...when I got a little too big for my britches. Or rather, they got a little too big for me.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, I've been cooking.  A lot.  Which means I've been eating a ton of fresh food, no processed food, and a vastly increased amount of protein and vegetables.  Basically, I'm eating healthy.  But I promise I'm not insufferable about it.  It just kind of happened, with the delightful consequence that some of my clothes (which had previously gotten waaaaay too tight) are now getting a little loose.

Including my pants.

I've learned that anything--anything--can be a mechanism for valuable life lesson learning.  A few weeks ago, I did a particularly painful bit of learning.

I work at a medical school and state-run hospital.  However, I am not a doctor.  In fact, I'm probably about as far as you can get from medical personnel.  I edit research papers.  It's a trip.

But anyway, I haven't been working on the main campus for very long.  I started in March, not long before the med school let out for the summer.  Thus, this August has been my very first joyful experience with the beginning of a new term.  I was running late one day, and it just so happened to be one of the first days on campus for the first-year med students.  So I trotted up to the tinfoil lean-to where we all wait for the shuttle to come pick us up from our far-flung urban satellite parking lot, and I saw this:

Well, I'm super uncomfortable around crowds of people squeezing into a small space.  I probably would not survive in China.  I would have a mental breakdown and expire.

So I was already unhappy.  Vastly unhappy.  I was running late, and the shuttle was packed like a can of sardines.  And those sardines were all 22 years old, overexcited, and unjustly chic.  About half of them were wearing stilettos, and nearly all of them were super impressed with themselves.

Cue defensive mental sniping.

But as God once told this one dude who wrote it down, and as it was later included in this one book that talks about life and how to live it and what happens when you die and stuff like that,

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a...

Proverbs'd.



First Note: The lean-to is not really made of tinfoil.  Nor is it really a lean-to.

Second Note: I did actually survive in China once, for about two weeks.  But judging by my experience there with crowded spaces and sheer numbers of people, I'm thinking a more permanent arrangement probably wouldn't work out for me.

Third Note: John Smith is actually pretty nice, I liked him.  However, his real name is not John Smith.  And that doesn't change the fact that I was hardcore judging those eager beavers.

Fourth Note: I mentioned my pants because I tripped getting down off the shuttle.  And though it all happened really quickly, I'm pretty sure my pants might have had something to do with it.  Sometimes I get one foot caught in the opposite pant leg when I walk.  I don't know how I accomplish this, but it gets worse with extra fabric.

Fifth Note: Ok, ok, I mentioned my pants because I really wanted to use a clever title for this entry.  You got me.

Final Note: If you aren't familiar with the "verb'd" scheme, you need to watch The Guild.  Even if you do know how to turn any word into a nerdy gaming verb, you need to watch The Guild.  Heck, even if you've seen The Guild, you need to watch The Guild.  I have provided you with four different opportunities to click through and do this.  So do it.  Gosh.