I was duped!

Once, when I was in the fourth grade, I went through the cafeteria line at lunch and got a nice big scoop of applesauce. I love applesauce. It looked delicious! I saved it for the very end of my lunch. I figured it would be a nice palette cleanser to chase down my sloppy joe.  I took a nice big bite of the juicy sauce only to discover that it was sauerkraut! Being a mere fourth grader, this was my first experience with sauerkraut. It was an unpleasant one, to be sure! And honestly... who serves sauerkraut to kids in their school lunch?!? Talk about traumatizing their taste buds!

Anyway, this got me thinking, much of our enjoyment of things come from our expectations. When reality lines up with our expectation, we are happy. When things are different than what we were wanting, we are let down. This definitely is true with food. That is often why people want to know ahead of time what is for dinner. We want to get our taste buds ready for it. If I am expecting spicy, chicken enchiladas for dinner but then get served pot roast, I am not going to enjoy it as much. Not because I dislike pot roast, but because I was expecting Mexican food and my taste buds weren't prepared for pot roast.

I find that this is also true for entertainment. Movies in particular. I went and saw the movie "One Day" today. It just came out in theaters so I won't give away any spoilers or anything but let me just say, I felt a bit duped. From the previews, it looked like a quirky romantic comedy starring Anne Hathaway. I was in the mood for a feel-good movie. It was set in Europe and looked to be along the lines of "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" (two EXCELLENT movies, by the way) Well, I walked away with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes and a bit of resentment at the fact that I was now totally depressed.

I will admit, there is a morbid side of me that deliberately watches sad movies sometimes just to make myself cry. Sometimes I kind of want to be depressed and sob over a pint of Ben and Jerry's and just be miserable. Today was not that day, yet I was forced into misery. Thanks a lot Anne Hathaway. I am now depressed and teary and have no Ben and Jerry's because I was not prepared for this. I think I will go watch something ridiculously funny to pull myself out of the dumps. Any suggestions?

Oh, and by the way, "One Day" was a good movie. I recommend it, just don't expect to be happy when you leave the theater because you won't be.