Cram all your problems in a box, sit on it and laugh!

Imagine this. You wake up in the morning and can’t iron your clothes ‘cos ‘Nepa’ has gone nuts again then you rush out to work only to discover you forgot your laptop at home. Its midday and you want to draw some money so you head to the bank, you’re a little happy now ‘cos you got a ride there. You get to the ATM and start rummaging through your bag for your card then you realize you carried the wrong bag! :(

Seriously, little issues like these can make you want to gnash your teeth or wring somebody’s neck. I’m learning to take things in my stride and like I recently read somewhere, ‘learn to cram all your problems in a box, sit on it and laugh your heart out!’ :)

Anyway, something happened to me a while back that made me take this message seriously.

I had to ensure that the food column for a magazine was done right from the recipe to image of the actual meal. A cute little friend was responsible for the major details.

So, I call her on Thursday evening to tell her it’s urgent and she had to get all the materials ready by Monday, she says okay. She calls me on Friday night to say everything was set and the meal will be prepared on Saturday, will the photographer be around? I send a text to the photographer, who confirms on Saturday morning that she may not be available. My friend tries not to panic (she obviously spent lotsa money on the ingredients na) I assure her it will be fine, can she get another photographer to take the shots? She calls me on Saturday evening to say she couldn’t reach him. She goes ahead to borrow a digital camera. She tries hard but it won’t work. The battery is flat. She borrows a charger from her neighbour to charge the thing. She’s frantic now. We need those shots.

I can imagine the light bulb going on in her head when she realized she had a laptop with webcam.

Well, what had she to lose? She set up the table with the three course thingy and goes all acrobatic, holding the laptop in awkward positions trying to get a good shot. She got several, with her hands, head and hair showing up in odd places. She must have looked a sight! I was so sorry I missed an opportunity for a good laugh. :)

Monday morning, all fresh and rested, I pop in to see if she’s still alive with her hair in place :), we try the digital cam and it works fine. We set up the table again and had a good time laughing at ourselves as we tried to get the shots from all angles. We climbed on chairs and took odd positions as we did what we had to but were not trained to do.

My point exactly? She could have grumbled all the way, complaining about everything. But she chose to have a good attitude. We could have allowed a simple meal and a few shots steal our joy but we didn’t and what do you know, we actually caught up on some good old times while we were at it.

There will always be those pet peeves we can’t do anything about, won’t it be better to quit whining and have some fun?


So hey! I just crammed all my issues in a box; I’m sitting on it and about to roar with crazy laughter. Care to join me?

As long as you bring your box along sha! :)