I left the house earlier than usual this morning, in hopes of catching more than my normal share of rush hour traffic and still arriving to work at the same time. As predicted, my plan worked perfectly – I left the home thirty minutes early and arrived at my desk only four minutes ahead of schedule. Success!
Because my drive took substantially longer than usual, my stomach started rumbling prematurely out of lust for the box of cereal that was tucked into my laptop bag. I generally wait until I’m at my desk to have breakfast, but today I succumbed by the time I hit the off-ramp from 495. This particular cereal was a new, exciting variety that I’d never tried before (Rice Krispies with Strawberries) and I ripped open the box and dug in.
It took only a moment to realize that eating Rice Krispies with your hands while driving isn’t exactly easy, and that people were giving me strange looks as I fished around between my legs for the fallen little krispies. I decided to switch tactics and started dumping the cereal directly from the box into my mouth. It worked flawlessly, except for the fact that I needed to detach my jaw like a python and shove the whole box inside to satisfy my hunger.
I did notice, however, that people were still staring at me as we crawled down Wisconsin Avenue. The whole ‘girl pouring huge piles of cereal into her gaping mouth’ must have been a startling, if not slightly unappetizing sight. But I was hungry, and the feelings of Mr. Double Chin Whose Chin Could Double As A Picnic Blanket and Ms. I’m Voraciously Picking My Nose In Broad Daylight weren’t really all that important to me.
The downside of my breakfast on the road is that I am still fishing little krispies out of my hair and my clothes. But that’s not a bad thing, because I’ll probably need a snack for later.