Reflections on a Smoothie Purchase.

I had one layover between Paris and Indianapolis yesterday -- in Atlanta. After a nine hour flight, I was a little sleepy and REALLY thirsty, so Freshens smoothies caught my attention. It was a huge disappointment. I had two options: regular or large. I thought of going for the large since I was REALLY thirsty, but thankfully asked to see the cup sizes first. The large size must have held at least a gallon. Ridiculous. So I went with the regular, which was also huge. I don't remember noticing the difference in portion sizes when I arrived in Spain, but I've definitely already noticed the difference now that I'm back.

At this point my mouth started watering, anticipating my delicious, fresh, fruity treat. It stopped watering when I saw the Freshens guy pick up one of the cups and start the smoothie by squirting in at least a cup of Crayola orange liquid called "Peach mix -- Sugar Added!" Then there were two little scoops of frozen fruit, some ice, probably some more sugar, and some water. He blended it all up, and it looked more natural than it did back when it was just "Peach mix -- Sugar Added!" so I hoped for the best and opened up my purse to pay. $5.53. I double checked the menu since the price was more than I thought it was to make sure he didn't accidentally give me the large size and then I remembered: Sales tax.

(In Spain, the tax is included in the price, so you pay the price that's listed. It's simpler that way, I think.)

So I pulled out the right amount of USD and noticed that the bills seemed longer than I remembered them. (Euros aren't as long and are shaped more like Monopoly money. Apparently I'd gotten accustomed to their shape in the course of 11 months. It's normal, I think.)

I went back to my gate, sat down, and had a hugely unsatisfying gulp of peach flavored sugar goop. It was so sweet that it didn't quench my thirst at all, and after I had finished a third of it, my stomach started grumbling about it. I was too stubborn to throw away the rest after paying airport prices for it, so I finished another third of it before I was too sugared-out to continue and gave up. Yuck.


Thankfully when I arrived in Indy, I came home to my mom, dog, a back porch with a hummingbird feeder, a drying machine, and a refrigerator full of good things like salsa, hummus with cilantro, tomatoes from the tomato plant growing in the front lawn, yogurt, cheddar cheese, Bumbleberry Jam from Paul's Michigan Fruit Market, wholegrain English muffins, peanut butter, sour cream, plums, tortillas, and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. MUCH better than Freshens.

It's good to be back.

All the world's a stage

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts

--William Shakespeare's As You Like It



This has been quite literally the case for me this past month. Although I have no real acting experience or training, in the summer camp where I'm working right now, acting is required all the time. There are different levels of acting; acting like the host of an all-camp game of clue, playing the part of an English teacher for two hours in the morning, acting like I care whether or not kids sit against the wall and enforcing it because the camp director cares even though I don't mind at all, acting like I'm enthusiastic about singing the song Ring of Fire for the 50th time in a month, pretending that I am awake when I want nothing more than to be in my bed, presenting the day's schedule (and then eating lunch afterwards) as a mime, acting like a narrator/marshmellow tree in a skit about cavemen teaching fire safety, playing the part of a superhero's love interest, and acting like Babe the blue ox for 15 minutes during a skit about American history and folklore are fairly different. But they are all acting.

Which is a small part of why I've been thinking about As You Like It (the rest of the scene is also quite good. Google it if you have the chance.)

It seems like everyone is acting in some way or another. I wonder how much of belonging to a certain profession or social class, how many relationships, how much of any social interaction or personal habit is really some type of acting. Acting out what is expected by others; doing what is required by a situation not because of personal interest, skill, or desire, but because of necessity; repeating behaviors seen in other people, adapting to a social or professional role in terms of behavior, attitude, vocabulary......

I also like the image of people entering and exiting stage. Some people are only in a place for a season. Others for longer, but never forever. But there is a constant coming in and exiting of characters as time goes on, and an expected shifting of roles.

I wish I had time to read more this summer.

The third session begins today. One more month of skits. One month until I fly home.