Kraft


Peace Corps / Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

As some of you know already, I finally nabbed a PO box at the local post office. I’ve been wanting to get one for a while because I want to be able to send and receive mail. My school said I could use their PO box, but I didn’t feel comfortable blowing up their PO with my things. I also didn’t know what I would do if I received anything over the summer breaks. But now I have my own, and well I guess I can use it. So can you! The address is now located in the contact link above.

If you’re afraid of being the first person to send something to my PO box, don’t be because that position has already been filled. Or rather, co-filled. Shout out to Carolyn and Kip for being the first.

Carolyn had been hounding me for some time to get a PO box, and she was less than patient when I told her that the post office didn’t have any available. Carolyn kept me in constant pursuit of it. If she hadn’t, I think I might have resigned myself to two years of service and only receiving one package from my parents.

My shelf now looks like this:

Kellogg's and Mac n Cheese
The happiest place in my apartment.

My deepest gratitude goes out to Carolyn and Kip for putting this care package together. In addition to the cereal and Kraft, they also included some things to remind me of home. There was a fair share of items which represented things that couldn’t be sent, like the magnet for Dotty’s Dumpling Dowry advertising the world’s best burger. Man, do I miss beef burgers. I miss them so much that every time I’m in Kiev, I eat six McDonalds cheeseburgers over the course of the trip. I also received a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter. It’s my favorite. And, adding a holiday theme, there were Easter eggs filled with typical Easter egg goodies. My favorite was the one with moist-towelettes from Famous Daves. It made me miss BBQ ribs something awful.

Hands down, the Kraft Mac N Cheese had the biggest effect on me. I really brought me back to home and made me think about what I stepped away from for two years.

Kraft is one of those foods that is easy to make and easy to eat. By the end of college I could make a box and eat it in under fifteen minutes. I’d still be hungry when I was done. It was cheap and it was delicious. It was college living that I stepped away from.

Kraft also brings forth a lot of memories of my roommate from college, Joe. Joe was never much of a cook, and tended to err on the side of simplicity when cooking. And cheapness. He loved his Kraft. There were days when I swear I saw him eat a box for each meal of the day. It never seemed to get old for him, no matter how much he ate. I realized that it will be a while before I can have a roommate like that again.

Kraft is also linked to Geoff in my mind. When I’d come home from college for a visit or during a break, Geoff and I would naturally hang out. Towards the end, this amounted to getting some 40oz. of Mickey’s and drinking them while playing some game or watching TV (every once in a while, we’d grill some burgers and drink the Mickey’s). There were a few occasions, having finished my Mickey’s and looked at my watch, I discovered it was 2:30am and it was time for me to head home. So I did. As I was nearing my parents’ house, I’d get a text message from Geoff that would say something like, “I makin kraft”. I’d respond with, “I’ll be right there”. And I’d head back for some Kraft. That won’t be happening again for a while (maybe when I’m home for my brother’s wedding).

It’s the gesture as a whole and the individual items that I want to thank Carolyn and Kip for. It made my weekend like nothing has in a long time.

Kraft
I downed this in about five minutes.

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