I usually concentrate and try to zone out everything whenever I mix chemicals, for fear I might mix things the wrong way and accidentally create a weird living creature, but those three words broke my concentration. Like a wet blanket thrown in my face (sorry, have been trying to use that expression for quite some time. I just find it…. fun).

“FF?!?” I automatically asked.

“FF.” Zombie 4 declared with finality.

FF, of course, stands for Free Food, for all of us perpetually hungry, soulless, wage-less automaton zombie androids. I now regret having missed those opportunities for free lunch at the mess hall back in the day. I would whine then that I no longer want to eat brown sauce, I no longer want to eat a silver fish in some sabaw, but now, I would eat a silver fish mixed in brown sauce in sabaw! In vinegar!

Before coming home this afternoon who should text me but my mom, who said she and my dad would visit me and would I want to meet her in Shakey’s and what food do I want they would treat me to dinner. A couple of years ago I would offer to pay, or just tell them I’d go for the cheapest food if they would pay, but this time I could not help it and texted back in pure patay gutom fashion:

“Yes! Shakey’s! I’ll have chicken! And pizza! And rice! And milk shake!”

At which point I heard The Daw in my head declaring: That Tho Thad.