It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that I have a reputation.\u00a0 This reputation has shadowed my husband’s life as well.\u00a0 I slipped into the teacher’s lunch room during my lunch duty today and heard the following:<\/p>\n
“Brian, you better not eat those chips in front of your wife.”<\/p>\n
Upon further investigation0n, I discovered that my husband was eating a small bag of potato chips that had been left for anyone interested (Yes, we work together).\u00a0 Did I care?\u00a0 Not in the least.\u00a0 But apparently the other teachers thought I did.\u00a0 I was told that it was a joke…that our coworkers were just giving Brian a hard time.\u00a0 But all jokes have some grain of truth in them, right?<\/p>\n
I’m not sure when this reputation really look hold, but the past few weeks it’s really become clear:<\/p>\n
“We would’ve offered you pizza, but we didn’t know if Emily would let you have any.” (directed at Brian)<\/p>\n
“Oh no, here comes a rant.”<\/p>\n
“She’s like you…she’s really into eating healthy.”<\/p>\n
Granted, Brian and I don’t eat a lot of junk food, we don’t buy school lunch, we rarely eat out, I occasionally share my opinions about the state of the American food system, and I like eating healthy food.\u00a0 But sometimes, I’m really not sure where these statements are coming from.\u00a0 I get pretty annoyed when people think I control Brian’s eating habits-he can eat whatever he wants, but chooses to eat “healthy” foods. \u00a0As far as I can recall, I’ve never criticized someone else’s lunch and I’ve never said that my food was better than anyone else’s.<\/p>\n
To further clarify: we always have tortilla chips on hand.\u00a0 In case I feel like making cookies, I know we’ve always got a bag of chocolate chips.\u00a0 I bought and cooked bacon a couple weeks ago. \u00a0Sometimes we have a hard time avoiding McDonald’s fries or Dunkin Donuts when we walk by them (which is why we try not to walk by them).<\/p>\n
On the other hand, its kind of nice to have this reputation.\u00a0 Many people make comments to us about their food choices, good and bad.\u00a0 They make a point of sharing with us when they’ve made good eating choices. One of my coworkers made a point of telling me recently that his lunch included multi-grain pasta.\u00a0 Our lunches are examined, questioned and discussed.\u00a0 Even when we don’t think people are looking, they are. \u00a0It’s nice to be a (sometimes) quiet voice for change.<\/p>\n