I got nothing for this one.

It’s been a pretty good challenge this year coming up with things to say inspired by the most generic of American Italian food.

The food is like this blog. It’s not great but it’s not awful. But above all it just keeps going.

The good news (and food news) for you readers keeping score at home is that at some point in the not-too-distant future this section of the blog will shut down. And then we may return to the days of annual or biannual blogging–who knows.

That’s one thing to say about this challenge (and it has been a challenge, as much as it’s been a treat it’s been a task), is that it’s forced me to cook up something out of the same old noodles and sauce, week after week.

This is all I got for today:

Same windows with nonexistent view into parking lot or highway traffic. Same empty wine glasses (we’ve ordered zero bottles or glasses so far, and barely touched the samples maybe twice), same empty crayon packet (James has like an entire 64-box or so of Olive Garden crayons, but imagine that would be like opening this new pack of Crayolas and seeing instead of a beautiful gradient of visible light in that yellow-and-green chevroned box row after row of the same flat shade of blue, red, orange, and green. And the crayons are too waxy anyway and they suck.), same hospital-sick painted walls (nothing warm about that hue).

They changed the tables and seats.

The challenge is making something out of nothing, out of the same nothing you’ve faced day after day.

Because, guess what, novelty is temporary. Tedium is forever.

If Sisyphus has to roll that stone up the mountainside day after day for all of eternity, you better believe he’s invented about a trillion different games to play as he goes. Camus was right: by now, the man loves it, loves every second of repeating the same motions and sights and thoughts again and again and again.

There is purpose and new things in the redundant. Originality is impossible and overrated.

Eat at the Olive Garden day after day until it makes you the most interesting person on the planet.

Item 1: linguine, meat sauce, breaded shrimp

Breadsticks: 3

Weight: 170

How many times would I buy this pass over again? Every time always.