Having admitted my weakness for furry creatures in a recent post, it should come as no surprise that at the near top of my all-time favorite movie list is Disney’s Lady and the Tramp.
As a result, since I have been pregnant, I have been eagerly awaiting the night when one particular scene would play out in my own world. In the scene, Jim Dear is sent running to the store in the middle of the night for Darling’s latest craving, Chop Suey and watermelon.
With food aversions—not cravings—being my lot in pregnant life for the last couple of months, I was thrilled when I was recently hit by a sudden, irrepressible urge for fried shrimp and cocktail sauce. I was even more thrilled that it was after midnight, and my husband Tom was fast asleep.
To be sure it wasn’t a whim, I waited it out. After about 45 minutes of counting shellfish—I tried to imagine sheep but they all began sprouting extra legs and antenna—I nudged Tom to see what time the local grocery store closed. He mumbled something that sounded like “smchniver,” which I was overjoyed to realize meant “never” in middle-of-the-night-speak. I eagerly nudged him again, bursting to send him out for my own version of Chop Suey and watermelon.
It wasn’t happening. My usually silent husband was now snoring like a buzz saw.
After lamenting that this wasn’t how it went in the movies, I decided to don real clothes and wipe the zit cream off my face (darn hormones!) to brave the frozen food section of Kroger. Just before slipping on my jeans, I decided to try a spoonful of cocktail sauce to see if that would save me a trip. (By this time it was after 1 a.m., and my excitement about having my first wacky craving was waning considerably.) I headed to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and in the blink of an eye, my pregnant brain went on the fritz. Nothing could have sounded worse than cocktail sauce and fried shrimp.
The next few seconds went something like this: Ooh, cantaloupe! Delicious! But, wait! Wheat toast! But not just one piece—three pieces! Oh, and a bath! How lovely it would be to take a bath while eating my wheat toast and cantaloupe! And so, with a plate of wheat toast and cantaloupe in hand and the clock striking 2 a.m., I headed to the bathroom for a nice long soak.
It may be true what they say, “It only happens in the movies,” but I’m still holding out for my Lady and the Tramp moment. Fortunately, I still have 20+ weeks to make that happen.
