The Banana Container vs. Sex Toy game

This afternoon, our part-time receptionist at work came upstairs to say goodbye to me. She only works on Fridays. Most of the rest of the time she goes to school (she's 19) or church (she's Christian and very active in her church) or she's studying or helping care for her nephew, who is a toddler. She's very busy. She's adorable, unaffected, and impossible not to like.

Today she matter of factly told me she wants a banana container and has been shopping for them online. "WHAT?" I said, trying to wrap my slow-moving, late-afternoon mind around the concept of a banana container. She then explained that her banana got smushed in her schoolbag and she had a spiral notebook, and--. At this part of the story she shuddered, letting me imagine the mess. (I haven't thought about carrying food around for a really long time-- it's been a long time since I've made a lunch and carried it to some all-day thing where the food offerings suck and there's no refrigerator or my own desk where I might park my lunch.)

As soon as I got it I caught the fever and got very excited and happy for her (as for me, I don't need a banana container, because we have bananas at my work and there are usually some available to eat), so she started telling me which websites to look at. There are some options, it's not like just one company makes a banana container. The first one we looked at was pretty cool. Then we looked at one that looked like colored condoms or cheapie jelly rubber vibrators, the kind that are less than $20. Suddenly, the banana container became sort of embarrassing to me, but not to her, because I really don't think she saw what I saw. So then it got even worse when she showed me some that looked like double-ended dildos or like toys designed to stimulate the G-spot, curved like a boomerang. It's really not like I think about sex toys anytime I'm at work and having a perfectly nice conversation with a co-worker, but I worked at a sex toy company for two years, and sex toys are just part of my regular frame of reference now.