I don’t know why these things happen to me, but recently we stopped at a fast food restaurant. I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear this, but I’m not a big fan of eating fast food.

But sometimes, on a road trip, you have to be flexible. And I was trying to be flexible.

We ordered two biscuits with cheese and egg. No meat. Apparently, this needed to be a special order, and we were told to wait at the side for it.

While we were waiting, we heard this horrible coughing sound. HORRIBLE. It was coming from inside the kitchen. When we glanced into the kitchen, we saw a woman who was making food and coughing up a lung. Avi and I looked at each other with disgust. She was literally touching food and coughing on it at the same time.

A few moments later, the cashier handed us our bag. You guessed it, made right from the woman who’d been coughing.

Hm. This was not ideal.

I didn’t want to eat the food. I thought about taking the bag and throwing it away, but then why should I pay for something and not eat it? That would be wasteful. And ridiculous.

“Excuse me,” I said to the cashier who handed me the bag, “Did you happen to notice the woman coughing in the kitchen?”

She looked at me with a blank stare and didn’t say anything.

“Well, I ‘m not trying to be difficult, but she coughed all over our food, and we’re not going to be able to eat this.”

She got the Manager, who agreed to have it remade by “another worker in the kitchen.” She didn’t say anything about the worker who continued to cough. There’s no way she wasn’t aware of the situation.

I stood right at the register and watched as our fresh food was made.

“I don’t blame you,” the cashier said as she handed me our bag of food, “I’d want fresh food made also.”

We took the food, and felt “safe” about eating it. Maybe I’m completely off, but, why are they allowing that woman to work?

When we eat out, we never know what goes on inside the kitchen. And I actually like it that way. I don’t want to know! I realize this could happen anywhere and isn’t limited to fast food. However, this experience did reaffirm my distaste of eating fast food. It’s like the universe was telling me to stay away.

And I really was trying to be flexible.

Find meaning each day,

Dara