My Dumb Smart Phone

They all worked great until the contract was up.

It has to be a setup from the phone companies to force us to buy a new, more expensive phone. I mean, two months before my two-year contract on this phone is up, it suddenly decides that it doesn’t have enough space to do what it has been doing for the past two years. I haven’t added anything new, I don’t store pictures on my phone, and I use my iPod for music. So what is suddenly taking all of my storage space?

As I said, it started about two months ago. Actually it was longer than that, but my memory isn’t the best so we shall stick with the two month mark. I know about when it began because the girls had all gone and bought the new Galaxy S4, which I’m still paying on. I had the biggest phone in the house before that and now it suddenly feels as if I am back to holding the Palm Pixie.

How Is Your Gratefulness?

I am more than grateful for these ladies.

One of the biggest complaints of many employees as well as family members is the feeling of being underappreciated.  It’s been one of the things we’ve had to instill in the kids, especially the 9 year-old who seems to be growing up in a generation of grab and run instead of sit and savor.  You spend an afternoon fixing her favorite dish or stop what you are doing to play a game or watch a show with her and after it’s all over and done with she is up and gone without so much as a goodbye. 

“Hey, get back here.”

“Yes, sir?”

“How about a thank you or something?  Where did your manners go?”  And then I pull out my mother’s line.  “Were you raised in a barn among the animals?”  Of course, looking at her room anyone would think she was living in a barn or rather a pigpen.

How Well Do You See What’s Around You?

It’s like the mall at Christmas only worse.  At least at the mall people are used to what’s around them, so they aren’t gawking at every sight and sound.  However, at Downtown Disney, it’s a tourist trap and people are in awe that everything has mouse ears on it and are soaking it all in.  I can’t really say much, I guess, because we go there about four or five times a year and are still soaking it all in.

Still, we are all people watchers and my eyes are always circulating around the odd looking specimens of humanity that swarm around us.  For instance, this past Sunday we were once again at Downtown Disney and this lady was wearing black spandex with roses wrapped around the legs.  I’m not sure who told her that was a good look on her, but really, just because you can wear something, doesn’t mean you really should.  Another girl, probably in her early twenties, was walking around with fairy wings on her back and it was obvious they were not a new purchase.  You would think nothing of it since you were at Disney, except she brought them with her as opposed to buying them as a souvenir and her clothes were just as bizarre.

Why would you arrive that way?

Is Compassion Lost?

He wasn't a solicitor. He was a mooch.

I’m not sure where the little guy came from and to be honest, I’m not sure it’s even a little guy.  We call him Blue Eyes because he has the prettiest blue eyes and I was listening to Frank Sinatra at the time.  He’s not ours.  I do think he thinks we are his, however.

He appeared around our pool deck one day just staring at us.  One of the girls put out a bowl of food by the back door and we watched through the glass as he came up, sniffed at it, and then devoured every last kibble.  Satisfied, he took a drink from the pool and then sauntered off.  He was back that night for dinner.  He’s been back every morning and every evening since like clockwork and most times he can be found sleeping in one of our lounge chairs in the backyard, much to the consternation of our other cats who are not allowed off the porch.

Why Are You Always So Angry?

Calm down, Dude!

I realize life can be tough at times.  Illness, financial hardships, relationship woes, a struggling business, a lay off, a wayward child, an arrogant child, and the list goes on and on.  Life was not meant to be easy.  It wasn’t meant to be fair.  It was just meant to be life.  And truth be told, life at its hardest is better than no life at all.

However, that doesn’t stop people from coming across angry at the world and everyone and everything in it.  They grumble, mumble, moan and complain.  Their ice cream is too cold or melting too fast or doesn’t have enough sprinkles or came with sprinkles and they hate sprinkles.  It’s too hot outside.  It’s too cold inside.  The music is too loud.  Now they can’t hear it.  They hate the world because the world hates them and the world barely knows them.  They’re just angry inside, a boiling, bubbling mass of animosity. 

Those Self-appointed Cyber Police

We should all be this content

They think they are the Self-appointed Cyber Police.  Personally, I call them busybodies, tattle tales, narcs, cry babies, and self-righteous old bitties with too much time on their hands.  They really should mind their own business and cease their obnoxious interference into other people’s lives.

