Not So Free After All

A couple of weeks ago, we got a free 2-liter of Diet Pepsi with our pizza order. I guess it was not TECHNICALLY free since we had to pay for a pizza to get it but we had paid for the same pizza in the past with no bonus gift so it was, in essence, free.

It sat in the fridge for a while because we didn't drink it that night and didn't have a reason to open a whole 2-liter drink until I finally opened it the other day to have with my lunch. I reasoned that I could drink some with lunch and we would polish off the rest later with a snack or dinner.

I sat leisurely eating my lunch, leafing through a magazine and pouring a few ounces of Diet Pepsi now and then. Then. I absently reached for the bottle, my fingers slipped, it tilted, I grabbed for it and squeezed a little too hard in my exuberant attempt to keep it from spilling.

Diet Pepsi rocketed out of the bottle, spewed on the wall, the table, the floor and all over my arm and the sleeve of my shirt. I set the bottle down and sat there, dripping. I grabbed a couple of wet paper towels and began cleaning the entire area, then had to change my shirt and put the Diet Pepsi-drenched shirt in the washing machine so the sleeve would not turn a permanent, streaky, blotched color. It took me about 15 minutes before I could get back to my lunch.

Maybe that drink wasn't actually free after all. After all the TIME it cost me.

I'm not sure what is more pitiful about this story. That I just shot Diet Pepsi all over my kitchen and my arm. Or that I IMMEDIATELY went to my computer and wrote about it.

Did anyone else see the article in the Herald-Leader on Monday about cruising and how the prices have plummeted as one of the many effects of this tumultuous economy? I already knew cruise prices had dropped drastically because I have been doing a lot of travel research lately in preparation for possibly starting up a travel blog, but this article just reinforced my long-held belief that EVERYONE should take a cruise. Read more at my Herald-Leader blog here.