so nice of you to drop by

While I still maintain that Jenny the visiting teacher is so unrealistically nice she probably has cartoon birds come and help her fix her hair in the morning, I have held my own today. I took dinner to a neighbor in need. And I actually cooked it...not out of a box or anything.

Here's how it went down: Tuesday night I get a call from my local compassionate service guru. She frantically explained that I had a new visiting teachee, who turns out is one of my good friends. "Yay! Lisa (names have been changed to protect the uncoordinated) already knows I'm a slacker" I thought, "but why is this pertinent right now?" Turns out this was a good question because the compassionate service chick then said "she broke both her arms last night...go do nice things and stuff." So, my first thought was to laugh, because it totally sounded like something that I would do and yet I wasn't the one in casts. Then I felt bad and called her and demanded an explanation. She fell down. Not even a good story. My heart went out to her and I did my best to not laugh while I talked to her. Because, really, it is horrible. She has a 1 year old and a 4 year old at home, how the heck is she going to handle that? It's awful, but still I was morbidly amused. So to make up for my inappropriate humor I vowed to make her an actual meal on my assigned night to feed her and her family.

Now, this hasn't happened in a while because I still have a strong aversion to...food. Unless it is a Popsicle, then bring it on. So I went to the store...three times because remembering things isn't my forte. I laid out the mise en piece (see! I am a chef being smothered by a lazy personality, I know the fancy french way of saying ingredients) and made chicken kabobs. You see, Lisa (again, name has been changed to protect the allergic) doesn't eat gluten or dairy. So sad for her. I usually get my kicks out of making cookies and eating them with milk when she comes over to visit. But, since I was being nice I decided to actually go with the flow of her diet restrictions today instead of taunting her. I grilled them on my Foreman grill and packed up a salad and was ready to go do my best Florence Nightingale impression.

My family had hot dogs for dinner. I'm aiming for niceness, not sainthood. So, yes, it was a baby step in my quest for finding my inner compassion for others, but I am still proud of me, paying back my debt to society, as it were. Now if only I can continue resisting the urge to sit on my porch and throw chips at all the cute little relief society ladies that go jogging by on a regular basis....