Lessons I Learnt From My Best Friend (Episode Six)

Lesson Six : Carpe Diem! Or “Poke it! Poke it, poke it now!!”

(Disclaimer : The following ‘Lessons’ segment is not in anyway naughty despite its suggestive title.)

“How do you know you won’t like it until you’ve tried it?”

(Author’s note : Again, its not naughty. Read on.)

I’ve never been very adventuresome. A a matter of fact, the sole reason why I am sometimes known to have ‘spur of the moment’ moments is just ‘cause I procrastinate till the very last minute. Keith and Bri tells me I’m boring because I won’t do that Jello thing with them.

(Really! Not of the naughty!)

I have a Flintstones collapsible wading pool that’ll fit about three people. ‘Course, our knees would come up to our ears, elbows would be poking into eyes and our toes would be jammed up Keith’s posterior orifice.

“It’s *so* stupid,” I sneered. “Do you *know* how much Jello we would need?”

“You’re saying it wrong, Doc.” Keith interrupts, clearing his throat and pitching a tone near to mine, “Its so *stupid*. Do you know how much *Jello* we would need?’” Complete with a goofy grin and a slightly maniacal gleam in his eyes.

I roll my eyes, “That’s what I just said.”

“In the wrong tone.”

“Shut it, you dumb*ss.”

“You’re so boring,” Bri sniffed. “Have some sense of adventure!”

I do too. I eat dodgy Hokkien noodles at a place called Cockroach Alley and once I ran a red light. Of course, it was night and the streets were empty. And the red light was for a school crossing and more of a ‘Berhenti’ sign rather than an actual traffic light.

“I am not boring.”

“Are too!” The both of them said together.

“Am not!”

“Prove it!”

Bear in mind, we were in our late teens and the physical evidence of growth was not an indication of maturity. Or brains.

I sigh. “How are we even going to make so much Jello?”

They sport matching grins of triumph as Keith pulls out his notebook. Pails of hot shower water, a big pot of boiling water and all the Jello in South East Asia made up the list of ingredients. We would cook the Jello in pails, leave it to cool then stick ‘em overnight in Keith’s room which resembles an icebox in Alaska. Next day, we pour it all into my Flintstones wading pool and voila! Instant (rather, overnight) Jello pool.

“That’s stupid,” I reiterated. “It’ll never work. Besides, getting into a vat of viscous matter? Ew.”

““How do you know you won’t like it until you’ve tried it?”

“You’re *so* boring!”

By the way, did you know cherry Jello mixed with lime Jello turns into grey slush and not into Christmassy chunks?

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In a story I read once, a character was explaining her life's motto- "See a bear in the forest, walk up and poke it with a stick" (With regards to Ms. Bowers). It's a go-getter, You-Only-Live-Once kinda attitude which I've never really been accused of having.

I used to believe in trying anything once. Well, twice if I was too busy puking my guts out the first time. (Never go to theme parks after lunch and slightly hungover.) Yet I don't find myself doing so now. I make excuses, projections of the supposed outcome, claim a lack of ability, etc. I'd put off so much assignments and chores that I have now done so with Life! Have I put my life on hold for the sake of existing in a safe risk-free zone? Whatever happened to the 'try-it-you'll-like-it' and the large-scale 'all-or-nothing' person I used to be?

Perhaps my ideas have been shot down too many times that I now stop myself before I get stopped by others (and severely disappointed). Or big ideas were deemed 'too complex' to be used that they get shelved, or worse- executed by the Uninspired who compromise the vision and thus making it substandard. Stuff that I helped produce go through so many changes that it really isn't mine anymore and I'm literally ashamed to even be credited for it. Getting yanked off something you've worked on for a whole year. My heart actually aches when that happens. I've never wanted to hit a person more than I did then, I'm ashamed to say. I had a million words on the tip of my tongue, every fourth one crude. Did some serious internal auditing that day, I have to admit.

(Author's note: Don't get scared. Did I trick you into thinking that this entry would be funny all the way? LOL! Heh.)

I got told that it's wrong to get so involved with something. Then you'd commit too much into it, thus being too attached and getting self-centred. B*LLSH*T. That's all I can say. What about Jesus then? Should we not commit to Him and get 'too attached' and thus being Christ-centred? What happened to giving your all and giving your best?

'No more'. I've said this once a long time ago though it meant something else then. Then, it meant 'no more giving ideas', 'no more participation', 'no more getting p*ssed on by the Uninspired'. From hereonin, I'm takin' a new meaning on the phrase- 'no more sitting around waiting', 'no more need to censor myself', 'no more compromise', 'no more fear'. I'm takin' my business to places that visionaries can only dream of going.

Here's a coupla lessons I learnt:

~ have a sense of Adventure and go all out. You'll never get Jello in your pants until you wade into a vat full of it.

~ rejecting someone's idea is akin to tearing up their heart, spitting on it, lighting it on fire and crushing the ashes beneath your feet (at least that's how it feels when it happens to me). Small, big, stupid or not- every idea is worth something. Even th' terminally dumb one of having 40 gallons of flavored gelatin dumped pail by pail into the drain.

~ don't dump Jello into the drain during the draught.

~ week-old lime/cherry Jello smells like dirty socks after gettin' mixed up in drain gunk.

Didn't mean to get so introspective. Had Jello today and I remembered the Big Jello Adventure, is all...

Go ye therefore- seize days, poke bears, have a Jello shooter and remember never to wear your favorite pair of underwear when getting into a wading pool full of grey Jello. Also, run like h*ll when the bear wakes up.