Tuesday, May 17, 2011

#45--Summertime

I feel that I am often neglecting my blog, and for that I am disappointed in myself. However, life sometimes dictates that the time you want to spend writing on your blog should really be spent doing other things, like working or being with family.

Recently, I have purchased a new car: Dodge Caliber. It is very nice. There seems to be an issue with how it drives (more recently than when I bought it) and so I am taking it in tomorrow for servicing. I am hoping that it will not take the entire day, so that I might still be able to get some packing done and get some items moved tomorrow.

Speaking of moving and packing, I have been accepted to graduate school for the fall, and I am very excited. I am still waiting to hear about whether or not I will have the teaching assistantship position, but I really hope I get that too, because that will save me a lot of loan money. Since I have been accepted, moving is what we are focusing on now. Moving is alright, but I'd rather that we could get it all done in a day or so instead of taking a week to do it all, and that it wasn't so expensive to get everything from one place to another.

On another note, the dogs are sick. We think they ate something particularly nasty over the weekend when they stayed with my in-laws. I am hoping that they both recover soon, because constantly cleaning is a hassle, and also because I just want them to feel better.

About a week ago (a little more than) my father-in-law had a heart attack and had to have quadruple bypass surgery. He came home Sunday, and is glad to be home. He is doing very well also, even though many of us were fairly frightened with everything when it was happening. It has made me look at the things in my life that are important, and start thinking a little differently about the world.

It seems there are certain places where people really bond, regardless of race or creed. One of those places is a hospital waiting room. Stereotypical? Maybe. But it is true: everyone in that waiting room has something on their mind, and usually when people in waiting rooms talk, they display thoughts and feelings of sympathy to the others they are communicating with. Now if we were to apply that to everything else we do, we might have a better understanding of foreign affairs, issues within a community, etc. If I took a moment to think that the guy who cut me off on the highway might be rushing home to help his ailing wife, I might think twice about throwing the bird or honking my horn. If we thought about the person who is rude to the waitress at the next table might have lost a family pet or may have been fired from his job of 34 years, maybe we would think twice before we labeled that person as a jerk. I realize there are a lot of "ifs" and "maybes" here, but when you think about it, in the end you are not angry at the person, and instead try to rationalize their actions, and ultimately, sympathize with them for their unknown situation. And at the end of the day, you can say to yourself that instead of making that person's day worse, and instead of being upset that they cut you off in the first place, you can understand that you allowed that person to get where they are going, without causing a greater chance of recklessness. I also understand that not everyone always has something to rush home to, emergency or otherwise, and that people do tend to be jerks when they drive or eat out. I am not excusing those people from being jerks. What I am trying to say is, if we took a moment to smile, or say hi, or comprehend their situation, then we would probably make their day a lot better. A smile is always more welcome than a frown and a nasty middle finger.

Who couldn't use an extra jolt of happiness or kindness in their life?