lessons learned -- courtesy of bubblegum

Bubblegum is a funny vice, isn't it? Like the others, it's no good for you in any way except the fun factor. It's widely available, inexpensive, and often not as good as you might hope.

But I've learned/re-learned a couple of things from bubblegum recently that I thought I'd share:



1. It's better to live up in here.
During my weekly commutes, I often smell the sewage treatment plant. Most days I smell car/truck exhaust.

On occasional, happy days, I smell a sweet, lightly flowery, slightly perfume-y scent. It's just like the smell of bubblegum. How wonderful, how whimsical, how Willy Wonka think of having a bubblegum factory in my dreary neighborhood! It lifted my mood and brought a grin to my face.

I recently happened to pass by the building I'd identified as the bubblegum factory. Sadly, that sweet exhaust isn't bubblegum at all. It's scented candles. My bubblegum factory is really a candle factory. Candles are far less magical. Bubble deflates. Joy decreases. It's better to imagine... better to live in my world than the real world.



2. Boys don't like girls with blue tongues.
Boys at parties may find you charming and witty, but that's all going to change the minute you pick up that blue raspberry Blow Pop. Blue tongue and mouth are pretty creepy. Kinda corpse-y. Not sexy at all. Green's not so great, either.

You'd be better off choosing the red one. Better yet, just sip your drink slowly and stay more sober than everyone else.