grace

I'm not a huge video game fan, but I do like me some Dance Dance Revolution (DDR).

I'd love to say the years of dance training I had as a girl are apparent when I play this game, but unfortunately that is just not the case. My moves are uncoordinated and sometimes spastic. No grace here.

But! It's such a great way to work up a sweat and enjoy doing it. That's why it's not unusual for friends to come over to play with me.

The other night, one of my friends, GirlF, was dancing around with the DDR. And, apparently, she's as graceless as I am because she tooted! So caught up in the challenge was she that she let it slip out. Silent but violent, you know the type.

And I didn't know what to do. I can't recall ever having experienced someone else's flatulence as an adult when they didn't own up or even give me a little forewarning to make an escape. I know sometimes there's nothing you can do about the gas; it's coming whether you like it or not. That's the point at which I usually mumble some sort of, "I'm sooo sorry."

But what do you do when it's dealt by someone else? Someone who is not your significant other or a member of your immediate family? Am I supposed to just pretend it didn't happen? Or am I supposed to say, "Dang, girl! What'd you eat for dinner?!"

I chose to reclaim some semblance of grace for our evening and politely breathed through my mouth and acted as if my smell sensors were temporarily out of order while it lingered there for several minutes and on the three occasions after that that I detected the wretched odor. And we both lived happily ever after.