5 waffles, 2 chickens, 3 batches of grits....

Brad is going away. He's moving to Sacramento for the summer to do security and then moving out with his friend Tom. As much as I think this might be good for us socially, it scares me to death. Am I really going to find another roommate to make dinner for me and iron my scrubs and run to fresh & easy and be in charge of filling the water jugs? Will anyone else I live with really understand most things I say even if I only say half of the sentence? True, chances are, we won't be living more than 20 minutes apart from each other max. It just seems crazy for now, and I don't think I've quite wrapped my head around it. And I'm not looking forward to dividing up the kitchen stuff. Nor do I know for sure where I'm going to live or what ward I'll be going to, even though I have a few ideas.....
But the point of this post is really that Brad threw a party. A chicken & waffles going away party. I woke up Sat. afternoon (I worked Fri night) to this news. Brad was busy cutting up chicken and John had just come over. And when John realized we were having fried chicken & waffles, John realized we needed sweet potato pie. He called a few places, and shockingly, one place had one available if we would quickly drive to downtown Phoenix to get it. Just because it was an adventure, I pulled my hair back and jumped in the car in my pajamas (totally modest, of course...). And we got there just in time to snag a great sweet potato pie.
Meanwhile, Brad and our friend Lena from Russia had started cooking the main course. The cornbread was in the oven, Lena was having panic attacks wanting to start the waffles, and Brad was breading the chicken. Somehow it leaked out that Brad was using water in the chicken breading instead of beer, which everyone agreed was a terrible idea.
Luckily there was a pool party going on at our complex. Lena to the rescue. Lena, being the uninhibited girl that she is, crashed the party. She walked right up to one of the girls and asked, "Who's in charge of the beer?" The girl responded that Lena was! So Lena promptly stole a Bud Light and came right back over. Luckily Ben, a new convert, knew how to open it with a fork. Because as well-stocked as our kitchen is, it lacks a can opener.
It made for some fabulous fried chicken.
People filed in and out for a few hours, and we all had a blast. I made Quaker Instant Grits (9 packages), which, with butter and salt and pepper, were pretty good. It was still white people soul food. I mean, the only waffle maker we have makes heart shaped waffles, and we did use chicken breasts for everything, but nobody complained.

We were all pretty full, but only Lena complained that she was absolutely stuffed.
"What did you eat?" we all asked.
"Oh, 5 waffles, 2 chicken, 3 batches of grits....." Oh Lena. We love you.