Taking a Dumpster dive and not being drunk!

My sophomore year in college I got the flu really bad. As I always seem to do when I get sick, I entered this state of denial. My body gives me clues on what’s ahead, but I figure if I stop listening to it after a few hours and just go on as if I were healthy, all sickness can be avoided.This probably explains how I went for more than two years suffering in silence before I finally had my mom take me to the doctor and be diagnosed with Crohn’s disease (because losing blood each time I went to the bathroom was never indication enough for me).At any rate, back to my sophomore year, I was sick. And for some reason, I thought downing a dozen Krispy Kremes (with help from my almost equally sick roommate, of course) would make me all better. Wrong. My temperature spiked well into the triple digits and I had to be taken to the emergency room. I remember my friend Ariane calling this guy she used to date (who is actually married to another one of my friends now) to give us a ride to the hospital. He was trying to help me into the car when I threw up all over his shoes. I started crying and he rubbed my back for me.I felt so horrible. To this day, I feel bad. This guy was so sweet, unaware that I was the one that used to crank call him the year before. (Hey, he’d hurt my friend. Never mess with the people I care about. I’m as loyal as they come.) I’d been awful, yet he was so nice that night. I cried because I felt guilty.But I was only 19, so I cried mostly because people were walking by thinking I was drunk.I had that same feeling the other night as I was driving home from work. Almost all alone on the dark highway, a raccoonlike cat-sized animal crossed my path. Screaming at the animal, I swerved out of my lane to avoid hitting it (keep in mind the only other car on the road was a distance behind me). Well, the car behind me sped up and got away from me. As he passed me, it dawned on me that he hadn’t seen the animal from back that far and probably thought I was drunk. I shook my head, “I’m not drunk!”I wonder sometimes if people are ever watching me. And if they are, I wonder what they’re thinking.For instance, what were the little kiddies thinking a few days ago as they were walking home from school and saw this crazy lady pulling bags from the Dumpster?Perhaps they thought I was a freegan. We ran an article about freegans a few months ago. They are people that essentially pick through what others have thrown away—by choice, I must add—for food and other things. They refuse to give in to consumerism. Freeganism is an interesting subculture. Look it up.But I am not a freegan. I, unfortunately was in search of my ID badge for work I thought I’d accidentally thrown away. Well, after being wrist deep in egg shells, coffee grounds, and discarded enchilada casserole (thank God I was able to at least distinguish my own trash bag to search through), I couldn’t find it. Maybe because I later found out I’d dropped it in the parking lot at work and someone turned it in at the side desk. Good job!