My husband and I had a friend over for dinner Saturday night. He happens to be retired military and now works as a civilian, but in the military arena. I packed him a to-go bag so that he could have dinner the next evening, too.
Last night, I received an email from him asking what I wanted him to do with the Tupperware that I used to package the food. My response to him was, "Throw it in the recycling bin and if you don't recycle, throw it away. Or, just keep them." I didn't really care what he did with the containers. I just didn't want them back.
Why?
A couple of weeks ago, I trekked over to Target and stocked up on GladWare. Many, many years ago, I married my soldier and we began our marriage with a decent inventory of Tupperware. Back then, as far as I can remember, Tupperware was the only game in town. Fast forward to today or, more precisely, to the day before I went to Target. I still had Tupperware, but the lids had magically disappeared. Almost all of them.
For the life of me, I can't really understand how this happened. One or two lids gone? Yeah, I can see that. But not ten! Perhaps I left some lids in a dishwasher at one or two houses before we moved. Perhaps the packers missed a few lids here and there. Perhaps the lids that went with the bowls that I used to feed and hydrate the dog during the drive from duty station to duty station were thrown away by accident during the chaos of the move. Whatever happened, it happened over and over again until one day, I was left with two - count them, TWO - dishes with lids.
So that's why I told my friend that I didn't want the Tupperware back. I gave him the ones without lids and just put aluminum foil on top. He was under strict orders not to return those containers to me.
For just a few bucks, I now have GladWare with lids. I expect the mates to stay together, too. Until the next PCS move, that is. In our family, it's not the matching sock that disappears, it's the matching lid. Well, there was that one time, but I'm sure it was just a fluke.....
