Etiquette

My friends and I were in a tight fix several nights ago. The night proved itself to be a defining moment in each of our lives, as we battled with a life altering decision.

To eat with proper etiquette or not.

If we stuck to our prim and proper selves, an image that society has drawn out for us and obviously demands from us, we would have ended up eating at a painstaking pace in rather peculiar positions. Then again, if we screwed etiquette over, we might be damned for life and be called “barbaric” in our eating habits (though, that is nothing new to us).

We ended up throwing etiquette out the window and eating in a less civilized way – though, not close to what others might call barbaric. The fact of the matter was: we were hungry. And besides, we were the only ones in the restaurant.

Don’t get us wrong, we are highly civilized people. Make us sit through a high class meal, and we assure you we do not burp at random timing or in varieties of pitch. If we even feel the need to, we can spice up the evening and start a discussion that would probably blow your mind away.

Now, that night, proved itself to be entertaining in its own little way. With the word ‘etiquette’ and all its meaning thrown out the proverbial window, we had a good laugh as to how odd we might have looked. Try eating in an area with little to none leg room and in wee little chairs, and you would know what we mean. But then again, all of us are vertically endowed, so perhaps it was also our genes fault that we had to try to eat several feet away from the table.

The tiny-ness of it all would have been perfect for a tea party, though. This now reminds me of my first tea party. I never owned a tiny plastic tea set made out of pink (since early on I detested the color) but instead, I made use of my mother’s expensive china – which now has several cups missing and is awfully mismatched. And instead imaginary tea, I used real liquid (what’s the point of having a tea party without any tea?) But since I wasn’t allowed to handle anything hot (I am a perpetual health hazard), I ended up pouring Sugar-Free Coke to Mr. Boo-boo, the once white Teddy Bear and Mr. Hopper, the Bunny Rabbit and my dinosaur T-Rex.

As a child, I was taught how to properly sip tea – the whole “pinky out” and ‘sip not slurp’ deal. I did that around grown-ups, after all, I was a ‘good little girl’. But around Mr. Boo-boo, Mr. Hopper and T-Rex, I held the cup in my clumsy hands and slurped Sugar-Free Coke.

Those are times I’d like to relive.

Now, if there were more people like Mr. Boo-boo, Mr. Hopper and T-Rex, the world would be a happy place and we can slurp all the Sugar-Free Coke we want – without worrying what others might think.