On Monday, I was at school until 6:00 because I had my last formal observation for the year on Tuesday.  (It went fine, by the way.) So I was on my way home, starving (OK fine, really hungry) and also with my gas tank on E.  So I stopped to fill up and bought a package of those cheese crackers with peanut butter.  (Side note – see Meggan, Jonas isn’t so weird to ask for a peanut butter and cheese sandwich!)  I had eaten about one cracker when I realized, “OH NO!!! I’m eating a processed peanut butter product.  Not only does this violate all of our local eating ideals, but I may be killing myself in the process.”  So I’ve been monitoring myself for signs of some sort of dire symptoms but none have appeared.  From what I’ve read, salmonella has a really fast onset (within hours) so I guess I’m not going to die.

The moral of the story?
Don’t buy processed peanut butter snacks!

The more important moral of the story?
Don’t buy processed foods!

And the even greater moral of the story?
Think through your day in the morning and pack enough food so that you’re not buying over-priced, bad-for-you snacks at the gas station at 6:00 in the evening because you’re desperate for food .

And one final thought – my first year of teaching, it was normal for me to be at school until 6:00.  In fact, I was happy if I left by 6:00 because I was regularly staying later than that.  So it’s nice to have 6:00 be really late to leave work!

Updated at 9:50 to add:  I just found the recall notice for the particular brand of crackers that I bought.  They were recalled on January 16th.  So clearly the gas station didn’t read the recall.  This is actually fairly scary.  I’m so grateful that I didn’t get sick!