Bank, please visit here. (We are fortunate to receive help from them via one of their partner agencies here.) As you may have heard, they have had to turn away volunteer assistance in recent months due to a lack of actual food donations – so to be clear, what they most need are donations of actual food and/or money.
If you are in the U.S. but outside Virginia, and/or you would like to locate a hunger-fighting organization in another state, please visit Secondharvest.org. Thanks.
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1 We are also aware that ‘eated’ is not a real word, but we like it. As has been (haz been?) already established, we are a family already ruined by LOLcats.