I suppose I just don’t understand the thinking of some people.   I know the world contains those individuals who are letter-of-the-law types, but if you choose to follow me on any of the many social media sites that I am a part of, then don’t gripe about what I post.  I promise, I won’t complain about what you post.  It’s true.  I won’t.  What I will do is just stop following you if I don’t care for what you share.  To me, that is the grown up thing to do.  After all, I probably didn’t ask you to follow me.  It was your choice.  Not that I care if you follow me, because I don’t.  I love the interaction with everyone.  However, if what I post offends you, then you might wish to just click Unfollow or Unfriend or any of the other terms that mean the same thing, because I am not going to change.

The Negotiation of Change

I suppose it's fitting they stuck me in a corner

Change is exciting.  I usually relish it because it brings about freshness to anything around it.  It jump starts my thinking and takes me down paths I had never thought of before.  It rejuvenates me and gives me an excitement that may have grown dull with the stagnation of day after day doing the same thing.  I usually look to the beginning of a new year with my eyes on something to change that will keep a spark in what we do.  This year it’s the house.

If you’ve been paying attention lately, you’ve noticed that I am distracted by the chaos around me due to the remodeling of rooms.  Change is happening in the house and I know that when it is all said and done it will look amazing and give us a new outlook on our home and a renewed enthusiasm.  Change brings a new look and you tend to see things a little differently.

A Distracted Mess

One of the many boxes of pictures to scan

 I have to admit, I have struggled today to write this blog post.  It’s not even the one I had planned on writing.  Today’s topic was supposed to be about compassion, but I find myself distracted by my surroundings and my long list of To-Organize.  Everything around me is an excuse waiting to be grabbed and used to put off writing today.  I even feel the lull of a nap invading my mind and trying to snap my eyelids like window blinds.  I’ve convinced myself that I had to go to the bathroom twenty times just to get out of the chair and move somewhere other than in front of my computer.  I’ve even whined to the girls about it while they are at work.  Needless to say they weren’t very sympathetic and told me to get busy.  So, I made lunch.

Relish the Unexpected

I was probably two or three at the time.  I’m pretty sure it was while we lived in Indianapolis, Indiana because I don’t remember the story and those are my too-young-to-remember years.  I’ve heard people say they can remember stories when they were as young as two, but I am always skeptical.  We’ve heard stories told by parents and relatives and our conscious, I think, just sort of puts them into our would-be-memories bank.  I told my parents once that I remembered being at their wedding and even where I stood.  Of course, I hadn’t even been born yet, so there was no way I could remember anything of the sort.  I was persistent, however, because my imagination is quite strong.

Rein in Your Thinking

Sometimes, I even listen to myself

When someone calls you into their office or says they need to talk to you, do you get feelings of being back in school and called to the dean’s office or do you get excited about what may be coming next?  When the girls are in a bad mood, my mind races over everything that has happened in our home lately trying to figure out where I dropped some ball I was supposed to be carrying.  If your first question is “What did I do now?” and you find yourself going back over everything you’ve done recently to see where you screwed up or what you may have gotten busted doing, you need to change some habits. 

You may also need to rein in your thinking.

How we allow our attitude to go will determine whether we live a stressful or peaceful life.  However, most often our thinking will be what determines our attitude.  In order to live the positive life we want, we must learn to control our thinking.  Like a horse, if we allow it free rein it could very well lead to trouble; wander off a calm path and into the thickets where it finds itself in trouble.

It’s All about Attitude

It's easy to go with the flow when you're in a pool

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.” - William James.  I love that quote.  It speaks to the problem with so many in our society today.  Attitude.  You hear it about coworkers.  “He is such a hard worker, but his attitude sucks.”  Students.  “Her attitude is so negative; it’s amazing she has any friends.”  Sometimes, she doesn’t.  Even family members.  “His attitude is going to get his ass kicked out soon if he doesn’t change it.”  It’s all about one’s attitude.

It can be a challenge, because it is easier to be negative than it is to be positive.  Yet, if you want to live a peaceful life, you have to make peace within yourself first and that begins with your attitude.  We all respond to life differently, but you alone choose how you are going to react to what goes on around you.  If you are going to live a peaceful life in 2014, the first thing you are going to need to work on is your attitude, not the attitudes of the people around you.  I know, you think it should work the other way around.  “I could live peacefully if she wasn’t nagging at me all of the time.”  Time to change your attitude and maybe get some ear plugs.