Random Acts of Kindness Week

I'm not sure how or why this concept became such a "thing" for me.  Maybe I spent so much time being shy and introverted that I never thought how I treated people mattered.  That what I did really didn't matter to others.  This is, of course, entirely not true.

Maybe it took going above and beyond to do something "nice" just because to make it sink in. What we ALL do matters.  Every day.  How many times has your day been made a little brighter just because some stranger did something "nice".  Think about it.

I get weird comments about this concept.  People say "but I'm ALWAYS kind"!  Did I say they weren't?  That is NOT what this is about.  At all.  Otherwise, people would be "allowed" to be rude, mean, and inconsiderate all the time.  No, this means do something for someone random.  Something unexpected.  JUST BECAUSE.

My mom loved to bake.  It was her thing - and her calling card.  She rarely went anywhere social without taking some sort of baked from scratch goody with her.  Even when she was sick and on chemo, she was baking stuff for people.  During the few weeks she was with us, her friends wanted to have a get together and it made mom so upset that she didn't feel well enough to go without "taking something".  I assured her it was not expected or necessary.

She baked for co-workers.  She baked for the guy who worked on her car.  For her friends.  The mailman.   She was always baking something.  What she didn't didn't cost a lot of money, it was the investment of time and effort.  The unexpected gift.

I have sort of inherited this gene.  I bake for people at work when the mood strikes.  Or for friends just because or more likely for the people who see and love my dog every day at doggy daycare.  The joy it brings is priceless.

There is joy in the simple act of giving with expectation of getting anything in return.

Sunny Sunday...

It is an absolutely beautiful day here which is both good and, well, disappointing.

Not sure what happened to my foot last weekend, it is still bothering me though not as much. Maybe tendonitis?  Fascitis?  Or some other "itis"?  It's just frustrating and disappointing.

I have blogged on and off about running "over there" but sort of stopped when someone accused me of being "obsessed" about it.  Hardly true but I backed off anyway.  For me to be able to run more than a block and not want to pass out is truly an accomplishment - so I was proud of it.

I didn't start out wanting to run or thinking I could even do it.  It started with walking and then walking with a greater purpose - faster and with more intensity.  Then this urge to run just started to build up inside of me.  Hard to explain.  Then it became a challenge and a goal.  The challenge was to run more than walk, or run more than the last time.  It is truly a mental game and I learned discipline and to push myself when I thought I couldn't go any further.

The plan was to keep it up over the winter when it is so much nicer here to be outside.  If I could run 3.5 miles in the heat, imagine what could be accomplished in the cooler / less humid weather of winter!  But then my knee started to bother me a few weeks ago.  And now my foot.

Not sure what I'll do, have't figured it out yet.  I miss it, truly do.  It's almost a meditative thing.  No phones, no TV, nothing but an iPod and foot power.  The dog misses it, too.

I saw this pic on facebook and it struck a chord with me.  Perhaps running is no longer about weight loss and fitness but about getting rid of self doubt.

Speaking of ice....

The winter of 2009-2010 was mentioned in one of the comments on last night's post.  Yes, it WAS cold that winter here in Orlando.  Honest, it was.  The heat pump to the house stopped working a couple of times because it just could not keep up with the cold temps.  I know, anyone north of Georgia thinks Floridians are winter wimps, but even people from up north who came here on vacation complained.

One day, I took the dogs out for a walk and found icicles!  The neighbor had been running the lawn sprinklers so the pipes would not freeze and icicles formed on the hedge.  The pic below was taken in January 2010 in the early afternoon on a sunny day.  Yup, that means it was still below freezing by early afternoon.  I never, ever thought I would see this in Florida and hope to never see it here again.

It was a devastating winter for us - a lot of the native plants were killed along with fruit, ferns, and other commercial crops.  Did you know that an area just north of Orlando is like the fern capital?  As in the ferns used in floral bouquets.  There was a real crisis that year for florists who depended on the local fern growers for Valentine's Day arrangements.  

Keeping fingers crossed that this earlier than usual cool weather does not mean another winter like that one.

