Book of Daze: Leftovers Surprise Day

Few disappointments rival the letdown of Leftovers Surprise Day, observed by people who have ever opened the refrigerator expecting to see a righteous snack and found something else entirely.

Leftovers Surprise Day is marked by quiet, domestic ceremonies: remembering the slow opening of a container prepared for joy, the realization that it is soup from Thursday and not the pasta that had been anticipated, and the silent recalibration of one’s entire afternoon — conducted without complaint, without witnesses, and without the pasta.

Leftovers Surprise Day has been observed formally since the incorporation of the Institute for Lunch Expectation in 2020, whose motto, “It Was There Yesterday,” appears on nothing, because the Institute has not gotten around to merchandise.

Phil Garvey, 52, HVAC technician, who opened a container he had been thinking about since 11 a.m. and found it contained exactly one serving of rice, observed the day cautiously.

“I knew it was a risk,” Garvey said, holding the container. “You always know it’s a risk. You go in anyway. You hope. That is the thing about hope — it doesn’t check the shelf first.”

Debbie Altman, 44, high school guidance counselor, who covered a plate of leftover chicken before leaving for work and returned to find it covered but inexplicably diminished, marked the occasion in silence.

“Someone ate around the edges,” Altman said. “Not all of it. Just enough. So you can’t say anything, because technically it’s still there. As a concept it’s still there. As a lunch, not so much.”

Raymond Szczepanski, 67, retired postal carrier, who ate the wrong leftovers without registering it as wrong until approximately two bites in, offered the day’s most considered reflection.

“It was fine,” Szczepanski said of the soup. “That’s the worst part. It was fine. You can’t even be angry. You just have to be a little sad in a way that has no name.” Apparently it has a name now.

Observers of Leftovers Surprise Day are encouraged to confirm the presence of anticipated leftovers before leaving the house, resist the impulse to assume, and accept that the pasta is gone and the person who took it did not think of it as the pasta. They thought of it as lunch.

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