At what point does dinner become breakfast?

In my world, I can eat items generally considered breakfast foods any time of day; so calling it breakfast, lunch, or dinner based on what I’m eating has never worked for me. I also remember, from my early college days, many trips to get breakfast any time between midnight and 4 AM at the local Denny’s before calling it a night and crawling into bed ‘till noon the following day. Since I was never a bar fly, these trips generally happened after late night study sessions, movies, or incidents of … um … baking cookies. (apologies to those who do not get that euphemism) I never considered those late night meals breakfast, though on almost every occasion I ate breakfast foods.

Last night, after four and a half hours in the ER, Jen and finally managed to climb back into the car and pick up food on the way home. By the time I ate my Wendy’s chicken nugget meal it was well after midnight. Since technically it was Thursday morning rather than Wednesday night, did we eat breakfast or dinner? A little something to ponder.

Last I saw of the clock it was 12:45AM when I crawled into bed last night and when Jen’s alarm went off this morning it certainly didn’t feel like we had been in bed for four hours! Thumb and wrist splinted and securely bandaged, she dressed and headed to work long before the sun even considered rising from it’s nightly slumber. I was somewhat awake and vaguely remember her telling me not to be late for work today before she left. How well she knows me!

I was in fact not late for work today, but mostly because I skipped the morning shower and traffic is still light from the holiday week, or is it a result of all the job loss in the area recently? Jen is doing fine, has a sprained wrist and POSSIBLY a hairline fracture on one of those little bones they can never seem to get on film clearly. The ER was sending the film over to the radiologist who will read it today and call if there are any fractures. In the event they don’t appear today, it will be read again Friday just to be doubly sure.

As expected, her employer sent her home today, and told her not to return to work until she has clearance from her doctor to resume normal, or mostly normal duties. So far that means she is off without pay today through next Monday. Sadly, neither of us really minds and if she didn’t need the health insurance her job provides I wouldn’t care if she never returned to work for them. They are shady at best, down right dirty-slide-it-by-noone-will-notice inmost cases, even when it comes to children’s health and safety. How else do you explain why the office knew the step ladder was unsafe and never bothered to a) say anything to Jen or b) spend the $19.99 to buy a new one? In the history of the building it appears Jen is the second person to file a workers comp claim and the first person had to threaten to take it to court before the employer would pay the medical bills. Everyone else just uses their own insurance to cover any medical expenses due to at work injuries because they don’t want the hassle of sitting in ER forever or fighting to get thing paid for. Sure staying home last night and crawling into bed at a somewhat normal time would have been nice, but based on principle alone we endured the ER fiasco because it is her employers fault she was injured and THEY should have to pay those bills.