Kate was always the cook in our family, and one
of the problems we experienced before her diagnosis was her forgetting to
prepare dinner. I often came home from the office to discover that she hadn’t
planned anything. As a result, we began to eat out more frequently.
After the diagnosis, I started preparing dinner and sometimes getting carryout
meals. I wasn’t a good cook and didn’t enjoy cooking. We were trying to enjoy
life and each other, and my cooking wasn’t helping us. Gradually, we began to
eat out for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Just as we have binged on
music, we binged on eating out. Before the pandemic hit in 2020, we had eaten
out over 6,000 times.
In addition, we started going to Panera each morning for Sarah to get a muffin.
We took our laptops and stayed there for an hour or more before going to lunch.
In the afternoon, we went to the café at Barnes and Noble. We were there until
time to go to dinner.
Eating out was a great way for us to enjoy life together and kept us from
becoming socially isolated. We frequently ran into people we know. We also met
new people who were also regulars at the restaurants and cafes where we spent
so much time. To be sure, our routine was unusual, but we had fun, and it kept
us from being socially isolated.
