We all need a little laugh from time to time. When we are dealing with chronic pain, a little laugh can do a lot of good, not just to take our minds off of the pain for a few moments, but to lighten our hearts, minds and soul. As I just finished eating another one of my husbands unusual dinner creations, I couldn't help but laugh at some of the crazy things that were, um, not quite right.

I love to cook. Many of my friends have often told me that I should have become a chef. I have never had any classes, but have read numerous cook books throughout my life. I even had to give up a few when we moved, ok, maybe closer to a hundred give or take, and only keeping my favorite dozen or so. I have made every attempt to make all of the meals around our house up until my surgery last January. It did not matter how tired I was or how late I came home from work, I would prep and cook some great, and some not so great, culinary creations. I found great enjoyment in being creative in the kitchen. Now, that usually meant that we would not eat supper until at least 8:30 and occasionally was not until after 11 but it was something I loved to do. The only thing was, my husband complained every night about how late we would eat, although now that he does most of the cooking, we never eat before 10.

Since CRPS has limited what I can do, cooking has all but been out of the picture for me. As my husband brought me a very odd creation of his own tonight, one that I would not want to try again, bean burritos that for some odd reason had bacon and spaghetti in it, sorry hun, I'll pass on seconds tonight, it made me think back to when we were dating. It made me think back to a creation that we put together ourselves. I will admit, we did have a little too much to drink, missed out on going out for dinner and wound up scrounging around his kitchen to make what has been burned in my mind, and on my tongue ever since as the worst meal that I can ever remember being part of making.

So what was it that we managed to make that night. Well, I started making a hot and sour chicken dish of some sort but realized that we did not have any citrus fruits or juice of any kind. It was then that my husband handed me the canned prunes as a substitute. What the heck, canned prunes sounded like a great idea at the time. It must not have been such a great idea, either that, or my husband must have decided it was time to start cleaning out the refrigerator, because when I turned around to stir the pot, I found he had added a can of sauerkraut, teriyaki sauce, basically whatever he could find. Ultimately, I don't really remember what all we added that night, but we were bound and determined to have dinner together, no matter what. We both had one spoon full and that was it. The rest went in the garbage. Normally we don't waste food, but canned prunes and sauerkraut do not go together. I don't know what we were thinking but we did have fun together that night.

So does anybody else have any crazy ideas in your past that were just such failures that they will forever make you just look back, laugh and ask yourself "what was I thinking?"