Keeping on the Sunny Side of Life

I’m trying hard not to become a grumpy old woman. The old lady who complains about everything and everybody. Still, recent events that I’ve labeled bad luck have me bellyaching to anyone who’ll listen.

The loud, chatty, Spanish-speaking passengers who sat behind my husband and me and never shut up during a two-hour flight from Raleigh-Durham to Miami.

The couple arguing in expletive-loaded language at eleven o’clock at night in the hotel room adjacent to ours in an otherwise very nice Miami boutique hotel.

The tulip bulbs I paid good money for and then planted in a container without proper drainage. Instead of flowers, I had rotten bulbs.

I complained about all these events in detail if you’re in the mood to read more of my Debbie Downer spiel: http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/Patsy-Pridgen

Another irritation that’s happened since I wrote the column: the can of frosting I bought at my Harris Teeter. I got home, pulled off the plastic top, and discovered the aluminum seal had already been peeled back. Some of the frosting was missing.

Disgusting! In all fairness, maybe the finger that dug into that frosting didn’t come from a Teeter shopper. Possibly someone on a factory line somewhere had a sudden craving for a taste of Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Classic Chocolate Frosting.

Enough, though, with the sour mood. I’m going to try really hard this Holy Week to look on the bright side of life. I can’t control other people’s actions, but I can control my response—right?

So I’ll look at loud Spanish speakers as a cultural experience. I’ll be thankful my husband and I don’t yell at each other the way that awful couple did next door in the hotel.

I’ll consider the can of open frosting episode as a story I can tell to amuse others. Sort of an urban legend, needles-in-Halloween-candy kind of thing.

Yesterday I went to Walmart and found beautiful blooming tulips for $4.99 a pot. Fifteen dollars plus ten minutes spent transplanting pink blooms to the yard have remedied my no-tulip dilemma.