Monday Me

 I believe the saying goes, "You are what you eat."  I am cool, raw, and mostly orange.  (Except for the hot green part.)

Which reminds me of a story.

Once upon a time, I was a professional woman flying across the country to attend a veterinary conference.  I was seated in the back row of the plane and across the aisle sat a young girl traveling alone.  I must make a good impression, I thought.  Give her a role model that she might want to emulate as she chooses a life-course.  The plane took off.  I grabbed the clam-shell of sushi I had bought before boarding and began to eat my lunch.  The wasabi began to irritate my throat.  My soft palate burned and try as I might, I could not stop the cough...which splattered rice ALL OVER the seatback in front of me.  I drank water.  Laid off the wasabi AND ginger, just in case, and hoped she hadn't noticed.  

After eating, and only coughing a couple more times, I busied myself doing a sudoku puzzle from the in-flight magazine.  Somewhere along the way, I found that my ball-point pen was leaking and my fingers were black.  I put the pen and puzzle away and pulled out my book.  I spent the rest of the flight reading quietly and trying to look composed and respectable.

She and I were the last to deplane.  On my way to baggage claim, I stopped in the restroom --- to find my face covered in black finger prints.

I can only hope that this was just a story of my own egotism.  That, like most of us, the young girl was more interested in herself than anyone else, particularly the weirdo across the aisle.

If you're going to fall, fall funny so we can laugh.