It had been sitting in my car for weeks - an unopened fortune cookie left over from one of our many Chinese food excursions. After being tossed around, crushed by groceries, and squished by a tush or two, the cookie had cracked enough that you could start to see the white of the fortune inside..



And so I set to work. I twisted, poked, pulled and prodded at the little fortune with the goal of revealing its message without breaking open the wrapper. Why would I waste my time doing something like that? Just because.



I had to be careful not to let the sharp edges of cookie shards tear into plastic. I moved cautiously in an effort to avoid popping the pouch with too much air pressure. After ten minutes of crinkling, I freed the paper from its cookie shell, but the little fortune was tangled! While most (sane) people would have thrown in the towel at this point, my stubborn determination kept me going. My heart started pounding and my stress level increased with my frustration, but with another five minutes of careful manipulation, my fortune was finally revealed!!!



"It is not your character to give up." Oh fortune cookie...why do you mock me so?