Our First Measuring Cup

Let me turn a short story into a long story for you.

It all started when I met Akeem. On Friday, I used my Classpass to do an hour of "Gym Time" at Crunch Gym on the Upper West Side. I politely asked a staff member (Akeem) where to return a foam mat and 20 minutes later ended up scheduling a "free consultation" personal training session with him after making it VERY CLEAR I have no intention of joining this gym or paying for personal training.

Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's (specifically to buy cookies and chips) and as soon as I stepped into the store I heard "KATIE!" Obviously it was Akeem. And obviously he took this opportunity to tell me how he was shopping to do "meal prep" for the week. He pointed out the benefits of "meal prep" and I pointed out how I had my yoga mat with me because I am very fit. And then we said goodbye and I waited for him to walk ahead of me so he couldn't judge my groceries.

So I told Eric all about what my man said about meal prepping and he was like why do you call him your man and I was like oh you know he's my guy like my gym guy and Eric was like we should do meal prepping. So just like that we became meal preppers.

The meal prepping is beginning tonight. I went to a friend's comedy show a few blocks away in Harlem and Eric texted me:

E: "Uh oh, can you buy measuring cups?"

K: "You need one tonight?"

E: Well sort of. But I can cook the rice tomorrow.

K: Wait, can't you just use any cup and estimate it?

E: Oh I'd like to measure.

This is our real life drama. AMAZINGLY I stumble upon a 99 cent store on my way home from the show. First of all, I love the 99 cent store because it's a great place to wander around mindlessly and find affordable treasures. Second of all, this was a "99 cent plus" store, so ya know, not as good. I purchased the following things: Aluminum foil, a mop, a baking pan, and a measuring cup.

[Side note: I live in a pretty safe neighborhood, but I have never felt safer walking home alone at night. Carrying a mop is extremely empowering. Who's going to try to take the purse of someone who can whack you in the head with a mop handle? No one, that's who.]

When I get home, I proudly hand over the measuring cup to eager-to-cook Eric and we quickly discover that both sides of the cup have exclusively metric measurements. (This will in no way make me stop shopping at 99 cent stores.)

We fixed it!

The end.