Smiley Face or Frowny Face?

While Sean and Brooklyn were gone, I tried to venture out at least once a day with the girls - to the store, to KFC - even though these kinds of outings on hot days when the whole country is out and about, really wear me out. My friend and I (her husband also went on the trip) spent a very long time standing in line at KFC, sweat dripping down our backs while we watched our kids weave in and out of dozens of kids on the playplace and we cheered them on as they dodged the cheek-pinching fingers of adults enamored with their pale skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair.

When we finally got to the front of the line, the ice was gone and the original recipe chicken was sold out. No matter. I rattled off a different order than the one I'd had in my mind for the past 30 minutes.  The cashier handed me an evaluation card. He expectantly waited for me to fill it out while he watched. I had the option to check the box with the smiley face or the box with the frowny face.

This KFC is in the middle of renovations with building materials interspersed with seating, dusty floors, few working lights, and air-conditioners disconnected. Three slow cashiers were handling 50 people at the time, and pretty much everything was "kosong" (empty, out, unavailable). I glanced up at the young man watching me expectantly. Then I looked back down, checked the smiley face box with a flourish and handed him the slip of paper with a big smile.

It wasn't so much that I didn't want to disappoint the young cashier, though I am notoriously anti-confrontational. It wasn't even the fact that I knew checking the frowny face wasn't going to make any difference anyway. It was more the fact that, for here, yeah, the service and the food were fine.

There was once a time when I'd be outraged to walk into any restaurant that looked like that KFC did that night. But now...here? First of all, I've eaten at several establishments that make this KFC look like a 5-star restuarant..and I go back to them. Often.  Secondly, I'd be utterly floored if it were any different. I have never been to KFC here and been able to order everything I wanted. I have never been there when it wasn't hotter-than-blazes. I can probably count on one hand the times the service was fast. I'm just glad there is a KFC - something (sort of) from home but really, completely different with rice instead of mashed potatoes and soup instead of coleslaw. No biscuits or butter or corn on the cob or baked beans. But they do have that same greasy chicken and soft-serve ice cream and Mocha floats....usually.

Moments like that - checking smiley face boxes on questionairres when I probably should have checked the frowny faces - encourage me. They really do. Because they remind me that I've changed. I've adapted. I have different expectations than I did a couple of years ago. I've learned to roll with the punches better, to be happy with whatever I can get, to see the smiles on the faces around me and to smile back even when I'm hot, claustrophobic, and hungry-grumpy.

But just for the record, I won't be going to KFC on a hot Friday night again any time soon.