Wahtdaht: ugly, awful in appearance

Originally the wonton dumpling was called "wahtdaht" or "wahn deuhn." There is a mythical story about the  youngest son of the emperor in heaven. He was called Wahn Deuhn and had no eyes, ears, mouth, or nose. Two of his friends decided to erase his ugliness by digging holes in his face. They finished in seven days, and Wahn Deuhn finally had the face of a human being. Unfortunately, he also suddenly died.  

The xiaolongbao dumpling. Not ugly and extremely delicious!

The ugly in my writing life:

I'm a huge fan of Target, and although my shopping has decreased from its previous weekly routine, it's still pretty frequent. A friend of mine mentioned that if I opened a Target REDcard, I could get 5% off in-store purchases and free shipping online. Naturally, I decided to apply when I next visited my local branch.

I filled out the application using one of those fancy checkout machines with styluses. I zoomed through the demographic information until the money question. I didn't want to answer, so I tried skipping it. No such luck.

Then I decided to embrace my creative identity and put down my writer's income. Since I could not type in "priceless" and zero was an unacceptable amount (trust me, I tried), I had to estimate what my potential earnings could be. I wrote in a humble and minimal amount.

They immediately analyzed the data, and my application process stopped. A printout informed me that I would be contacted within ten days. I received a very timely and gracious letter from Target informing me that my application was denied. Apparently, $100 a year isn't considered an adequate income. I still have the letter, and it continues to remind me: I am definitely not in this for the money.

Feel free to share any of your "ugly" stories.