The Thermos Challenge

As I type this my daughter is taking part in the annual Rosary Procession over in St Paul. In honor of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (that's today) all the schoolkids in the archdiocese walk about a mile to the Cathedral, praying the rosary as they go. We got an email yesterday that said this meant lunch at school would be a little late, so make sure your kid eats a decent breakfast (Sophia is not a big breakfast girl) and brings a water bottle for the hike. Oh, and after walking a mile inteh brisk wind they'll probably e pretty hungry, so pack a good lunch. Since it's significantly cooler today than it's been all week, I thought today would be a good day for a thermos lunch. So this morning I heated up leftovers from last night and filled the lunch-sized thermos I bought at Costco last week. Now the only thing that could go wrong with this thermos is Sophia might not be able to get it open. This happened the last time I sent her to school with a (much cheaper) thermos. Apparently every adult in the school- custodians, teachers, hapless visitors-- tried to pry it open and failed. We never did get the thing open again. I finally threw it in the trash, with the "hot lunch" presumably still hot inside it. I admit I have a thing about thermoses. The idea that you can tote your own hot food with you when you go out and not have to buy McDonalds has great appeal. Feeds the body, and the ego- in the "look how healthy I'm being!" sense. But I must also conclude the thermoses in my life have not been very reliable. The glass liners broke, the tops got lost, they leaked. Maybe I just have bad thermos karma, I don't know. But today I'm giving it another shot. Optimism is my middle name. Our Lady of the Rosary, please help my kid pry the top off the damn thing at lunchtime.