backwards weirdness

I was helping out at my church today, sorting books for this huge rummage sale they are doing the first weekend in June. Yesterday was the last day of Sunday school and there had been a picnic, so there was food left over, including a huge sandwich of meat, cheese, and mayo cut into parts. The nice lady I was working with asked me if I wanted some.

All of that sounds normal until I blinked at her like she had three heads and said, "I'm vegan."

I know. Horribly rude vegan of me. I should have just said, "No thanks," and left out any reasons why. But I blanked. People don't usually ask me that question. I know most of my friends also eat meat, but then it is something they deal with, not me, so I actually forget things like people actually eat meat and dairy. And even when I haven't forgotten that people do still eat meat, no one asks me if I'd like some. Friends and family know, of course.

But here is this nice lady offering me a bit of sandwich and I'd forgotten how to respond to this. There's no way she could have known I'm vegan, but somehow I was amazed she hadn't read it off of my forehead or something. So instead I stared at her like she'd just asked if I wanted to fly to Monaco or something and blurted, "I'm vegan."

That's me, doing what I can to strain vegan/omnivore relations. And I'm just neurotic enough to be writing about this 2 hours later.