The second half of the sandwich.

I am very picky about sandwiches.  They have to be fresh, fresh, fresh.  Like, assembled and eaten within minutes.  Otherwise, I won't stand for it.  Obviously, this doesn't work for those picnic/hiking events where one makes a sandwich in advance and eats it many hours later.  I just can't do it.  Things get soggy and warm and squished and, oh my!  I'm feeling a little sick just thinking about it. 

If ever there was a situation where I wanted to make a sandwich to eat later, I would bring the prepared veggies in a container, the condiments in containers, the cheese wrapped up, and the bread on its own.  I'd have a knife and when it was food time, I'd prepare the sandwich while out in whatever wilderness I'm in.  As you might imagine, I don't do this often (if ever, really) because hauling around a bunch of containers is not what anyone would call convenience.  I don't even take sandwiches to work for this reason.

My need for a fresh sandwich is so hardcore that I even have a hard time getting through the second half of a freshly prepared sandwich.  My pattern, for years, has been this:  I order (or, occasionally, make) the sandwich, start to eat it, think Mmm, this is so good--I'm going to eat this entire sandwich for sure!, finish the first half, start in on the second half, get about two or three bites in and think, This bread is soggy.  And did they really need to add this much [dressing]?  The lettuce is a little limp. And what is up with the tomatoes?  Why did they put ALL these tomatoes on here anyway?  I swear, the first half wasn't like this! 

At that point, I'll rip off sections of soggy bread, take a bite, pull out a tomato or two and set them on my plate or wrapper,  take a bite, maybe grab and eat a green pepper slice on it's own, use a knife or the wrapper to wipe off some of the condiments, take more bites, open the sandwich up and start picking out and eating olives or cheese or whatever, and then decide I can't take it anymore as I stare down at the destroyed remains of the sandwich.

The other day, my husband and I were at Panera and events with my grilled panini unfolded just as I described above.  I silently did my thing  that I do, and when it was over, Dwayne laughed and shook his head saying, "It's sad how predictable that was."

The thing is, it wasn't predictable to me!  I really believed (as I always do), that THIS TIME would be when I would eat the whole sandwich without ripping the second half to shreds.

The lesson in all of this is that I should stick to ordering a half a sandwich at a time.