Almost Friday!

Things were going along swimmingly until lunch lol.  It was just sort of an aggravating afternoon.  'Nuff said about that.

So the storm claims keep on rolling in with apparently no end in sight.  The NJ Manager, being ever so intelligent, actually asked upper management if we would somehow "stop taking new claims" in order to get caught up.  Um, really?  I suppose he didn't stop to think how completely ridiculous that statement was. And he's in charge.  lol

Two temporary kind of people are starting tomorrow in our office so I will have to share my space - someone will be using CC's old desk.  Kind of a bummer, really, but good for everyone else to get some relief.

And now, a big thank you to Peter for mentioning the beach on Thanksgiving Day thing!  Turkey Day is two weeks from today!  It's been oddly chilly here ever since Sandy blew through.  We are talking possible frost tonight - which is rather uncommon for Florida in any month but really uncommon for this early in November.   Makes me think this winter will be like 2009 when it was cold here.

But in honor of the beach thoughts, had to post a beach pic.  :-)

Oh that guilty feeling!

First, a bit of good news.  The claim that was the subject of the mediation from hell yesterday settled after I left!  Six hours of nothing but arguing and then things got settled in an hour at the end of the day.  Usually how things go, but not sorry I was already headed home. The day was long enough, thank you.

The NJ Manager was already in the office this morning when I arrived at 7:45ish.  He is a bit frazzled as is everyone else in the office.  They said we are getting 100 to 200 new claims A DAY from the storm and there are something like 400 or more waiting to be set up to get claim numbers.  It's staggering.  We're not sure how everything will eventually get processed (as in letters and checks).  We have been told they are bringing in temps to do whatever work...blah, blah, blah. Even if you have 50 adjusters handling claims, if you don't have the administrative side staffed things are going to go exactly nowhere.

We're a little scared.

In my world (which is liability claims, not homeowners or property) things are weirdly slow.  I was out an entire day and am still relatively caught up.  Huh. I figure it's only a matter of time before overflow shit claims start coming my way.

So today, I called the NJ Manager about something and he said HE has been assigned 60 new property claims.  PLUS, he is handling the grumpy guy's liability claims from last week's resignation.  Once again, I offered - OFFERED - to take some of those off his hands.  And NJ manager said "no".  They claim to be hiring one or more new liability people.  Uh huh.

After offering to take on more work and being told "no, don't worry about it", I still feel guilty.  How wrong is that?  I know others are putting in 12 or 16 hour days and are totally overwhelmed....and here I sit practically twiddling my thumbs.  Yes, guilt is a wasted emotion but I can't help it.  And I know the others in the office are pissed off that I'm not being slammed with work, too.

How do you let go of the guilty feeling?

Sunrise....sunset....

It was a long, long day.  Dropped Chance off at daycare before 7 AM - they left me in before they opened for the day.  Then drove 175 miles to West Palm Beach for a mediation.  Was a lovely sunrise this morning from the turnpike.  

Mediation was incredibly boring or maybe annoying is a better word.  Two many parties arguing over the same issues without seeing the big picture.  I think there were fifteen people there at one time and only 4 of us were not attorneys. Yes, a lot of hot air going around.  Across the hall from the mediation place was some sort of Republican campaign office - not sure if it was for Romney or a local race.  I asked if anyone had an Obama sticker to wear when we went out to use the restrooms. LOL  No one did.  

So I told my attorney(s) that I had to leave by 3:30 to be back to Orlando in time to pick up Chance from daycare.  It took a while to extricate myself from the room because everyone was still arguing.   I swear, the three hours in the car with total quiet was a joy after five hours of non stop bickering. 

Then 175 miles back to Orlando - the sunset from the Turnpike was just as lovely. 

I have the Mapquest app on my phone - it is free - which comes complete with the GPS lady to talk to you. She has been pretty accurate until tonight.  I'm not sure what happened - maybe I clicked on the incorrect ending address but she was off by over 100 miles and she kept "recalculating" to make me get back on I-95.  I swear she was stoned.  LOL  

Made it back to pick up Chance by 6:45 PM.  Whew!  Wouldn't have been such a terrible thing to be a few minutes late since they were having a puppy training class tonight after hours.  Just glad to be home and in my jammies.....it was an exhausting day.  

