No touching allowed

Got your attention, huh? Yes, you're right. I am a "please respect my physical space" woman. As I like to borrow from the original "Dirty Dancing" movie, "This is my space. This is your space. I don't go into yours, you don't go into mine." (I know that's not exact but it fits my purposes better that way) But that's not what I want to talk about tonight.

I am talking about the practice of not only allowing your food to touch on your plate. More specifically, the people who unabashedly purposefully mix their foods on their plate - and enjoy it.

I love my parents. I have been enjoying the last several days with them while John has been out of town. They are great parents to me and grandparents to my children.

But tonight, when my dad handed Jesse his salad bowl and asked for a scoop of ice cream, IN the unwashed salad bowl, I was reminded of one of my most humiliating moments as a middle school student. (To be honest, I have many humiliating moments in my life but this was definitely a very memorable humiliating moment.)

My dad has always mixed all of his foods together on one plate. Growing up I heard the arguments: "It's all going to the same place anyway" and "You should see what it looks like 5 minutes after you eat it." But I was a picky eater. I didn't even want to eat the food on my plate that was separated. And the thought of mixing all those horrible tastes? Too much to bear.

The moment I referred to earlier occurred when I had a friend over from school. This was the first time Kristine had been to my house which means that we were still in the mode when my parents should have been on their best behavior. Everything was fine until lunch time. You'd think a meal of hot dogs, baked beans, and macaroni and cheese should be pretty kid friendly and it is. Unless you mix all of those foods together on one plate. I knew there was no way Kristine was ever going to enter my house again just by the way she stared at my dad's plate. She obviously had never seen anything like it before and lost her appetite then and there. Oh the humiliation!

I do have to say that after all these years I've forgiven him for the in-front-of-Kristine incident. I'm over it. I even mix many of my foods together on the plate. The one item, however, that should never be mixed with anything but made-for-it toppings, is ice cream. Don't mess with the ice cream.

Love you Dad. Happy early Father's Day. And to help you celebrate on Sunday, you can mix anything you like. And think of me thinking of you.