Grape Nut Teeth


I was enjoying a bowl of Grape Nuts when I heard a knock on our hotel room door, and when I opened it, there was a group of about five smiling people with this welcome basket, and me with a Grape Nut between every tooth.


And I was reading this book during lunch...

...and had just finished the section on smiling, where I read, "...look at the other person's face for a second. Pause. Soak in their persona. Then let a big, warm, responsive smile flood over your face...."

Evidently, some of the effect is lost when one has big grayish-brown chunks between one's teeth.

So I'm off to a great start with all these people here who don't know me, and who all know each other.

I know that some of you who know us would be hard pressed to believe it, but Mike and I are both natural introverts - we have just learned to act like extroverts. So situations like these make us very uncomfortable!

And that book hasn't told me what to do if NO ONE makes eye contact with you. How can I impress them with my lovely Grape-Nut-free smile if no one will look at me?

Not that this has happened yet - I'm just being pessimistic.

Because it HAS before.

I suppose I could fall down in their midst. That has certainly gotten everyone's attention at other times. Especially that time I pitched forward like a tree in the church aisle and everyone stared at me, speechless, until that guy a few feet away softly said, "Timmmber" and everyone lost control and nearly fell down themselves.

I hope that kind of thing doesn't happen tonight, though, because in a little while I'll be in a boat on the lake, and a fall may mean getting wet, and have you ever tried to get into a boat from the water? Even when I was skinny it was the hardest thing in the world to do, and how SILLY one looks trying to hoist a foot over the edge, and haul a hind end up and over, ten or twelve times, unsuccessfully...I'd rather fall like a tree onto a concrete floor any day.

Here's the view from our balcony window this morning, and the lake that we'll be cruising in a little while. It's a gorgeous place, with lots of beautiful sunshine, and good autumn smells, and I'm sure the company will be beautiful, too. I'll just check my teeth and head out smiling!

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