Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Oh No, I Stepped In It

Grocery shopping is one of the "errands" Jason and I love doing together. Last week I made the trip solo because we returned from Spain, to a completely empty 'fridge. So on a typical, steamy NYC summer day I headed up to Stew Leonard’s and the A&P I stock up. After the short 20-minute drive back, I found a parking spot down the block. Wish I had a front and center spot to make toting the groceries a little easier (especially doing it without Jason) but hey, that's part of life in Harlem.

With car parked and trip one completed, I took off to gather round two. I glanced left and started across the street. Just as I went between two parked cars, I felt a slight slide under my left flip-flop. Oh that feeling! Without any conscious thought process, I knew I had stepped in poop. Luckily slide was detected before my right foot had left the ground, so I hadn't stepped down with full force. Still moving I glanced down and instantly felt the threatening heaves of regurgitation. The first time in my life I was left wishing I had stepped in poop. What lay behind me on the ground was.... if you're reading this standing up, definitely sit down...squished RAT road-kill! I'm almost positive that poop is 100 times better than road-kill.

Repulsive. What could I do? Act normal, carry on. I scuffed my foot as much as I could on the sidewalk and tried to act normal. I carried the groceries up and left my beautiful rainbow flops outside the door. That night my hero, Jason, checked the bottom for remains and disinfected them. This is not a tale that can be chocked up as typical for our neighborhood. I have never heard of someone stepping on a dead rat and I can pretty much guarantee I'll be watching to make sure it doesn't happen to me again.

Erica

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Man oh man, I was expecting it to be a body part with that buildup, so a dead rat was a relief to me! Still---yuck!!!!!!

Gardner's Compost said...

I was supposed to go to bed "earlier" tonight, but had so much fun reading your blog that I missed that window of time. Wait, "earlier" is relative. It's only 1:00 a.m. last night it was 3 am. I'll not only go to bed "earlier", but I will go with happy thoughts of my two most favorite people in NYC. (I'm blocking out the roadkill!) Love you both and love your blog.
Mom G