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Los Angeles 2016: Air Freshener

A while back, the Mild Girlfriend and I took a quick road trip to Los Angeles. Neither of us heads down that way all that often, but she had to be down there. Originally, she was going to carpool with some other friends. However, they backed out, and she didn't want to do the drive by herself. So, we decided to make a road trip of it.

Now, as we drove down to get to our destination, we inevitably made stops along the way. We had to eat and we had to use the restroom, after all. Sometimes, the two of those things lined up in a convenient mix, and we'd have a full blown restaurant of some sort at our disposal. Sometimes, though, nature's call was too strong, and we had to make a stop for the sole purpose of going to the bathroom. In those cases, gas stations and convenience stores were incredibly helpful.

Most of the employees at those stores know you're only there to use the restroom, and they don't care. Still, though, I sometimes felt bad or awkward just standing there. So, I'd often buy some gum or other snacks for the trip. After a while, we had quite the collection of snacks in the car. We ate most of the snacks at a fairly steady clip, but we just couldn't keep up with the gum. Each pack we bought had something like twelve pieces in it, and we simply didn't chew enough gum to keep up. Even if we doubled up, it'd still take us several hours to get through the pack, and we made pit stops more often than that.

So, we ended up with a fairly large gum collection near the front seat. We really didn't think too much of it. It was a road trip, after all. It's sort of expected that you'll end up with snacks or other junk food at some point. And heck, it was kind of fun. We could choose from several flavors whenever the desire for gum struck us. It was all in good fun.

At one point near the end of the trip, though, we gave one of the Mild Girlfriend's friends a ride. She got in the car, and comedic gold struck:

Friend: "Oh, that smells nice. What kind of air freshener is that?"
Mild Girlfriend: "Air freshener?"
Friend: "Yeah, it smells like ... chamomile?"
Mild Girlfriend: "Chamomile? Oh! That's Juicy Fruit gum."

Yup, the gum collection doubled as air freshener. What was even funnier was that Juicy Fruit wasn't even the nice gum. We just bought it because it reminded us of childhood, and we got nostalgic. It's the kind of gum that tastes a little sugary. But apparently, it smells like chamomile. So if you're ever in a pinch, I know a cheap, sure-fire way to make your car smell nice.

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