Lesson Learned

Since before Christmas break, there has been a collection of various diet sodas in the fridge at work.

I am not normally a soda drinker. But as the weeks have gone by, I have noticed the stash each morning when I put my lunch in the fridge. They have become more and more tempting as time has gone on. There have been multiple times in the past couple of weeks that I have almost thought of enjoying one.

Taking one of these unclaimed sodas, however, was out of the question for me. If there has been one thing that I have learned from living with roommates and sharing refrigerators at different jobs, it is that you never, ever, under any circumstance take anything that you didn't put into the fridge.

Well, today I have a confession to make. After taking stock of the soda each morning for the past week and a half, I came to the conclusion that these were in fact forgotten fridge items.

Today is Friday. It is a Friday after a long week. It is a Friday after a night of almost no quality sleep and it is 4:00pm in the afternoon. I am tired and thinking, "a can of soda as a pick-me-up would be sooo good right now. Plus it's just a diet soda... no one would miss it!" The office is empty and quiet (read: no witnesses). I grab a red plastic cup for good measure and go back to the fridge. I select a delicious looking A&W diet root beer from the back, pop it open and start pouring. It's not as fizzy as I would have expected or hoped, but it will do. As I make my way back to my desk to indulge in my smuggled soda, I take a sip. It's cold, it's refreshing, it tastes..... weird! I go back and look at the can. Expiration Date: 14 DEC 07

Awesome, I drank expired root beer. That can't be good.

Life Lesson #218: If no one is drinking the soda in the fridge at work, you shouldn't either.