The day I wanted a peanut butter cookie.

Yesterday all I wanted was a peanut butter cookie.  Not just your average, run-of-the-mill peanut butter cookie - I had a very specific cookie in mind.  The cookie, my friends, is quite easily the best cookie I've ever tasted and, upon discovery, it often crosses my mind.  It is sold near my work, which is both a curse and a blessing, so I am forced to limit myself, since let's be honest, peanut butter cookies are not calorically free or monetarily free.  This cookie is flourless, very dense as it was made with real peanut butter (and a lot of it!), and would crumble as you ate it.  It is incredible and quite life changing.  


Yesterday was a particularly long, stressful day at work, so around 4pm, I thought, you know what? I deserve that peanut butter cookie.  Today is the day!  It had been weeks since I'd gotten it and I could practically taste it as I recruited friends to go on the field trip with me.  I'd like to note that yesterday was about 96°, with a real feel of 106°... so making the trip in the sticky, hot Chicago air was even more epic and deserving of a tasty peanut butter cookie reward.  


We get to the old Water Tower, where the Water Works Visitor Center is, walk in, and turn to where the First Slice Cafe has always been... only to find that it is GONE, with a museum-type display set up in its place.  WHAT?!  How can this be?!  I think, surely this is a temporary display and perhaps the cafe will be back.  We then talk to the dear lady working at the tourist information counter, and she breaks the news to us - the cafe is gone for good.  They apparently, as of July 1, are now funded under the Chicago Tourism Bureau.  We thought this might be a positive change, but this lady said it made her go from full-time to part-time.  That plus the fact that they got rid of my cafe make me not a fan!  She said they also got rid of the cafe in the Chicago Cultural Center, which I was disappointed to hear.    I thought that was a neat spot, too.  I asked the lady (who I'm sorry I didn't catch her name) if she'd ever had the magical peanut butter cookie.  She hadn't, but she was just as torn up over not being able to get her chocolate mousse pie.  I'm glad that I'm at least not alone in my devastation!  (Yes, a truly first world problem :) 


The speculation is that the Tourism Bureau will eventually open up their own cafes in these spaces.  This saddens me deeply, since the First Slice Cafe was a charity cafe that was self-funded and "provided access to wholesome food for those living in poverty."  According to their website (http://www.firstslice.org/), they have (and still have) a community-supported kitchen where they serve hot, high-quality three-course meals to about 100 men, women, and children.  They were successful, as there were always a lot of people there, enjoying the healthy and organic sandwiches, desserts, salads, and hot beverages, and they've even been able to open up more than one cafe (read: I can still potentially find the cookie somewhere!)  Their saying is, "Enjoy a guilty pleasure... with a side of good deed." 


Anyway, it saddens me that Chicago Tourism is creating a monopoly in their tourist spaces and are kicking out small, independent businesses to replace them with their own one big company, hoarding all the money revenue back into the city.  I like to support these unique, small businesses, which in my opinion Chicago doesn't have enough of down near the Mag Mile.  Plus, considering Mayor Rahm Emanuel said just today that Chicago is now trying to become known as a leading city for start-ups and small businesses, it seems a little inconsistent.  And most importantly, I can't get my peanut butter cookie anymore! 


The other lesson I learned from this experience is that you can never take things for granted.  All the times that I restrained from getting a cookie, assuming I would get it another time, now are just missed opportunities.  Yes, perhaps positive missed opportunities (back to the caloric and monetary points...), but now the option isn't there.  You can never be sure that something (or someone) will be there in a week or month or year, so it is crucial to absorb and embrace every day that they are.  Enjoy the small things in life.  Eat those peanut butter cookies and live each day to the fullest, because you never know, on your next walk in the hot, sticky air, if your destination will be waiting for you.  And then be thankful for the peanut butter cookies you did get to enjoy! 


All this because of an afternoon craving for a delicious peanut butter cookie.... and just as an FYI, Freshii's peanut butter cookie did NOT compare in the least.  Now, go out and eat a cookie! :) 

carpe diem, hakuna matata, no day but today... redhead OUT.