Eat me.

I've noticed what I consider to be a disturbing trend: Any sort of gathering or regular social event requires food.
As a fat girl who doesn't really like eating in public, as a rational person, and as a person whose grocery bill can sometimes be 20% comprised of "food that other people asked me to bring", this trend is growing increasingly irritating.

If a group of friends are coming over, and I expect them to stay for multiple hours, I might make a little something, because that's the hospitable thing to do, and I have a love affair with my kitchen aid and pampered chef stuff. Or, if I invite people over for dinner, obviously, I will provide food. Conversely, if someone invites us over for dinner, I will more than happily offer to bring something. Each of these situations make sense.

But since when has seeing people become synonymous with eating? Do we hate each other so much that we must pacify ourselves with food? Or are we really such a nation that we can't go more than 2 hours without consuming something? No wonder our country has such weight issues. Let's look at the following instances in which food is "socially required" but to me makes no sense:

1. Wednesday Morning Bible Study: The bible study meets at 10 am, and I am the one who lives furthest away. The vast majority of the women live within 10 minutes of the church. Every week, there is a smorgasbord of food. There is almost always a fruit platter, but there is also cheese and crackers, cakes, brownies, quiches, muffins, rolls, and the like. Coffee and hot water is also provided, and you know, it's not a necessity, but fine, go with the coffee. But why all the food? Most people have eaten by 10 am anyway, so folks really just end up eating a 'second breakfast'. We could easily feed ourselves at home.

2. Wednesday Evening Small Group: Meets from 6:30-8:30, snack provided. Most of the husbands, some of the wives work. Meets at such a time where realistically, you either have to rush in a simple supper before you go, or wait until you get home. But really - who is going to wait until 9 pm for supper? So one could argue that the snack is "essential!", for those who get home at 6. But what happens, if you don't eat, you end up eating 5 brownies and totally ruining your supper. Or you go, having JUST eaten supper, and aren't hungry, and either you don't eat, or you eat something you really didn't need. So really, they should either just plan on having a full meal every week, or just push the small group back to 7 pm, and let people eat properly beforehand.

3. Monday Night Bible Study: This is in a transition mode. They're talking about meeting at peoples' houses now instead of the Starbucks that has held the study for a few years. And so it would seem that with that transition, comes the request for people to bring "tasty treats to share!". It meets from 7:30-10:30 at night, and you know, I can almost genuinely see a quaintness in taking turns at bringing a dessert to share, though it's not *necessary* by any means. And you know, I'd probably be less cranky about it, if it weren't for the above two situations in addition to this one.

Do you understand? Of course, to actually bring up that "you know, we really don't NEED this food" would surely bring death glares, snarks, and comments of how "no, it's not necessary, but it's fun!" or something. Well, yes, sledding down a hill buck naked would be fun too, but that doesn't mean you should do it.

The social eating is getting way out of hand.