Be Careful With That Knife

I've started working part-time at a local restaurant, and it's surprisingly fun.  Today, I was learning the salad line.  My coworker showed me the preferred way to chop a head of lettuce with a giant knife, then handed me said giant knife.  "Be careful with that knife," she said.  "It's really sharp."  I was about to make a crack about how I had actually learned that knives are sharp during my years of schooling, but I sliced my thumb before I could get the words out.   

My coworker looked at me in disbelief, unable to comprehend how I had managed to cut myself already.  I then had to spend the next five hours with rubber gloves on so I didn't bleed on the food.  I was truly impressive!  I had time to comprehend my awesomeness while I was working and to reflect on the reasons, aside from sheer klutziness, that led to my accident.  Being a psychology dork (who happens to be wearing a t-shirt which says "Pavlov, the name that rings a bell"), I attribute it to the ironic process theory.  For those of you less dorky than me, this theory says trying not to think about something makes you think about it more.  Don't believe me?  Just don't think about white bears for the rest of this blog!  Anyway, I think that thinking about not cutting myself actually caused me to cut myself more quickly than I otherwise would have done.  Or maybe I'm just extra klutzy today.  It's one of those two.