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Orangina Moment
Many of you have probably heard this story. It's one of my favorites. It's about saying no.
I was living in the 4-4 (that's the quad on the 4th floor, all black, with cabinet beds we called "coffins") one summer and one night we were hanging out, around two o'clock in the morning, when suddenly I got a hankering for Orangina. I could almost taste it, except that I couldn't, because I didn't have any. So I asked if anyone was up for a run to Store24. "Nope," said steve. "Nah," said Tom. "Sorry," said![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miss_chance. I sat there trying to quench my craving and distract myself with the company, but still I wanted that Orangina.
"Please come with me to Store24," I begged them, but no one wanted to deal. So I climbed down from my coffin, put on clothes, told them to call the cops if I weren't back in 30 minutes, walked down three flights of stairs and out into the wee hours of the morning. The walk wasn't bad--it was late enough that most of the working girls were chilling in Little Stevie's and the streets were fairly quiet for a hot summer night. I made it the four blocks to the store, got a quart-bottle of Orangina and made the trek back to the house, back up the stairs, stripped down and climbed up and opened my Orangina. And, boy howdy, did it taste good!
"Mmmmn!" I said, and all the others looked up as I chugged from the icy cold bottle.
"Can I have a sip?" askedmiss_chance.
"Nope," I said, between sips.
"Can I have a sip?" asked steve.
"Nope," I said.
"Well, that's good to know,"miss_chance said to steve. "So many times, I just grab whatever she's drinking and take a sip and I assume that if she didn't want me to have it, she would say something. So it's good to know that she'll say no when she wants to. Isn't that good?"
"Well, yes," said steve. "But not as good as a sip of Orangina would be right now."
Ever since then, we use the phrase "Orangina Moment" to mean "I'm about to ask you a favor and the only reason I dare to ask is because I trust that if you don't want to do it, you will say so." The next time you drink Orangina, then, toast to lasting friendships that have a healthy respect for the word "no".
I was living in the 4-4 (that's the quad on the 4th floor, all black, with cabinet beds we called "coffins") one summer and one night we were hanging out, around two o'clock in the morning, when suddenly I got a hankering for Orangina. I could almost taste it, except that I couldn't, because I didn't have any. So I asked if anyone was up for a run to Store24. "Nope," said steve. "Nah," said Tom. "Sorry," said
miss_chance. I sat there trying to quench my craving and distract myself with the company, but still I wanted that Orangina. "Please come with me to Store24," I begged them, but no one wanted to deal. So I climbed down from my coffin, put on clothes, told them to call the cops if I weren't back in 30 minutes, walked down three flights of stairs and out into the wee hours of the morning. The walk wasn't bad--it was late enough that most of the working girls were chilling in Little Stevie's and the streets were fairly quiet for a hot summer night. I made it the four blocks to the store, got a quart-bottle of Orangina and made the trek back to the house, back up the stairs, stripped down and climbed up and opened my Orangina. And, boy howdy, did it taste good!
"Mmmmn!" I said, and all the others looked up as I chugged from the icy cold bottle.
"Can I have a sip?" asked
miss_chance."Nope," I said, between sips.
"Can I have a sip?" asked steve.
"Nope," I said.
"Well, that's good to know,"
miss_chance said to steve. "So many times, I just grab whatever she's drinking and take a sip and I assume that if she didn't want me to have it, she would say something. So it's good to know that she'll say no when she wants to. Isn't that good?""Well, yes," said steve. "But not as good as a sip of Orangina would be right now."
Ever since then, we use the phrase "Orangina Moment" to mean "I'm about to ask you a favor and the only reason I dare to ask is because I trust that if you don't want to do it, you will say so." The next time you drink Orangina, then, toast to lasting friendships that have a healthy respect for the word "no".