Not a bad shot out of the driver's side window while going 75 mph, huh.  :)  

Choices

Every day we make hundreds, likely thousands of choices.  Some we make with very little thought while we agonize over others.  Sometimes we make no choice at all, though there are some who argue that in itself is a choice.

Who we choose to spend time with can be a game changer.  Spend time with negative, angry people and you will find yourself feeling down and anxious.  It doesn't seem to matter if you were having a good or bad day...there are just some people who can drag you down.  Spend time with positive thinking people and suddenly things don't seem as bad.  Notice I didn't say "happy", I said positive thinking.  There is a difference.

There are a lot of days where I am not necessarily "happy" or in a good mood but I still try to find a positive spin.  There HAS to be something good somewhere.  Just has to be.

I have decided - relatively recently - to remove the negative, angry people from my life wherever possible.  Why spend time with people who do nothing but drag you down?  Is that really how you want to spend your life?  Anger, bitterness and discontent feeds on itself.  It can be like a freight train - one person starts it and suddenly everyone is jumping on board with complaints about whatever they believe is wrong with their life.

In the same way, positive thinking can spread.  It might not be as obvious but it happens in sometimes very subtle ways.

Every day we can choose to be around people who lift us up or make us smile...or we can be the person who does that for someone else.  Isn't that a better way to spend your day?  Jus' sayin'

The Blogger Formally Known as NormalGirl

Sorta like Prince.  LOL

So WELCOME to those who decided to drop in from the "other" place!  I started this blog almost a year ago to be a place for positive messages....but then things got busy and it was too time consuming to keep two blogs going.  With all the controversy "over there", I thought I'd come back here again.

Not sure what will happen, if I will stay "there" or continue on here.  I DO know, that I am tired of getting caught up in other people's agendas.  Tired of the ranting, bitching and moaning.  Tired of the drama. And tired of the bullshit.  It's just not that much fun anymore.

Enough of that. Things will have to be PG on here, unless I can figure out the switch to flip to make it be an adult oriented blog.  Is that really necessary?  I'd like to think we all have PG rated thoughts to share.  :)  Dang, no smilies here....that makes me sad.  lol

Hope ya'll are having a stellar day!  And please, if you drop in, would you at least say hello?

What do you want to attract?

You are a living magnet.  What you attract into your life is in harmony with your dominant thoughts.  ~Brian Tracy

More and more I believe this to be true.  I spent a lot of years being sad, mad, depressed, angry and maybe bitter.  Sure, there were happy times or good days, weeks, or maybe months but deep down I was unhappy.  Or maybe it was frustration, not really sure.  I do know that it wasn't attractive and I found it hard to meet men who wanted to see me again.  At the time, I blamed it on my weight or looks. Looking back, I blame it on my deep seated anger.  

Think about it.  Who would you rather be around?  Someone who is at peace with themselves and generally happy or someone who is bitter, angry and bitching about everything? 

If you have ever watched The Dog Whisperer you might have seen the part where Cesar brings the unruly dog home to "the pack".  Dogs seems to pick up - almost instantly - when a dog has a bad attitude and there is a physical reaction.  If dogs can pick up those clues without talking, then I believe humans can do the same.

If you are thinking negative thoughts, tearing other people down, and generally being unhappy then you will attract negative and unhappy vibes and people.  It spirals down from there.

You get to choose - do you want to be happy and have good things happen or do you want to be negative and have bad things happen?

Better than everyone else or just better than you were before?

Who are you trying to outdo?  Why?  Why do we think we have to be better than someone else - in whatever mythical way - in order to feel good about ourselves?

There will always been someone smarter than we are, more attractive than we are, wealthier than we are, or seemingly better than we are.  So what?  Each of us is unique.  Each of us has our own past that makes us who we are.   We all have different strengths and weaknesses.  Why not celebrate our strengths?  Why can't we just be happy with that?

