One of the fun things about being an “almost” empty nester is visiting our boys near their college campuses. Jonathon attends IUPUI and Jacob attends Ball State.
Last Sunday, my husband John and I took both to Amazing Joe’s Grill in Muncie, one of our favorite restaurants near Ball State. We had a delightful waitress named Sarah.
Jacob asked what she recommended, and Sarah quickly replied “The Fugeaboudit Burder” (translation – the forget about it burger.) Both boys ordered it without hesitation.
I didn’t think much of it until our food was delivered. As you can tell by the picture, this sucker was MASSIVE. I looked back at the menu and saw that it consisted of 100 percent fresh Angus beef, onion rings, Cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce, a fried egg, Jack cheese, steak-cut fries, mozzarella sticks, and bacon.
Photo provided by Amy Shankland
Jacob and Jonathon ate every bite.
I should mention that they weren’t able to finish their fries, but still, I was amazed. Watching them took me back to my younger days. I remember being their age and eating everything and anything without thought, including TWO Big Macs from McDonald’s one afternoon.
My sister and brother-in-law used to take me to Noble Roman’s Pizza and would gape at how many slices I would consume.
When you are in the empty-nester stage of life, however, you can no longer eat whatever you want, unless you want to gain a bunch of weight and ruin your health. Both John and I are in our 50s, and the days of eating a Fugeaboudit Burger or anything like it are long gone.
In fact, if I had eaten even one bite of that towering Amazing Joe’s creation, I would have gained two pounds. We told the boys to enjoy eating like this while they can.
While I can no longer eat whatever I want, I still think this is the best stage of life. Yes, I miss having my sons at home all the time. But they are slowly but surely becoming more like friends. We still give them guidance and advice but seeing them becoming responsible adults is a joy.
Whenever we get together with Jonathon and Jacob, I can always count on a lot of laughter, great stories, interesting perspectives from a younger generation, and yes, food. In fact, Jonathon opens the refrigerator door at least twice when he visits.
John and I will continue to enjoy every minute of this stage … along with our (smaller) portions of food while at the dinner table.