Day of the Dumpling at the Grateful Dumpling

In yet another example of bad planning, we entered into last week's local market painfully unprepared, or should I say, painfully "for me" unprepared. By morning time of the market, we literally had only one type of dumpling, and we needed four more. We had the fillings made, but we needed the actual goods.

This was a terrible scenario, but the alternative was to simply give up and back down, and these sort of options are not available to a real-man in training (RMIT). So by morning time, I had to buckle down and start cranking out the dumplings of delight. I was not in the best frame of mind, and I began to get a sense of what it is like to be a political prisoner in China.

Since it is the local market, the misery level was lower because there were fewer dumplings to make, and I figured I'd low-ball it just to make it less painful. By noon, I'd made the minimum required level, and then set about cooking them.

Truth be told, it wasn't as painful as I'd thought, much like virtually every endeavor I embark on and that fear prevented me, at some point in time, from doing it in the first place. Have you ever had those moments, where thinking about something is enough to discourage you from even trying it? You don't even have to answer that question, I know this is a universal human condition.

We ended up coming out of it all unscathed, and the market was fine, though the crowd is getting thin. I really think things are winding down, and it will be interesting to see how many people come out once school has started. I'm guessing it's the beginning of the end.

Strangely enough, I view it with mixed emotions. On the one hand I can't wait for this to be over, but on the other, it's had its share of fun and rewarding moments, and I'll miss certain aspects of it. Funny how that works.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Dimitri Castrique for the pic.