Last Wednesday I swung by Cafe 28 on 5th Avenue to pick up a hot lunch. I knew I wanted the rice with peas but what was going to be the main dish? I saw the baked ham with pineapples and knew that was it. It was partially carved and I needed to take off a piece. Of course there wasn't a sharp carving knife anywhere in sight so I had to manage with the tongs. I kept pulling and pulling with them but the ham was relentless. I ordinarily would give up by choosing something else to go with my rice but I was determined to finish what I started. It was the theme of the day. I had such a stressful couple of months and I even had a nightmare where I was in dirty water filled with bugs and slimy creatures. In the dream I had to push through the water that was getting deeper and harder to navigate. I finally pushed through the scummy water and found myself on an elevator. As I was wrestling with the ham I thought about the dream and I was not going to give up until I got my piece. It was crowded in Cafe 28 and people were all around the hot food area. I didn't care if they were watching me. I kept going for it. Suddenly, another customer next to me said, "let me help you with that." He proceeded to take his own set of tongs and he instructed me to hold on tight as he pulled in the opposite direction. He was determined too and I felt like he was in the same "head" as I and we were both trying to accomplish anything these days...maybe that's what led us to this particular piece of ham. We had to get it off the bone. I knew that if I just pulled the piece with my fingers it would come off easily but I didn't want anyone to see that I had to "touch" the food, a real "no no", like double dipping at cocktail parties. Finally I decided to go for it and I pulled it off with my naked hand. One of the pineapples went flying. It landed on the chicken wing dish. No one flinched. I thanked the man and went on my way. The ham was actually very good.
Later that day I received an email from my friend. Her subject line was "Wacky Wednesday." That afternoon she stopped by Genaurdi's Supermarket in PA not because she likes it, in fact, she hates that store. She only went because she wanted a Starbucks coffee that has a space in the store. She needed a couple of veggies too so she entered where only angels dare to tread. While she was perusing the ears of corn, the moron who works the produce department came up to her and scolded her about pulling back the husks. She has bumped into this guy a few times before and he was one of the reasons she stopped shopping there. He screamed at her for touching the corn. He said that he would need to throw out the ones she touched if she didn't buy them. My friend went off...see she had a couple of tough months too and this was just the thing to put her over the edge. She cursed him out and people were looking at her. She threw the corn and went over to the service desk to report him. I emailed her back to let her know that around the same time she was throwing corn, I was wrestling ham.
It was a "Wacky Wednesday."</div>
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