Ten Years Without Sprinkles

I was sharing a house with a few girlfriends in Costa Mesa at the time, taking the bus down Harbour Boulevard to work in the mornings. Just behind the bus-stop stood a row of businesses; a laundromat, a dry cleaner, an auto-parts store, a nail salon and a doughnut shop.

I went in there every couple of days, the temptation of fried, sugar dough too much for me to resist. I always ordered a diet coke, an old fashioned and a pink doughnut with rainbow sprinkles...my favorite. I would have preferred ice cold milk to wash down my goodies. Unfortunately a friend of mine had ordered a carton of milk with his Jack-in-the-Box breakfast and took a huge slug of curdled milk. The idea stayed with me and since, I'd always hesitated to buy milk from any fast food establishment. 

I held on to my little white bag and just made it to the bus stop. Seated, I looked out the window at the familiar sites of Harbour Boulevard and opened the little bag. The old-fashioned was always first because it was my least favorite of the two. It's something I've done since I was a kid. I would eat the things I didn't like first and save the best 'til last, in this case, pink frosting and sprinkles.

Old fashioned well and truly gone, I opened my soda to wash it down. The bus was quite full, something caught my attention away from the window so I watched the people come and go, then the bus moved on to the next stop. By now, I was nearing work, Norms Restaurant on my left, soon I would see Clothestime on my right and that would be my stop. 

I reached into the bag and took a giant bite of the best doughnut on the planet and began to chew. Then I stopped. Then I tried to start again. then I stopped. Then I looked in the bag...only a quarter or pristine fried doughy goodness remained but whatever was in my mouth, was not pristine.

I had to spit what was in my mouth back into this bag. My jaw was set in a "don't move or you might puke" saliva filled battle when I dared to look at the former contents of my mouth. It appeared that someone has cleaned their hairbrush and baked it right into my doughnut. 

I was at the back door, barely keeping myself together and I jumped out those doors as they barely opened and puked all over the nicely manicured shrubs behind the bus-stop. 

Lesson learned.

Look before you eat.