Sunday, November 2, 2008

Watch out for those Banana Peels

Continuing onto part 2 of embarrassing me stories, right after I finished my last post I fell. Literally. On the sidewalk. Boom. Cement. Skinned knee.

I am definitely a klutz (not such a good trait in a big city with lots of sharp corners and broken glass). It's not like this happens all the time. In fact, I can't remember just falling on the sidewalk since probably elementary school at recess or something. But alas, I legitimately fell on the sidewalk and yelped out a very strong expletive - that's a new touch since my grade school days.

I feel like there comes a day when you practically aren't allowed to fall anymore. When you're young and wildly running everywhere, you fall, skin your knee, and are soon back up running around again. You have less distance to fall, so maybe it doesn't hurt as much, but you are practically expected to fall. My mother always had Bactine and Band-aids on hand just for that reason. But after a certain age, it's taboo to fall. You are supposed to have balance and poise and stand on your own two feet.

You only hear of an adult who falls with either balance issues or who ends up in the hospital with a broken hip. You don't hear of a healthy twenty-something falling on the sidewalk (well, maybe if they were in 3 inch heels - but I was wearing flats).

I'm sure you're wondering why I fell. Does she have balance issues? 

This is where my New York theme comes in. 

Back up 20  minutes. I was in a Whole Foods (NYC's most worshipped grocery store - it's like a really expensive cult) trying to pick up a light dinner before heading over to the Chelsea Recreation Center to do my SAT tutoring. My favorite thing about Whole Foods is that you can pick up some of their read-to-go food, eat it at the tables in the store and head out and be on your merry way.

It was a chilly afternoon, so I ladled some pumpkin spice bisque into a cup, grabbed a wedge of cornbread and headed for the cashier. I inquired where the seating area was.

"Oh, we don't have tables, but you can grab a spoon and a napkin on your way out."

Literally, it was thirty something degrees out, I had 15 minutes to eat, there was absolutely no space to slurp (even the wee bit of counter-space available was taken up by fall floral arrangements), and the cashier expected me to walk down the street with my free spoon to eat my soup?  They really should advertise that fact before you enter the ready-made food section. It's deceiving. 

With no other option, I zip up and trekked outside in the chilly wind with the idea of eating my soup in the tutoring room hurriedly before the kids came. Yada, yada, yada, so I fall. Possibly because I was so focused on the soup that I didn't watch my feet, partially because I'm a born klutz, but mostly I'm convinced someone slipped a banana peel under my foot, but I fell hard on my left knee and the back of my hand. 

An older lady walking behind me (thankfully the only witness to my humiliation) runs up to make sure I'm ok. The back of my hand surprisingly had no scratches, but my knee was in a lot of pain. I was still bitter about the Whole Foods not having tables.

So the moral of the story is, Whole Foods has great meal preparation options for people with no time, but make sure they have tables first, or be prepared to carry out.

Oh and in case you were wondering, I didn't spill the soup. Somehow it stayed together, cap strongly in place. I gotta watch out for those bananas next time.


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