One Taco, Please

Procrastination is a tool used by every generation to get things done in a hurry.  I’ve found that when many people are put under the gun they find a way to accomplish their task.  Usually the project suffers as a result of the lack of preparation, but once in a while something great comes out of the hurried, supply-shy brain-tester.

My sister, Aunt Hockey Mom, has a fourteen-year-old son who is the procrastinator-at-large that inspired this post.

The teenager, Hockey Cousin, told his mother that he needed a taco for a school project as she was preparing to leave for work.  I don’t know if the kid is that naive to think that all his food comes immediately prepared when he asks his mother for it a la the Jetson’s, but not in pill form, or he assumes that she has extra tacos laying around the house for when an occasion like this presents itself.  Either way, a request for a taco at 7:45 am as your parent is heading off to work is a tall order.

I think my sister was bragging when she told me about this because of her ingenuity and ability to take it in stride.  After taking inventory of the goods on hand at her house she immediately drove to the store around the corner and bought bagged salad and frozen meatballs.  She knew raw meat wouldn’t cut it, even though it wasn’t going to be eaten, so she went with frozen ground beef(?) in ball form.  Brilliant!

The shell, taco sauce, sour cream and bag-picked lettuce waited in the wings to be assembled while the boy cut up the balls in awe of his mother.  She walked out the door with a smug look on her face and a well-deserved sense of accomplishment.

This was one of those occasions where the pressure of time lead to a job well done.  Hopefully the teenager doesn’t use the success of this assignment as a model for all future projects… or his mother will kill him (figuratively).