Staring Women, A Satisfying Ending, and an Unsatisfying Dessert

I have no reason to tell the following story except that I found it to have such a satisfying ending.  Not sure why this memory popped into my head today, but here goes:

Waaaay back in the 1870’s when I was young, I worked at a small branch of Acme Health Insurance company.  (With Jane–hi, Jane!)

The office workers were almost all women.  There were only four men who worked there:  two guys in the mailroom, Darling Husband in the Medicare department, and the Office Director.  I can’t remember his name.  I’m trying to come up with a male stripper name to use as the Office Director’s name, so I asked Darling Husband for a male stripper name. All he could come up with was Vance or Roy.

Huh? Vance or Roy?

Whatever.  On with the story.

So.  I worked in this small branch of a health insurance company with about 100 women and the 4 guys.

Every now and then the office director, Roy, would have a branch meeting.  We’d all squish into the break room for the meeting.  There weren’t enough chairs for everyone, so we’d sit on the chairs and floor and stand against the wall.  Roy would stand smack in the middle of the room with everyone staaaaaring at him.

I used to wonder if Roy felt uncomfortable with all those women staaaaaring at him while he was right in the middle of the room.  Something about the way all the women were perched around the room, staaaaaring at Roy, made me think he might have felt a little awkward.  If he was, he never showed it.  He’d pace a bit and turn in circles so he wouldn’t always have his back to the same people.  But still…it had to be uncomfortable to be a man with all those women staaaaaring at him.  I felt a little sorry for him actually, and wondered if he got nervous before the meetings.

One day I overheard a conversation between a few of my coworkers in the back of the room.  They were discussing whether or not stripping was empowering or degrading.  Roy happened to overhear the conversation as well and chimed in with, “If a woman chooses to strip as a way to earn money, then there is no shame in that.”

Hmm.  I wasn’t so sure what I thought about his answer.  I mean, what does he know about women choosing stripping as a career?

And then he said, and he was not kidding, “After all, that’s how I paid my way through college.”

!!!!

I guess Roy wasn’t uncomfortable during those branch meetings after all.

Again, there was no point to that story.  It’s not a commentary on the morality of stripping.  It’s not meant to make fun of anything or anyone.  I simply like the surprise ending.

—————–

Grocery shopping day today.  Got my favorite Apple Crisp Mix and a can of apple pie filling.  Next to the Apple Crisp Mix was a Peach Cobbler Mix.  I thought, “I like peaches.  But I don’t like the texture of the topping for peach cobbler.”

And then! Brilliance struck!  Why not get the Apple Crisp Mix and put it on top of a can of peach pie filling?!?!  Bing!  Would you take a look at me thinking outside the box?  *preen* I told you yesterday that while I might have been a nerd in school, I was a brainy nerd.

When I was almost done the grocery shopping, who should appear, but Darling Husband.  He was on his way home dropping off a prescription and bumped into me in the yogurt aisle.  I showed him the apple crisp mix and peach pie filling and he said, “What about Apple Crisp Mix and a can of raspberry pie filling?!” 

!!!!!

We bought all three.  Apple pie filling, peach pie filling, and raspberry pie filling.

I baked the raspberry one tonight.

And I’m very sad to report that it’s not very good.  Not sure what it is, but it doesn’t quite hit the spot.  We think it’s actually too sweet.  Shocking, I know, since Sweet is my favorite flavor.  I’ll let you know how the peach one turns out.