Our eight-year-old neighbor Ben came over to play with the girls. Once in the apartment, he said, “Annika, I tried to knock on your door, but there was no space.” Okay, okay; our door is a little covered in Chinese New Year decorations at the moment.
The really embarrassing part is that as people walk by, they make comments like “Wow, Jack’s been busy.” Wait a minute. We have two kids living in this household, why would they automatically assume it was me?
They –of course- were right.
Fine I’ll admit it, I got a little carried away. Once I started decorating our apartment door for Chinese New Year, I couldn’t stop. There was about a week there where Julie had to keep a close eye on me every time we walked past a stationery store.
When a Chinese co-worker of mine was on the seventh floor, I proudly showed her my door. I asked her if I had gotten it about right or if it was a bit much. Not wanting to hurt my feelings, she paused for a moment but then confessed, “Yeah, it’s a little over the top -even by Chinese standards.”
But at least one person on the floor appreciated my efforts. Ernie made himself the self-appointed, one-man, door-judging committee. He took the time to type up a “Best Door of 2011” certificate and hung it on our door.
See, I told you, Julie, everything in life is a competition.
-Jack
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