You just never know with some people.

I get kind of bored at my desk sometimes. I know, gasp! But there it is.

So, to help the time pass as I'm clacking away on my keyboard, I ask questions of my coworkers.

"What was your favorite halloween costume as a kid?"
"What was your worst memory of high school?"
"If you were in the witness protection program, what would you reinvent about yourself?"
"Have you ever gotten a foreign object stuck up your nose?"

"Actually, I have," answered my coworker, Annette. Annette is way old, like my mom, and she's so skinny her bones would probably break if a bird landed on her. And she's Catholic. Regardless, we're good friends.

"No way, you have to tell me this," I said, spinning in my chair away from my computer screen.

She picked up a new file to process. "When I was little I got the eraser from a pencil stuck up my nose."

The people within earshot burst out laughing. "How long was it in there?" someone asked.

"Several months," Annette said.

"Several months?"

We were incredulous. How could you go through life with an eraser shoved up your schnoz?

"I didn't actually know it was up there. It had come off the pencil, and it wasn't until it started to interfere with my hearing that I was taken to the doctor."

More unbelieving laughter. "Seriously? And then what?"

Annette stopped typing and turned to face us. "It was a quick outpatient surgery and they took it out."

"When you go to the doctor today and they ask about prior surgeries, do you fess up to that one?" I asked.

"Nooooo, it was just a small thing," she answered. What a dumb question. I'm sure her doctor wishes she'd tell him, if not for the free laugh and the "You'll never guess what my patient did" story that he could take to his next raquetball game. "They put me to sleep, I woke up, and there was the bloody little eraser."

"Oh my gosh, they showed it to you?" I said. This story keeps getting better and better.

"Well yeah. I wanted to see it."

Of course. I would want to see something that had been living inside my nose for several months. I started to make fun of her...and abruptly shut my mouth. I recalled coming out of anesthesia after getting my wisdom teeth removed.

"Here you go," the nurse said. She handed me something and bundled me into my dad's car. When I awoke from a nap later, I got out of bed to see what was in the cup sitting on my dresser.

Three bloody wisdom teeth. I dropped the cup in horror.

"Oh my gosh, why did they give me my teeth?" I shrieked to my dad. "That is so gross!"

"You wanted to see them," he said. "You made a big deal after they woke you up that you wanted your teeth back. I think the nurse said you wanted to make earrings out of them."

I guess it takes a weirdo to know a weirdo.