I spent a lot of time trying to "be" better than other people, whatever that was.  It's a competition that is impossible to win. So instead of that, now I just want to be better than I was yesterday.   Maybe it means I stuck with the diet one more day.  Or learned something new at work.  Or finally finished a project I had been putting off.  Or any other little things that make up our mental to do list.  

I accept there will ALWAYS be people who are thinner, prettier, more successful, or whatever but I can be a better ME tomorrow.  That much is entirely doable and far more rewarding.

A good life or the right life?

So I was reading this book and one of the lines was something like "Am I living a good life or the right life?".  Huh, funny how a simple sentence can strike a person.  The woman in the book was choosing between her career and following her heart to marry a man who was in love with her.  The time period was around 1900 and her employer would not allow the women that worked for him to get married.  

She ended up choosing marriage and love over her career.  

I suppose our choices are a little more complex, or so we make them seem that way.  There are some people who don't even appreciate the fact that they HAVE choices.  They go through life going along with whatever comes their way.  Reacting instead of creating.  

It's no secret to most people who know me that I have an actual written Bucket List.  Yes, indeed.  I started it a few years ago when my parents were ill.  You see, my parents worked hard all their lives mostly getting by living paycheck to paycheck.  I suppose they had things they wanted to do "some day" or "after retirement".  They both fell ill shortly after they retired and never really got to do what they wanted to do.  Mom and Dad likely would have said they had a "good life" or a "decent life" but was it the "right life"?  

I have a pretty good life.  Decent job, reasonably nice house, good friends, good health, and so on.  But is it the "right life"?  Am I - or are you - doing what you WANT to do so you live your "right life"?  Do you have goals?  Do you have a plan?  Do you have a bucket list?  If YOU don't have a plan, I guarantee someone else will make a plan FOR you.  

I blogged about this at the "other place" when I was rambling on about what to do for my 50th birthday which is coming up in a couple of years.  Someone suggested looking at the bucket list and choosing, say, three things to accomplish that year which is a great plan.  

A good life or the right life?  I hope to figure that out.....

Why the title?

Ok, so I feel the need to explain the sort of sappy title to this blog.

I figured almost anything with "positive" in it would already be taken so I decided to go this route.  I am also a self professed animal lover.  Dogs mostly, though I don't really have anything against cats.

A while ago, I read somewhere that dogs treat every day and every moment like "the best".  Each day is the BEST day and every meal is the BEST meal.  My dog thinks every walk is the BEST walk even though we go the same route every time.  He is intrigued every time by the sights and smells (not sounds, he's deaf) like he hasn't seen or smelled it before.

Imagine the joy we would have in our lives if we thought more like that.  Every day would be a great day.  Every moment would be an adventure.  There's something to be said for living in the moment instead of wishing our lives away.  

So that is sort of what this blog is about.  Enjoying the moment and appreciating where we are in life.  Yeah, I wanna be more like my dog. 

 Dogs have given us their absolute all.  We are the center of their universe.  We are the focus of their love and faith and trust.  They serve us in return for scraps.  It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.  ~Roger Caras

What I wish I had known years ago

All these things....these are all the things I wish I had known years ago.  I have spent far too many days, weeks, months and years trying to be someone I'm not to please other people.  Being afraid to have dreams or wanting to achieve the things that mattered to me most.

Time to change things up and just enjoy life.  :-)

What's it really all about?

After spending a while (almost 2 years!) blogging on a different site, I noticed the way people became popular was to be negative, mean, or just generally ornery.  Whatever happened to supporting your friends and fellow human beings?  What happened to looking for the good in people instead of the bad?  Why is it now more "fun" or popular to be negative?

There ARE good people in this world and there IS more than trying to be better than everyone else by making others seem less than you.  I think we would be better served just being better than we were the day before.

So I'm not sure where this blog will go, just getting my feet wet here.  I'd like to it be a sunny spot.  Someplace that is fun, maybe uplifting and inspiring, but definitely not negative.  Welcome aboard!