19 January 2006

I have another fun memory ...

Although, this one isn't of the evil type just humiliating. Picture this, I'm an eighth-grader in Junior High eating my lunch in the lunchroom with everyone else in the entire school. I sit on the edge of the gym floor that sits a few feet above the lunchroom floor chatting away with my friends while eating. As I'm yacking and not really paying attention to what (or how) I'm eating, I begin to choke on a potato chip that I didn't fully chew. As my face begins to turn red and I signal to my friends that I can't breathe, they run and get the closest adult, our petite, demure Home Economics teacher. She gets me up from where I'm sitting and attempts to perform the Heimlich maneuver on me. Given her petite size, she's not really able to forcefully push up on me, but thankfully, someone else had run to get another adult, Mr. Chetock, our Guidance Counselor. He practically shoves the Home Ec teacher out of the way and promptly pulls me toward him placing me directly at the end of one of the long, picnic-style lunchroom tables filled with on looking students (never mind the rest of the students who are now enthralled with the excitement). What was going through my head while having his fists shoved up underneath my ribcage? Was it thoughts of the possibility of death? No, absolute horror at the thought that the procedure this man was performing on me (to save my life!) might cause me to hurl the lodged potato chip at one of my fellow students or even worse cause me to throw up my entire lunch!

Thankfully, his effort was rewarded with the potato chip making its way smoothly down my throat allowing me to resume breathing. A result which, of course, caused the students to erupt in applause. I was _so_ mortified! But, for the first time in my life, I was the center of attention in school, and it even lasted a few days. I just wish it had been for a different reason! Oh, and did it get me to stop eating potato chips? Of course not!!

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