Something mundane, pointless, and a little weird.
There was an amusing little incident this morning when I was buying supplies for my dorm. As I left the store, I saw a homeless lady sitting on a crate and holding a money cup.
Well, my parents told me that if I wanted to help a homeless person, I should give them food instead of money. So I went over to her and asked, “Can I buy you a can of soup?”
There ensued muich gesturing and mumbling, and it became apparent that a) she was either deaf or mostly deaf, and b) she mumbled a lot, but she couldn’t talk normally. I finally (I think) managed to communicate that no, I wasn’t going to put money in her cup, but I would buy food.
Back I went into Duane Reade. I’d been chatting with the cashier during my previous purchase, and she was supprised to see me back.
“I’m buying food for the lady outside”, I explained, putting a container of instant soup on the counter.
Outside, I give the soup to the lady. She looked at it, looked at me, and made scooping gestures towards her mouth.
“Oh, right, a spoon! Silly me.” And thrice I went forth into DR.
“I forgot to give her a spoon to eat with”, I told the bemused cashier as I payed for the box of plastic untensils.
“You’re Mother Theresa, lady”, said the cashier.
I presented the panhandler her spoon (and assorted forks and knives- it’s not like they sell loose spoons in Duane Reade). She seemed to accept it, and I went on my way, mentally quoting The Matrix. There is no spoon, there is no spoon, ha, there really was no spoon…
I walked back to the campus and forgot about it.
For lunch, I decided to have breakfast. That is, the caf was out of my favorite cereal, so after my next class I went to the other cafeteria. Lo and behond, they were well stocked with Special-K Red Berries Cereal, with real freeze-dried strawberries.
I went to get a spoon from the utensil rack. I was quite suprised to see that they were out of spoons. There were forks and knives a-plenty, but nothing to eat my cereal with. I couldn’t remember them ever being out before.
“There aren’t any spoons”, I told the cafeteria staff. There is no spoon, I joked to myself. Then I suddenly remembered where I’d had that thought before…