say what?!

So, there I was, eating lunch in the break room at work.  I work in a large grocery store with all kinds of people from all around the world.  Typical break room fare includes the expected deli sub or fried chicken combo meals, bags of chips, lots of sodas and other assorted drinks in plastic bottles, frozen entrees of varying virtues, and my all-time favorite, Lunchables.  The Haitian folks always bring their own meals of rice, chicken, and beans, sometimes fish, and they always smell delicious.  The Haitian women were so surprised when I asked them how to make Soup Joumou forNew Year's Day-"How do you know about that?" they asked!
I digress.  So there I was, eating my greens and beans soup.  I bought a most stunning "bouquet" of turnip greens at the Farmer's Market last winter, and made an enormous pot of soup.  I used on of those packages of 15 beans minus the seasoning packet, added some onions and garlic and iced tomatoes, and froze it. There were 5 or 6 people in the break room, and I endured the usual remarks about how healthy I eat, and did you make that, and isn't there any meat in that?
Being me, I chose to see it as a teaching moment.  I explained that, in the words of one of my foods gurus, Mark Bittman, I am choosing to be a less-meatarian.  There was a long, loud moment of silence, followed by an outbreak of absolute hilarity!  The flower lady, through her tears of mirth, said, "What did you say?!  Lesbian Vegetarian?  Really?!"
Needless to say, it made the rounds to the whole store.  We are all laughing-except maybe the one associate who has been flirting with me.  He kind of gave me a sideways glance and went on stocking.  And I got to explain that no, I do like boys.  I also, like Mark Bittman suggests, choose to use meat more as a condiment than as a main course.  This caused more than a few raised eyebrows, but also generated some great conversations.
It is always good to laugh, especially at yourself!