The Unfortunate Water Faucet

In one of the many rest stops on the trip, I was attempting to wash my hands. Having come down with a severe cold, I was not "all there" in the head, so I was somewhat groggily shoving my hands under the automatic faucet. It was not very automatic, because it barely ever sensed me, even after many attempts to wave my hands around underneath it. When it finally turned on, a few drops came out, and that was about it.

Ready to give up, I turned toward the air dryer and waited my turn. There were quite a few people around (most of them choralers, people dreaded seeing us pull up), and I found that I couldn't actually move away from the faucet for lack of space, so I simply stayed there.

This did not go over well with the large, older woman in line behind me for the sink. "Excuse me," she said, somewhat forcefully as she shoved in for the sink.

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled, semi-coherently, and moved over a couple of inches.

I was zoning out when I heard the woman grunt, "What did you do, use all the water?"

I came back to reality to see her vain attempts at getting the water to turn on. I had mercy on her. "Oh...you kinda have to, like put your hands under it, and like move them around a lot--"

She broke in "Can you say one sentence without using the word 'like'?" she said, sarcastically, snickering.

I blinked. I wasn't even actually sure what I had said to her at all, my mind was a fog.

"Uhhh...I guess not" I mumbled in confusion.

"I'll give you five bucks if you can," she continued, smiling cynically.

It was now my turn for the air dryer, and I turned away to brush my hands under it and stumble out of the bathroom. A choraler patter my arm in sympathy at the woman's outburst, and another followed me out with exclamations of "what was her problem?!"

I suppose I do use the word "like" too often...especially when I'm sick.