Coping with failure

I had my worst night in the kitchen. My 2nd attempt at kung pao chicken was a failure, and actually i had succeeded at KPC the first time, it was delicious and was such a breeze to cook.

I wasn't thinking. I put the nuts in before the meat, something i NEVER do. i ALWAYS put the meat in first. And then the chicken was overmarinated so it was super salty. And then somehow the new kitchen is not equipped for crisis management, so i kinda spilled stuff on the floor, clogged the sink, plates were overturned....

By the time i was halfway done with the KPC, i was depressed and wanted to cry. I wanted to give up on the meal and just order in.

At that point Les came back home. I was whining and whining about not wanting to cook even tho my hands just kept on working and cutting vegetables. I guess i wanted to hear him say my KPC was delicious. But all he said was, it's EDIBLE!!! Booohoohooo....

Well I really shouldn't demand more in such circumstances. He has always been appreciative of my cooking, he finishes up everything (on good kitchen days and BAD kitchen days). He even endures my after-cooking high, I'll keep asking him if it's nice (to which there is only one correct answer), and he'll have to counter my own self-criticism with his praises. In yesterday's case, he knew i was so depressed that he let me hog the Wii while he play his PSP. so sweet.

The night actually got better when we finally won the last guitar battle against Loucifer. We've been playing for the past 3 nights and we NEVER got past this "whammy" attack. Basically as u play the notes, players accumulate different attacks and the attacks can be undone with time or a particular counter-attach action. So i suspect that our Anti-Whammy attack button has malfunctioned, so i devised a strategy to overcome the whammy attack by attacking the opponent before he can accumulate the whammy. It's OK if u're confused. To cut the long story short, i kept urging(bugging) Les to keep playing and eventually we overcame Loucifer! Woohoo...

It's really important for couples to constantly give each other words of encouragement. The promise of love and acceptance when the tough gets going. =)