So Stuffed!

OK, I get it. After a lifetime of misunderstanding, I am now set aright. All these years, wasted in ignorance, all those nights, lost to a inexperience.

I now understand the obsession with deep dish pizza. All these years, I’ve preferred thin crust. Thick crust (or pan) pizza has never held much interest. But I guess that’s because I’d never had it. Not really.

Tonight, I ate at Giordano’s, Chicago’s famous stuffed pizza restaurant. A Chicago tradition for more than 30 years, Giordano’s has locations throughout the Chicago area, as well as some locations in Florida. Best of all, if you are not privileged to live nearby one of these restaurants, Giordano’s does offer nation-wide delivery.

Sound crazy? It kinda is. The cooks half-bake their pizza (which you can custom-build to your liking) and Fed-Ex them to any street address in the continental U.S. Upon arrival, one simply pops the pizza into the oven for a few minutes and feast thereupon.

Of course, there have been some drawbacks to my evening. This being my first trip to Chicago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I hiked to the Sears Tower (VERY impressive, despite the cloudy sky), and on the return trip happened upon Girodano’s. I ordered a small pizza (10” in diameter, but almost 2 inches thick), which took about thirty minutes to prepare.

If only my wife were here. There is no way a normal human being can eat a whole small pizza alone. And believe me, I gave it my best effort. But my stomach has limits, and one can only stuff so much cheese down there.

So now, the dilemma. I have leftovers. But even if I could cram that box into the minibar in my hotel, I have no means to reheat the pizza in the morning. So sad to think of disposing of it. *sigh*

I realize that this entry has an unusual tone for me. This is the first evening that I have spent away from my wife since the AEJMC conference trip right after our honeymoon. Being in a city without her has affected me more than I suspected.

How can it be that I spent more than three decades alone in this world? How can so much have changed in so little time? How can everything feel so different?

Who’s going to eat the rest of this pizza?