Friendship is Like a Fruit Bowl!

I've always hated it when people refer to America as the "Melting Pot". They infer that people of different nationalities come here and lose a bit of themselves and just meld into what is known as America. I took a class at ASU where the teacher compared the America to a salad. I like this much better. In fact, she compared it to the salad you get at the Olive Garden. When the salad first comes to your table all the greens are on the bottom, the tomatoes are sectioned together, onions are in another section, there are a few olives and peperoncinis. Then they drizzle the delicious dressing over the top, but they don't mix it up. Now, you can dig right in and scoop some out if you want and it will be a great salad. You won't get the delicate blend of flavors all mixed together though, and you won't savor all of the tastes. Personally, it took me a while to appreciate the red onion, but now I love it. Our family usually asks for more olives, and I've even gotten Bill to eat the peppers on occasion. The croutons are just the icing on the cake!

But what does this have to do with friendship and fruit? I thought that it would make Rachel laugh because I'm pregnant and think about food all the time! Actually, I thought friendship was a little bit like that salad bowl, but I know a little bit more about fruit than I do vegetables. Fruits also have a core to them and I recently had a conversation with a friend about the core of people. She said something crazy like, "I'm afraid if you find out what my core is like, you won't like me anymore." Silly girl! I can usually see through the fleshy part of the fruit into some one's core before they are really want me to know what it's all about. Sometimes I'm surprised, but for the most part I'm usually right on. She was probably referring to the core of the universe or something, but like I said, I'm pregnant and think about food... A LOT.

So are you hungry yet? What in the heck am I talking about here? Well, I'm saying that I think I can assign all my friends to pieces of fruit, based on their personality and friendship traits. Bill thought I was crazy, but when I gave him an example he said, "wow, that was a lot deeper than I thought it would be." What can I say? I'm deep when it comes to my fruit. But not everyone would want to be compared to a piece of fruit, especially from my point of view. Here's an example, and I'll use myself as the guinea pig:

I'm an apple. Plain, simple, nothing too special, but most people like apples. There are many varieties of apples to fit my many different moods. In a social setting, apples are usually diced up and spread out. Rarely do you see a whole apple at a party. People eat apples in many different ways too, and that's OK with me. My least favorite way is the apple slicer though, that hurts. You just place that baby on top of me, push down, and throw out the core. That's harsh. The funny thing is, most of my close friends adore the apple slicer, including my husband. He keeps buying them and I keep "losing" them. Other people don't like the skin and carefully slice it off. Then they either slice it up, or eat it whole. Some people just take a bite and eat it whole, all the way down to the core. The funny thing about the core of an apple is sometimes you can get to the seeds pretty easily, other times the center is kind of hard and you don't want to mess with it. I think I'm like that. Personally, this is my favorite way to eat an apple: I slice it in half, then in quarters; then I carefully cut the core off the tasty flesh of the apple; sometimes the seeds fall out, sometimes I accidentally cut them in half, sometimes they just cling to the core; then I slice the quarters into 2 or 3 more pieces, depending on how long I want that apple to last and if I am sharing; I'll usually leave the quartered core on the cutting board until I'm done, but sometimes it will go right into the compost pile. This complicated apple slicing just goes to prove how high maintenance I am and Bill just said, "If I had known all this about you, I wouldn't have even gotten close." That's the funny thing about the apple: sometimes a slice or two will do, but when you're starving you might want the whole thing.

So, do you think you can take it?! Do you want to know what kind of fruit I think you are? The better I know you, the more juicy the details. (haha, a little fruit humor there) April, you were the easiest and you are going to DIE laughing! So leave me a comment and I'll try to email your fruit personality and see if you want me to post it. But remember, this fruity theory is based on how I know you.