Mama-Me-a: An Evolution in Pizza
In the beginning, my mom made the pizza. She spread the tomato paste, which reminds me of a great joke- How do you fix a tomato? Tomato paste! Yes, so, my mom spread the tomato paste and sprinkled the cheese and plopped the pepporoni and then put the whole thing in the oven.

Then, the "Noid" arrived. The Noid may have been a symptom of some disease, or a result of stress, but we were avoiding the Noid and our pizzas were arriving in 30 minutes or less. Even as a fifth-grader, I knew this was PROGRESS.

Many years passed and evolution was slow, but pizza started to replace commands. Instead of "Go to Point A for Special Meeting or face consequences", it became "Special Meeting- Come for the pizza." Momma, did not raise no fool and I went. Free pizza kept me in college.

When the free pizza fountains started to dry up, Pappa then entered the scene. That's Pappa John, please. Pappa John and the occasional Gumby he rode in came right to my door. And they had sticks. And some people felt this was progress. This is where I got confused. But since pizza and I were so intertwined by now, I ate when Pappa delivered.

Then instead of getting the sticks, I'd moved to the sticks and I must turn to my grocer's freezer where I find-- pizza. It gets the job done.

I move out of the sticks and into the Big City where I eventually stumble upon a yuppie grocery store. Rather than pepporni or sausage, these crazy yuppies have pinenuts and Feta cheese on their pizza. I, without even realizing my transformation, pick up this yuppie pizza and consume it.

It's all very symbolic. And when I start making my own pizza for my children, I will have completed the circle, the circle of Pizza; the circle of Life.