I am taking a Creative Writing class, and am free-writing every day with themes posed by our instructor.  So, I am going to post my writings here…lucky you!

Today:  Write about a memory of blueberries.

Blueberries themselves don’t evoke a lot of memories in me.  I remember my dad loves blueberries, and we have tried to grow blueberries, but have not been successful yet.  I love blueberries and love them baked into muffins.

Ok, here is a memory for you.  I remember when I worked in the language lab at a university, and my co-worker, Susan, and I, would walk down to the cafeteria in the morning for our morning coffee break, and I would either want a blueberry muffin or a cinnamon bun.  But the problem with cinnamon buns was that sometimes they snuck raisins into them, and I would pile all the raisins on a napkin back in the office where we typically had our break.

Now blueberry muffins were usually safe.  But, I especially liked blueberry bran muffins which you had to be cautious of because sometimes were not blueberries, but raisins again sneaking into the mix and running a perfectly good muffin experience.

I miss eating those muffins.  Not because I no longer work at that university and can not longer avail myself of the delectable coffee treats at the cafeteria, which I don’t know if it even still exists, but because I no longer eat regular muffins, or cinnamon buns, or anything with gluten goodness in them.  And I can tell you from personal experience that gluten free blueberry muffins just aren’t the same.  At least none of the ones I’ve tried over the years.  Too dry and sweet at the same time typically.

No. I miss the days of blueberry muffin gluten goodness.  I also sometimes miss the days of working with Susan in the language lab, the small office where we shared a desk, with windows only on the other side of internal walls, and windows we popped open so we could get air until the janitors came in and riveted them shut again.  Where I finally got my own office, and it was the cassette tape library…yes, our lab had cassette tapes as this was just in the beginning days of computer assisted language learning where we coded the programs in DOS and ran them on big floppy disks.  Ah, those were the days.

I can’t believe thinking about blueberries took me back to those first days of working with educational technology.  And that’s what I still work in today.  Yes, the internet has changed things, as have iPhones and other devices, but blueberry muffins are still the same.  I just wish I could eat them again.