Monday, July 30, 2012

Ice Cream Dilemma

So while I was standing in line at this nifty little ice cream booth, I had absolutely no idea what kind of ice cream wanted to get. Did I want to get the standard twist, or did I want to branch out and try a different flavor, like kiwi? The sign claimed that there were over 100 different flavors to try, and I was already well on my way to trying a good chunk of them. I had glimpsed a few flavors on my way to the line, spotting the simpler raspberry and coconut, and then the more complex creme de menthe and pina colada. I heard the lady behind me muttering to her friend that there weren't really 100 different flavors: all the ice cream was just vanilla-based with different syrups used to make the different flavors. While this wasn't something I had contemplated before, I didn't think it took a genius to figure it out because all of the ice cream was soft serve and you could plainly see the array of colorful syrups behind the counter. While I was mulling over all of this, I noticed two men in front of me swaying from side to side. One would go to the left while the other would go to the right, subtly keeping time as human metronomes; I don't think either of them even realized they were doing this. As I slowly approached the booth, one person at a time, I realized I still hadn't made a decision. I leaned to the left to try to read the flavors, but found myself blocked by one man. I quickly tried leaning to the right, but was once again blocked. This went on for a good 10 seconds before I realized that I was getting absolutely nowhere, and so I stopped trying to frantically switch back and forth every second or so, something that probably highly amused the people behind me. Of course, I also couldn't stray too far from where I was standing, or else I risked losing my spot in line, and trust me, the line was l-o-o-o-n-g. Yes, if I had given it more thought, I probably could have come up with a much cleverer solution to reading all the various flavors, but by that point I had already decided that I no longer really cared about what flavor I got. When I finally reached the counter, the lady asked me what kind of ice cream I wanted and I automatically answered with the first flavor that came to mind: the safe and predictable twist...with rainbow sprinkles.

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