Sandwich and the olive

Sandwiches are a grad student's best friend. They come cheap, can be made in a jiffy and you can eat them anywhere anytime (ask Joey). They need not be microwaved like most other food, nor be refrigerated lest they get spoiled soon. Also so far I had found them very convenient to eat, primarily because I am clumsy when it comes to eating and everything else either drips or breaks or melts or splashes!

I eyed my sandwich with a savory delight. Filled with lettuce, tomato slices, onion rings, bell peppers, cheese, mayonnaise and one olive. Actually I had put 3 round succulent olives but the other two had gone missing somewhere between my kitchen where I made the sandwich and my lab where I ate it. I munched through my sandwich as the conversation in my lab took on a lighter and jovial turn with my advisor away for a conference. Very soon I had finished all of it save a small piece and I had intentionally left the olive there as I wanted to have it in my last bite.

It happened then. As I dug into the remaining slice, the olive decided to go for a walk. With it it also took along some cheese and lots of mayonnaise. First stop was my new tshirt. It rolled all the way from the round neck collar till my belly button. There it met an obstacle in the form of my belt whence it decided to take a slight jump and continue its journey along my jet black trousers leaving a neat streak along the zipper so that to a casual onlooker in my lab it seemed as if I just got a bit too excited seeing the crow flying outside the window.

Meanwhile the journal paper I was reading with the other hand slipped from my hand as I tried to save the olive. Somehow defying the laws of physics that landed first on ground and the olive on top of it. Not satisfied yet, the olive decided to roll on further under the desk and then went into a dark corner when I finally lost interest in it.