The typical college student’s diet consists of something that can be microwaved, quickly put together with two pieces of bread, can be made out of a can, or can be eaten with one swipe off a meal plan. I would have to agree that my diet is like this ever since I started college. There would be no more home cooked meals made by Mom every night, I was on my own. Lunch and breakfast were the only two meals that I was on my own for. I planned on eating at the cafeteria every night for supper, using my meal swipes. Breakfast for the first couple of weeks consisted either a bowl of cereal, bagel with cream cheese or a breakfast bar of some kind. For lunch I ate mostly sandwiches either peanut butter and jelly or turkey and sometimes a bowl of soup. I quickly realized that I would not be able to eat sandwiches every day and eventually I was going to get sick of bread in general. So for the third week I got myself some “meals in a box”. I wasn’t expecting them to taste that great because 1. they came in a cardboard box, 2. they have been in the freezer at the store, 3. they are probably filled with lots of preservatives, and 4. I just reheated the meal packed full of preservatives in the cardboard box in my microwave. I came back to Marian with some Hot Pockets, Lean Cuisine Barbeque Chicken Pizza, a Pizza Stromboli, and a Lean Cuisine Chicken Fettuccini meal and packed them all into the freezer knowing that lunch this week was going to be better than the past lunches I had.
Lunch that week was going great, the meals were better than I expected. I already knew the Lean Cuisine Barbeque Chicken Pizza would be a good because I had already tried that earlier. The Pizza Stromboli ended up being a good buy as well, surprisingly it didn’t taste like a cardboard box. A couple of days I just had a bowl of fruit for lunch with a sandwich and some chips, trying to eat a variety of foods and ultimately avoiding the dreaded “freshman fifteen”. My prayers of having a roommate switch were answered during this week (see previous post for details) and I would have to move all my food over to my new room when I moved all my stuff. My new roommate had the fridge from her old roommate that was moving out. Her old roommate said that she could use it until she had the chance to get a new one. When I moved my fridge stuff over to the new fridge I knew right away that I was going to have a hard time fitting all my stuff into the fridge. I shouldn’t have been too worried about the fridge section, it was the freezer section that was going to get me.
The new room fridge is probably over five years old and is still one of those fridges that have the one big door with the little freezer on top. I was treated like a princess in the old room because that fridge had a separate door for the fridge section and another for the freezer. The fridge was a pretty decent size and held both of our food with enough room for more food. The freezer in this fridge was large enough that you could probably get a gallon of ice cream in it along with some other frozen meals. If the new room fridge and the old room fridge would be in a fight the new room fridge wouldn’t stand a chance. This fridge was MUCH smaller and you couldn’t practically get your hand into the freezer flap near the top, it was that small. I didn’t have too much stuff left in the freezer of my old fridge so I attempted to squeeze everything into this little space called the freezer in the new room. After taking everything out of the box I somehow got everything into the top. That night I went to bed happy that I didn’t have to store my food in the freezer in the kitchen in Naber Hall.
The next morning I woke up and went to the fridge to pour myself a glass of orange juice. When I opened the fridge I could smell what seemed to be my cardboard box meals. I opened the freezer flap and found that my food was now thawing in the freezer and that our mini freezer didn’t work at all. What a piece of junk. I got out a plastic grocery bag and labeled it with my name, the date, and my room number and went down to the shared freezer to put my food in it. When I opened the door three packs of meat that looked like they had been in there from last year almost fell out and landed on my feet. After moving around different bags of labeled foods I found myself a spot for my labeled bag. The next day I went to the freezer and noticed that someone had cleaned it out. Thankfully my food was still there and I was able to eat lunch. I opened the bag and took out my meal and made sure that I knotted the bag after I was done.
The next day it was very cold outside and as I was walking back from my class I decided that some hot chicken fettuccini alfredo meal would taste REAL good. I had that meal on my mind until I got back to the dorm and opened the freezer. I went to my bag and noticed that the bag was ripped open. I thought it was kind of strange because I didn’t remember it being that way the previous day. When I reached into my bag, I realized that my meal was GONE. Someone took the meal I wanted so badly for lunch and ate it. Not only was I furious I was upset that I could not only trust my previous roommate that I shared a room with, now I couldn’t even trust the people I lived with on my floor. I was ready to go through everyone’s garbage looking for the meal box that had MY meal in it. The fact that I paid for the meal with my own money and didn’t even get to enjoy it was on my mind too. I really hope whoever took my meal warmed it up and burnt their tongue when they tried it or choked on a noodle or a piece of chicken. I also hope that they were so nervous when they took it that they had it shoved up their shirt so no one would see it and got frostbite on their stomach and then when they were eating the meal thought about ME the person who bought the meal the whole time they were eating.
I really wish I could have caught the cardboard box meal stealer in the act but sadly that was not possible. We still have the same fridge in our room and I currently have no freezer food in that big freezer.
They took my food once, they aren’t getting away with it a second time and our BRAND NEW fridge with a separate doors for the freezer and fridge section should be here on sunday!
Maybe I should have taken some of these approaches to protecting my food in the shared freezer in Naber Hall…
I’m watching you and will catch you.
