I (heart) McDonalds & I (hate) too many (food) Choices

At about 10:00 a.m. while pleasantly enjoying myself in my little glass fish bowl (Teena: fish bowl = my office with three other girls; hamster cage=the company office) my Stomach e-mailed my Brain...this was in the subject line: Yo, fool, I'm hungry. You forgot to eat breakfast! Even though my brain got the message, like me, it decided not to reply. An hour later, Stomach left a very nasty message in Brain's voice-mail message box (the contents of which are not suitable for this g-rated blog). This time Brain sent Stomach a text message that read: IT'S 11:00. WAIT 1 MORE HOUR AND I PROMISE I WILL MAKE IT UP TO YOU.

Needless to say, by the time 12:00 came around I was hungry and a little bit grumpy. So my wallet and I headed down to the food court. My choices were: Pizza (No, that was my dinner on Wednesday and my lunch & dinner yesterday), Greek (No, I'm still having BAD flashbacks from the unpleasant 3 days of last week), Sushi (nah), Soup & Salad (nuh uh), and Chinese (hmm..sure, sounds..er smells good).

I went to the one with the longest line because people lining up for Chinese is (I think) a good sign. I looked at the big pictures of the meal options, I looked at the list of menu items, I waited about 8 minutes. When it was (almost) my turn to order I panicked. Yes, I literally panicked. I had no idea what I wanted and now that I was closer to the menu and the big pictures it all looked so confusing..did I want pork or chicken? Rice or noodles? AHH!! I had no idea...and everyone looked like they did. I put my hand up to hide my face (no, I didn't really do that...it's called exaggeration people) as I quickly exited the line. Here was my thought process at the time. I'm hungry> Chinese sounds good> Err...what do I want?(internal crying; external blushing)> TOO. MANY. CHOICES> get out of the line before it's TOO LATE!> McDonald's sounds good.

So, that's where I went. Good ol'Micky D's. The one place that has not (really) changed since I first bit into one of their delicious fries over 17 years ago. Or so I thought. Did you know that McDonald's has a toasted sandwhich menu now? Err.....WTF? I can handle salads, I can handle jumping on the Atkins band wagon...but sandwiches? Why? No, really. Why? You sell burgers McDonald's....B.U.R.G.E.R.S!! Little sugar and fat filled addictive morsels that I can't seem to get enough of, NOT sugar and fat (trust me: they're not a light option) filled sandwiches! Hmmph!!

I'm a sociologoy major and trust me, I've been exposed to my (un)fair share of McDonaldization literature and the corruption it causes in our society. I know that predictability is NOT a good thing. That in order to keep evolving as species we need choices; something to shake up the (digestive) system. But as I write this, my lower lip is protruding, my eyebrows are furrowed, and if I were not typing, my hands would be defiantly on my hips. It's so NOT fair!! I know that as an intelligent, educated woman, I should welcome such changes, but on this one I'm gonna stomp my foot and say "nuh uh!!"..."NO, WAY!!"

I ordered the #7 meal (crispy chicken BURGER)...it was OK. It tasted like it always does. Not really crispy, full of fat (yum), and full of sugar (double yum, yum). Now, excuse me while I undue my top button and take a quick nap...I'm a little tired.