Aside for a pretty outrageous Bubble Yum/Hubba Bubba phase when I was about 10 years old, I was never much of a gum chewer. Don’t really know why, I just wasn’t.
But over the last few years I’ve developed a taste for it, first starting with Orbit, and I’m now onto Stride. It’s a really long-lasting flavored gum, and stays sorta fresh for quite a while. Maybe it’s a nervous habit, not sure, but I do like the gum chewing for the minty breath spruce up. (Let’s face, sometimes my skank breath iAside for a pretty outrageous Bubble Yum/Hubba Bubba phase when I was about 10 years old, I was never much of a gum chewer. Don’t really know why, I just wasn’t.
But over the last few years I’ve developed a taste for it, first starting with Orbit, and I’m now onto Stride. It’s a really long-lasting flavored gum, and stays sorta fresh for quite a while. Maybe it’s a nervous habit, not sure, but I do like the gum chewing for the minty breath spruce up. (Let’s face, sometimes my skank breath is something fierce and I don’t have a toothbrush handy, and Stride or Orbit does the trick).
As part of the gum chewing, I’ve also gotten into the gum chewer’s routine of blowing bubbles and, sometimes (don’t hate me) clacking the gum, although I try never to clack in public. And yet, sometimes I do it. My apologies for being rude, and for anytime in the future it may happen.
My doing it wouldn’t even be so bad, but I hate it–I mean absolutely, positively [i]hate[/i] it–when other people do it. Listening to other people clack their gum is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Gum clacking makes me crazy, like violent crazy, where I want to smash somebody’s face in and just make them freakin’ stop! (Don’t worry, I’m not gonna do it, but I’m just saying …).
The other day I was on the subway and a woman across from me was clacking her gum … slowly … which just makes it even worse. And I was in my seat, trying to ignore it (and failing miserably), just squirming in my seat. And since asking someone to stop clacking their gum will almost certainly lead to an awkward, unresolvable argument, I tried putting an end to her gum clacking by the only means at my disposal–the ole’ stink eye. Yep, I was giving her stink-eye something fierce. I think she noticed once or twice, and even quited her clacking temporarily, but in the end she just kept clacking away, and I kept squirming, as much as I tried to let it go.
So I admit it. I’m a gum chewing hypocrite. I didn’t mean to be, I just kinda happened. That said, I don’t think I’m too bad, but I have to admit that, when it comes to gum, I don’t always practice what I preach.
Something else I’ll just have to work on …
