of plastic and the foil

i'm an aluminum foil girl, myself. there's an aged roll of plastic wrap in my kitchen drawer, must be at least 15 years old, which has seen dozens of rolls of foil come and go. does the plastic feel neglected, or is it smugly wise for having survived so long?

for food storage, i guess my first choice would be reusable plastic containers, followed by ziploc style plastic bags. i always have three sizes on hand - gallon, quart, and snack. of course, there're also some fold-over sandwich bags in the drawer, but those aren't for food storage. they're for food transport.

i keep this stuff mostly in one drawer - the wraps and bags, along with paper napkins and our stock of little boxes of matches because they needed a home, and the wrap-and-bag drawer was as good a place as any. the plastic storage containers aren't in the drawer because they don't fit. they're in a bin, in the pantry.

the foil comes into play mostly for lining pans, so that the pan doesn't have to be cleaned after use. i only do this with metal pans. there's no point in lining a glass pan with foil -- that just turns it into a metal pan, and if i wanted a metal pan, well, there they are. pick one.

i also have an unopened box of foil sheets because foil-wrapped sandwiches seemed a romantic notion, but in reality, using foil sheets is problematic, what with the gapping and all. plastic bags just have a nicer seal. so, i have this unopened box because of the realities of the romantic notion and also because i've had the unopened box for long enough to where IT as become the thing. like, it's not a box that contains foil sheets, as if they are separate entities, but it's all one unit and that unit is a box that contains foil sheets. get it? bottom line, i can't open it now. i mean, it's one unit, you know? opening it would be just criminal.

the plastic wrap i have is so old, it's before the time of special features. it's got no holiday print. it's got no magic-cling qualities. it is simple, plain roll of clear plastic. sometimes it sticks to itself, sometimes it sticks to the bowl i'm covering, sometimes it doesn't stick to anything at all. it's whimsical plastic and it does what it wants. after this time, it's earned the right.

tonight i got the whimsical plastic out, and it cooperatively clung to the watermelon bowl. i guess it didn't feel like fighting, not tonight.