No gas

Today I was so excited to make stir-fry for dinner. I usually make nasty stir-fry because all I use is soy sauce, but my friend showed me some good stir-fry sauce at the grocery store. So, I thawed my chicken, cut up my veggies, poured olive oil in my pan, and turned on the gas. But, alas, there was no gas! This was the first time I had any problems with my stove. I tried a few more times, and then realized that a small light had come on. I looked down and realized that it was a battery light. I didn't even know that the gas stove had batteries, and now they were dead! Since I'd already cut everything up I decided it would be worth it to run to the store for some new batteries. So I ran to the store, found batteries, came back home, changed the batteries, and then (this is how I wished the story would have gone) I had gas. But, alas, I still had no gas! The funny thing was I could hear the gas come out when I clicked it on, but there was no fire. The battery light had even turned off. After a few minutes of trying everything I possible could- checking the battery, trying both burners, one burner, the other burner...I gave in and called my superhero, Simon. Throughout the past six months he has helped me so much. This is his second year on the JET program, and he works in City Hall, so he often translates and helps me with official documents and such. After deciding on the phone that he didn't know what was wrong, he insisted on coming over (he was out and about at the time) to see what was wrong for himself. So he came over, and, much to my relief, was as perplexed as I was (I was relieved because usually I miss something really obvious- I was afraid he would come over and click one button and all would be fixed and I would feel really stupid!). But the problem remained, what to do about the gas. We finally decided that I needed to tell my supervisor so that a repair man could come out and take a look. But things just weren't adding up- why was the battery light turned off after I changed the battery and why did we hear gas coming out? So, since I of course had no matches, Simon ran to his car and got a lighter to try and manually start the fire. After a few humorous stories of singed eyelashes and eyebrows, Simon gracefully, but very cautiously, took a go at lighting the gas. It took a few times, but eventually the fire started. My friend has a temperamental stove, and she sometimes can turn on the fire, and sometimes has to use a match, so I figured that it what I would have to do from now on. But I still didn't understand what the battery had to do with anything. When Simon pulled the batteries out, he said, "Ellie, you have them in the wrong way." I said, "No!!! I checked them so many times!" He changed them around and, sure enough, the fire came on when he pressed the on button. I was flabbergasted!!! I didn't believe him, even after I looked at the symbols for positive and negative in the battery holder. Not until I looked further into the battery holder did I realize that I had indeed misread it. Of course. I ALWAYS miss the obvious! After a few moments of mentally kicking myself, I got over my stupidity, and could appreciate that my stove worked. Only a few minutes earlier did I think I was going to be out of a stove for at least a few days. Thankfully, I had whipped up a batch of cookies earlier in the afternoon so I could offer Simon some fresh chocolate chip cookies (and milk!). Just call me Susie Homemaker!