A Picnic for One

Well, I made it to the picnic. The day was warm and I managed to get sunburnt. At one point I was even offered some sunscreen and turned it down. Burned and stupid! It took me over three hours and needed three trains to get there (one more than I'd bargained on) I arrived to find people scattered on the ground, on picnic blankets and on chairs. I think I was the last to arrived. It was good to meet up with people I'd met on the pku tree forum, apart from that it felt a little alien. I sat back and watched others until I got myself together. I had a flashback to childhood and all my issues with food. When I started school I was going to ware a school uniform and look like everyone else and I was going to eat sandwiches and therefore BE the same as everyone else! I had probably discovered that sandwiches were the food of choice at 'big school' from my next door neighbour who was a year older than me. We all like to think that we're individuals, but deep down we all want to be accepted and to fit in. My mother had gone to great lengths to assure that I got to eat those two slices of bread 5 days a week. I had never had 'normal' bread before and the low protein alternatives available at the time were pretty shocking. But then it happened... I came home in tears. 'What's wrong?' 'Simone hated my asparagus sandwich.' This was serious stuff! Someone, had laughed at my lunch and said it was yuck! My mother asked me if I liked asparagus sandwiches, which I did, so she surmised that it didn't matter what Simone thought about my sandwich, let her eat her boring Vegemite one. It was OK for me to like what I liked, I didn't need Simone's approval. So back to the picnic... I had put a fair amount of thought into what I would take to eat at this picnic. I'd done a pretty fair job, all things considering, but it was as though Simone was looking over my shoulder waiting to see what disaster I had packed. 'You're not seriously going to eat that are you?' Maybe not. How about an innocent question about the protein content per serve. I felt like the world was sitting in judgement over what I would pull out of my backpack = which they weren't. I eventually got over myself and ate my lunch - I even shared it! I was told how organized I was (obviously doesn't know me!) It wasn't a bad day and I ended up being glad that I'd gone. I got to the railway station with one minute to spare. It would have been a two hour wait if I'd missed it. Now that would have pissed me off, sandwich or no sandwich!