As Good as It Gets…

Yes, it’s the name of a movie and it just so happens to have popped in my head this morning about 6am.

I was hosting a lunch today with my mom and cousin. Nothing special…just been a while since we’ve all been together.

Here in Wisconsin, there’s nothing quite as good as hot ham and rolls on Sunday mornings. It’s practically its own food group. Right up there with Friday fish frys.

I decided to get the ham, rolls, and bakery from a well-known, 4th generation, Milwaukee institution known as Grebe’s. (Pronounced Greebee’s).

Several days ago I called them to confirm they still had hot ham and rolls on Sunday mornings since it’s been quite a long time since I’ve gone there. The gal on the phone said that hot ham and rolls is what they’re known for. I beg to differ with her.

They make crullers…and you haven’t lived until you’ve had a Grebe’s cruller. I pronounce them ‘crawlers’ as do thousands of other locals. I personally like mine frozen…they last longer when you’re eating them. Basically, any bakery item you get from Grebe’s is going to be amazing.

They are so amazing that when I visit my sister in another state, I always take a dozen of them along for her and my BIL. When my sister comes here to visit, it’s a given that I have a dozen of them here waiting for her. We used to travel internationally with a group of friend’s and I always brought a cruller along for each traveler and we would eat them prior to departure. Again, they should have their own food group.

After I got off of the phone with the gal from Grebe’s, I realized I didn’t ask what time they open on Sunday. “Ok Google…what time does Grebe’s open on Sunday mornings?” 5am. FIVE A.M. WOW! That works for this early riser.

I left the house, in the dark, at 6am. It’s about a 15-minute drive to get there. I’m never out and about at that hour, especially on a Sunday morning, so I took my time. Needless to say, traffic was non-existent. On each city block I drove, I was surprised at how many people were already awake because their house lights were on.

Now…this is the part where the movie As Good as It Gets comes into play. In the final scene of the movie, Melvin and Carol are walking in the dark, down a city sidewalk in the early morning hours. There are trucks making deliveries, flour dust filling the air from a delivery, and they pop into a pastry shop. There’s just something wonderful about that early morning stroll.

As I’m winding through the city on my way to and from the bakery, there were a couple of people out for an early morning walks, a few people were walking their dogs, and the biggest surprise was waiting for me at a stop light. Kitty-corner was a church parking lot with one light shining on the lot and there’s a guy on rollerblades just dancing around the parking lot at what most people would think is an un-Godly hour. I had my window down and it was eerily quiet outside except for some fallen leaves being blown around the street by a fall breeze. I just sat there watching him skate around the parking lot. I kept watching and not paying attention to the stop light turning green, and there was nobody behind me to give a friendly wake-up call to the green light. I was just mesmerized by the skater, who as they say, was skating like nobody was watching.

But I was watching…and picturing Melvin and Carol strolling down a city sidewalk to a pastry shop.