Who Knew Rice Was So Volatile?

by Colleen Oakley

We got in a fight over rice.

We were standing in Aisle 6 of Kroger on Sunday night because Fred had sweetly said he was going to cook me dinner. He asked me what starch I wanted. Rice-a-roni, I said immediately. It’s a deliciously sodium-rich guilty pleasure of mine. Fred made a face and picked up a box of Zataran’s beans and rice. I don’t like beans and rice.

I scoffed and said, “I thought you were cooking dinner for me. Why did you ask me if you were just going to make what you wanted anyway?” We didn’t speak for the rest of the night.

The next day, I woke up in the morning and cringed. Did I really not speak to my fiancé for 4 hours and go to bed irritated with him over a side dish? I grabbed my computer and e-mailed him at work. “I’m so sorry about last night. Not sure why I was so pissy. Still love me?”

For the record, I was truly sorry and I did think I over-reacted, but I also thought that he should have apologized. We had gotten into a similar argument over our wedding photographer. We had decided on one package and then later I thought another package was more suitable for us. I asked him what he thought. He liked the first package. I explained why I thought we should go with the second package.