Obstacles

On being pleasant
A few months ago I decided to be more easy-going. To try, anyway. I talked with a friend who had just watched "A Wonderful World" and she felt the same: She was going to try to be "as pleasant as pleasant can be!"

Right after I made this decision, as usual, life tried to test me. First, I saw a big dog in my yard, so I went outside to tell it to quit pooping on my lawn. After I yelled at him to stop, I saw his owner coming to get him. I wanted to ask the owner to please take his doggie's poop with him, but was unable to think of a pleasant way to do so.

So I went inside and closed the door.

Then I took my daughter to soccer practice. Some of the parents were standing around talking about last week's game, and one of the Dads told me, "Actually, that referee was correct. Maybe if you don't understand the game of soccer you just shouldn't talk."

Excuse me? I just shouldn't TALK???? I wanted to say, "Maybe if you don't have enough of a grasp of the English language to know when you might be offending people, maybe YOU shouldn't talk!"

But I couldn't think of a pleasant way to say this, so I left.

And we all know I failed the being pleasant test at Christmastime. This being pleasant business is a lot harder than it's cracked up to be.

It seems whenever I decide I want something in life, there are immediately obstacles. A friend told me about sauteing cabbage in sesame oil and mixing it with the rice noodles found at local Korean stores, so I thought that sounded good. I'm always looking for good vegetable recipes (plus I love noodles.)

So Monday I went to the local Korean store, and there weren't any. I asked the lady behind the counter, and she said "Not today. Come tomorrow!"

So the next day I braved the unusual smells and unfamiliar products again to look for the noodles, but again, I couldn't find them. So I walked all the way to the back of the store, past the butcher station, and I saw some of the noodles spread out on a pan on the counter. I asked the man standing there, "Do you have any noodles ready to go?" and he said, "Not yet. One hour."

So you see, one has to really try once you make a decision. Or you give up. At least I finally got my noodles (yum!).

I hope I can stay pleasant. Sometimes I feel like giving up.