Social Norms

Every once in a while I break social norms.
That's just 'cause I'm a freak of nature though. 
However, there happened to be a special occasion; my psychology student teacher devised an assignment to do just that. After a lot of suggestions I decided on one. 


Scene: Cold Stone; my older sister, her daughter, myself, and my mother

In front of a group of friends, I followed behind my sister as she placed her orders. 
worker: What would you like?
me: Just one scoop of strawberry cheesecake.
worker gets a large scoop, makes the ice cream dance, tosses it high into the air and gracefully catches it in a "like it" size cup. 
me: uh...shifts uncomfortably can I...? looks towards my mom, then back at the worker
       Can I just get it in my hand...?
worker: bewildered; gestures the cup towards me
me: Yeah, no, I just want it in my hand..I'm sorry, it's just, I don't know where your cups have been, and I just really want it in my hand. 
worker: Oh, okay...uh..do you just want me to make you another one? 
me: Yeah, if that's okay. I'm sorry.
worker gets another scoop, and hesitantly offers it to my hand. As it drops, I smile appreciatively. 
me: thank you. 


And just like that, I walked off towards the cash register, ice cream in hand. 
The guy ringing us up angled his face towards my sister, but kept eyeing me as if trying to understand something. 
I don't know why. 


My sister finally  made me put in an extra cup she'd managed to get when converting the holder of my niece's ice cream to a cone. Probably a good thing though, considering I had succeeded in making a mess of melted ice cream as it dripped from my hand to the floor, leaving a Hansel and Grettle trail to our table---which was also covered in the delicious ice cream. Oh, and also because somewhere through the course of that experiment, my hand had frozen. I mean, literally frozen. The places exposed to the ice cream were totally white. I now am experiencing the joy of freezer burn. 
I must say, I never truly appreciated how many nerve endings were in the tips of my fingers and just how sensitive they were until they were mildly damaged.