Half Full or Half Empty?

I am a day-to-day pessimist but a long-term optimist.  It is rather a challenge for me to see the positive yet I firmly hold to the idea that all things work out or have a reason for being.

Case in point: A few days ago my mom and I made 包子.  We prepped the dough using the bread machine, which was fun to observe.  Afterwards, we let the dough sit around for a bit in order for the yeast to do its thing.  My mom found a lot of frozen filling from previous attempts at 包子 and 水饺 so we defrosted that and mixed it together.  Now the fun part.  For the most part, my mom flattened the dough into flat, thin circles while I placed filling in the center and folded the 包子。 Admittedly the first few were somewhat lopsided and boasted very few folds.  After awhile though, I got the hang of it.  Seeing how we rarely make this stuff (my mom being a rice-loving southerner), we spent a good amount of time on it.  Batch #1 turned out fairly well; Batch #2 would be that much better because I’d gotten the hang of it by then.  Unfortunately, mom decided to put Batch #2 into the oven to allow it to rise a little more…I think the yeast died.  So our dough died.  So Batch #2 came out looking like sad, misshapen lumps of dough.  Devastating.  I took one look and announced that I’d never seen such unappealing 包子。 Mom concurred.  When Dad came home, we regaled him with the misshapen clumps.  Dad takes one look and announces that those are the cutest looking 包子 he’s seen because they look like little turtles with their heads tucked in.  Cup half empty, cup half full.

To my credit, however, for more ‘serious’ matters (which are generally more long-term), I am unabashedly optimistic.  True life can suck from time to time, but one can always learn from such moments and things turn out OK eventually  🙂