“Um, excuse me,” I said to our young server who had the looks and style of a Kardashian. “My chicken noodle soup doesn’t have any noodles.”

Kim, I’ll call her Kim just for the sake of not knowing her real name, stopped and inspected my soup.  She leaned over for a better look.

I glanced at her, waiting for her immediate reaction, such as, “Whada’ya know! No noodles,” and whisk my soup away for a fast exchange of soup with noodles.

But Kim didn’t say anything and gave me a perplexed expression, her eyeliner and jewelry flashing dazzling sparkles in the dimmed lighting.

She seemed to not have a clue as what I wanted her to do. I elaborated. “My soup has chicken and carrots but no noodles.” I then swirled my spoon in the soup and scooped up a huge spoonful to illustrate.

Kim continued to stand without a word. I got the strong feeling she was hoping I’d say, “Oh well, it’s okay. Who likes noodles, anyway.”

Granted, she had a lot on her plate that night~or I should say, she had a lot of plates to carry. I sat at a table with a party of nine, my Sisterhood Support Group who had gathered for dinner to say good-bye to one of our ‘Hoodettes’ moving to Houston. Kim, the server of our large party, probably didn’t want to take my soup back to the kitchen. She had enough to do as it was. Besides that, I’m the only one who asked for no lemon with my glass of water. When Kim set my glass of water before me, I noticed a huge, yellow lemon slice toppling on the rim of the glass and ready to splash in my water vindictively to spread its germs and pesticides. “Uh, I didn’t want lemon,” I had reminded her. Kim seemed flustered and started to grab my water to return to the kitchen. Wanting to ease her nerves, I had said, “That’s okay, I’ll take the lemon.”

Flash ahead to her return with my soup and my dismay over the absence of noodles. By now, I’m sure Kim had me pegged for her ‘problem customer’ when I pointed out the soup didn’t have noodles. Perhaps Kim thought to herself, this problem customer accepted the water with lemon, so I hope she’ll take the soup as is, and not make me carry it back to the kitchen.

But I had to draw the line. After all, I had clearly heard her announce the soup of the day as ‘chicken noodle.’ “Would you please get me another bowl of soup with noodles.”

Kim grabbed my bowl and darted to the kitchen.

“There’s another blog for you, Bronwyn,” said Julie, who sat across from me. Julie is not only a dear friend but a fellow writer. Writers give each other story ideas.

I smiled, thinking, Good idea, but I’m sure I won’t write a blog about this. I just want noodles.

Soon Kim returned and set before me a giant bowl, three or forty times the size of the previous soup bowl. This bowl came loaded with bow tie pasta. The restaurant evidently ran out of skinny egg noodles. Kim did not explain why the new version of chicken noodle soup came with bow ties. It didn’t matter. I now had a bowl of soup the size of a swimming pool, crammed with lots of chicken and pasta and a very spicy and tasty broth. It tasted delicious.

The reason I now write about this is because I’m reminded, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”

In my younger years, (way younger because I speak up now, much to the dismay of many), I didn’t ask because I feared hearing ‘no.’ I’m not referring to errors in menu orders, although that too. But I’m referring to life. So many wonderful things in my life have happened because I now ask. And I very often get “yes!”

Long ago, I watched an Oprah show where a woman in the audience stood up and said, “Oprah, I want to invite you to my house.” Oprah thanked her and politely gave the impression she’s a very busy celebrity and of course didn’t have time. After the show, Oprah asked her staff to find out where the lady lived. She also asked they find out without the lady knowing.

Several shows later, Oprah hikes up the steps of a very modest house and knocks on the door. When the lady opens her door, she’s stunned. “Oprah, what are you doing here?”

Oprah replied. “You invited me.” Somewhere during the course of this show, Oprah said, “I came because you asked.”

That made an impression. After all, what’s the big deal if someone says no?

Because if you don’t ask, then the answer is always no.

Not asking means staring at a small small bowl of chicken and carrots, longing for noodles that will never be. Even worse, your friend Julie would have never suggested the topic for this informative blog that could easily change your life. (:

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