Saying NO to Jellyfish Stings

If you are reading this, I’m gonna guess that you are REALLY curious about where this article is going! And, I’m gonna ask you to hold all questions to the end… I promise it will all make sense then (ok, I can’t promise – let’s go with my plan is for this to all make sense at the end)! Until then… ENJOY!

Recently I was on vacation with my family in Mexico. On our last full day there, I had a little run-in with a jellyfish. (It was a tiny little thing and it wasn’t so much painful as it was uncomfortable.) Regardless, having very little (or any, if you don’t count the aquarium) jellyfish experience, I went up to the lobby to ask how a jellyfish sting should be treated.

The lady at the welcome desk told me that it’s not a big deal and that the antidote is ammonia (I knew I forgot something important!). She then suggested that I find one of the housekeeping ladies and ask to borrow their windex. Now, if you have seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you are probably laughing as hard as I was as I walked away from the desk. If you haven’t seen it, GET IT!!!! And I won’t spoil anything in the movie by telling you that the girl’s father puts windex on EVERYTHING. Got a zit – use a little windex. Cut your had chopping veggies – windex!

So, I giggled to myself all the way to the forth floor where I ran into our cleaning lady, Julia. Now, we had very limited interaction with this amazing woman (seriously… the woman kept our suite beautiful all week. No small feat when there is sand and 4 kids worth of stuff everywhere!). The one thing I did know is that Julia did not speak any English… and I speak very little Spanish. I mean high school Spanish was a LONG time ago! So, as I approached her, I realized this was gonna get REALLY interesting.

And I had a choice – I could allow the uncomfortable jellyfish sting continue to bother me or I could decide not to care what she would think and find a way to get the windex. I decided it was worth it, and through the best game of charades EVER, I got her windex. I wish I had a picture of her face as she watched me spray windex on my leg. I had no way to explain that I had been stung by a jellyfish (come on, asking for windex was enough of an adventure). So, I could see her thinking to herself “What is this crazy American doing????”

I handed the windex back, said “Gracias” and went on with my day.

What a great opportunity to Say NO to caring about other people’s opinions… and I even got a fun story out of it! And now you know to always take ammonia with you when traveling where jellyfish hang out!

So… what opportunities do you have to Say NO to other people’s opinions???