Friday February 22, 2008
As I have gotten older and travelled more there are a few things that come up that I may not have discovered or taken notice of otherwise. For example, recently there are a flood of Audrey's everywhere. For me it started with a woman I met in a bank in University. Next it was the girl on the shuttle in Maui competing in the same triathlon as me. Then, it was little Audrey in my local climbing gym. The surest sign of the popularity of the name was when a girl joined a neighboring team of mine within Microsoft. For the first time, ever, I had 2 Audreys represented in a room. It was awkward and silly because each time someone would refer to us, they wouldn't nickname us so both of us would attempt a response before realizing who they were actually addressing. Finally, it was in Squamish where another Audrey was traveling with two friends of mine. The 4 of us hung out and tried to no avail to find a way to easily distinguish us. Like little Audrey, we came up with the creative distinction, Audrey 1 and Audrey 2. hahaha. Well, it is certain, Audrey is appearing in TV shows, movies, and popping up left and right around me as I travel.
Likewise, I have met two people who are also adverse to onions. Now, if you have known me for some time then you know that I don't eat them if I can help it. I really, really, don't like them. My grandfather grew the sweetest onions, or so it was claimed by my family for at least 2 generations. Something about this proclamation made it difficult for my family to understand that I don't like them, sweet or not.
When I was young, maybe 8 or 9, I remember a glass jar hosting a dozen sweet bulb onions still at the end of their stems, sitting in the middle of the dinner table. Grandpa was over, and everyone was snacking on the onions like mini apples, everyone except me, which was noticed. I insistently refused but not without some badgering from various family members. At the end of the meal, after everyone retired to another room, I was left to clear the table and this jar still held 1 or 2 onions. I looked skeptically at the jar and decided I would be brave and try one. Surely if they were sweet, they couldn't taste that bad, I thought. I cautiously bit off the bulb and chewed. It tasted like an onion. I could detect a hint of sharp onion, but it was milder than any I'd had before. Still, I had to force myself to swallow and prove that I could eat them. The slick skin was slippery in my mouth and the accompanying crunch, odd. I swallowed and it stayed down. I was thrilled! I ran to tell my familly that I had eaten one, but no one believed me. I wasn't sure I could stomach a 2nd one so I never ate another one but the memory of that day has never faded from memory.
Since that time, I have tried, and still try to eat them (much more rarely now, though), but they have never tasted good to me. I don't like their texture, taste, or aroma. Well, with the revelation that 2 other people share this aversion, I couldn't believe it! I'd never met another person who didn't like onions. I'm thrilled to know someone else shares my dislike for them. Woohoo! I'm not an alien, afterall (for that's how people look at me when they find out I don't eat onions). ha ha ha.
I think this traveling has revealed that like the theory that everyone has a twin in the world somewhere, that unless you expand your horizon you may never discover that a twin exists. Now, none of these Audreys nor either of the two who dislike onions are my twin, but I may never have discovered them or these traits if I hadn't been such an explorer. It's thrilling to meet another Audrey because it's always been such a rare name, to me. And, likewise with the onions, at least I know that I'm not alone. :)
