Living in the city is awesome. Biking to and from clinic is generally the highlight of my day. However, it has its drawbacks. For example, what used to be an easy, hassle-free stop at the grocery store for soup has become terribly complicated. Why would I use the specific example of soup, you ask? Well, gather round children, zip it, listen.

My crushed soup container

As you all know, Boards-ageddon is coming. Scientists are predicting that the end of times is coming October 21 to 22. So, naturally, in the shadow of this realization, making food has been low on my list of priorities. Thankfully, there’s a Whole Foods almost directly on my route back from clinic. I had put off stopping there over the past five months, simply because I was uncertain of the logistics involved in carrying hot food in a packed backpack. The temptation was real though. I despise redundancy and wasted opportunity, so biking by Whole Foods just to walk back later was demoralizing. So, one fateful day (last Friday), after consulting with my colleagues, I decided I was finally ready to give it a whirl.

Some of the collateral damage

As I biked up to Whole Foods, I had a the meager beginnings of a strategy formulated. By the time I was walking out with a large container of steaming hot chicken noodle soup, my plan had materialized. I felt brilliant, cocky even, as I wrapped my coat around the container and squeezed it snugly between my notebooks, computer and Ipad.

Feeling the slight warping of the waxed cardboard as I made the fit should have been a dark omen. But I was high on the scent of the soup and my excitement to eat it was irresistible. So I hopped on my bike and took off on the three-minute bike ride home. I made it a half block before I felt searing hot soup pouring down my back and into my pants. Droplets were falling down onto my rear bike tire and being flung up onto my neck. I immediately pulled over, threw off my backpack and opened it to find noodles…everywhere.

So, as I walked my bike back to my place, defeated and covered in soup, I contemplated how much boards were impacting my life. So, when you find yourself in my shoes – avoid soup, bikes, and backpacks. Make a salad. Live your life.