Customer

Yesterday I received a phone call at work from probably the most upbeat individual EVER. I answered the phone and was talking to him, did my thing and at the end of the conversation he asked me if he made me smile during the conversation? The question caught me completely off-guard, but I found myself smiling and said yes you did. He went into his philosophy of how he lives his life. He said that he wanted to make sure that there was a reason during every interaction with him that someone smiled. He said it was easy when he was talking to people face to face but over the phone he needed to ask the individual if they smiled. He said it also helps remind himself during difficult conversations that his ultimate goal is to make someone smile. I got off the phone and thought about the conversation. How often do we make a phone call to straighten something out and get really upset over the phone. How different would the conversations be if you knew at the end of each conversation you were going to ask the person one simple question about your interaction with them, like did I make you smile? I think I am going to employ this thought process is all of my phone conversations going forward....just to remind myself that I want to be the reason someone smiles today.

Accomplished

I have a confession to make. I have a really serious problem. I am a SERIOUS procrastinator. I am in the process of getting my Masters degree. I am taking online classes. It is a ton of work. It is much harder to do than I thought it was going to be. My problem with procrastination is a serious problem Usually the night an assignment is due I am working on the homework assignment in the last four hours of the night. I had a final project due tomorrow night. My dad knows my tendency to procrastinate. My husband knows my tendency to procrastinate. My facebook friends all know that I procrastinate. My dad and I talked yesterday afternoon and he asked me how my final paper was going. I had done a bunch of research but honestly I hadn't really read the research. My dad said that he would make a bet with me. He bet me a day's worth of drinks in Cancun in March that I wouldn't get the paper done by five pm today. Now we go to Cancun every year as a family and we can drink a lot while we are there. This was a good bet. So I decided that come hell or highwater I was going to get this paper done. My tendency to procrastinate was now at odds with my bet with my dad. I started last night, reading two hundred pages of research while my husband had on a series of really bad action movies that I normally wouldn't have been interested in watching. Of course these movies were really good last night. I got completely sucked into a movie that had no plot and I think the only reason that people watched the movie was to count the number of bullets that were shot throughout the movie. When I woke up this morning I putzed around on the internet and playing on facebook. I did get the paper done at four pm, but I was definitely struggling to get the paper done. So my dad will now buy drinks for one day while in Mexico. Those will definitely be the best margaritas that I will drink. A special thanks to my dad for giving me the inspiration to get the paper done and making sure that I can get some sleep tonight!

Inspiration

I went back to the gym for the first time today in forever. It was a challenge that we are both working on but we are trying so that's really all that matters. One of the reasons that I dislike the gym so much is because of the people that are at the gym. i guess I always feel like people are judging you...they are certainly my own issues but they are issue that I have. There was this one person that made my afternoon today. it was an older woman who was really kicking butt liftin weights and running on the treadmill. She was one machine behind me at one point and I was doing my thing. We ended up at picking up the spray bottles to spray down the equipment at the same time. She just smiled at me and nodded her head. That one smile made me feel like I could conquer the world. It was the one thing that I needed to keep me going for the rest of the afternoon. I don't know her, maybe the next time I go to the gym she will be there, maybe not. Maybe I will thank her for that smile, maybe I will never see her again. But she made me smile today, gave me a boost of confidence and helped me to feel like I belonged at the gym.
I don't know if she understood what her smile meant, but it reconfirms to me that smiles come at the times you need them to in your life and they can truly turn around a person's day.

Smiles

The weekend is a bit of a blur...it snowed all weekend long so it was a long, lazy weekend filled with baking bread, snuggling on the couch and dreading the entrance back into the real world. It was perhaps the most relaxing three days we have had in a long time. Unfortunately, it also included some bad news. A man, that was a neighbor, for most of my childhood passed away on Friday. he was the father of my sister's best friend. He was a presence. That's really the only way to describe him. Involved in town politics, he was able to shape the way people thought. What I remember most about him was his smile. Unlike many people, his smile was alway genuine. He could flash the smile at you during the worst disagreements and somehow things were made better. I didn't know him as well as other members of my family, but I do always remember his smile. He fought a horrible disease for a long time and outlived the predictions that his doctors had by months. His funeral is today. My parents and my sister are there and I know that this has to be a tough time for his family and all the people that he came in contact with throughout his life. Today, I will choose to remember this man, remember his smile and know that he is smiling down on us, free of pain, free of tumors and watching over his family and friends.

New Year...new blog

In this new year, with another decade behind us, it's time to reflect on the past and look forward to a new and exciting year. I decided a long time ago that if I can make one person smile once a day that I could be happy. This past year has been one of challenges and obstacles to overcome but the calendar days have ticked away and some how we have survived. As with anything, the challenges provided a new lesson each day and I have done what I could to just make it through. This year I am going to turn the focus outward, attempting to make someone's day a bit brighter and hope,in turn that this will help me be happy.
There are blogs that I read everyday and people who I don't know whose words have helped me to gain perspective. These blogs have inspired me to write about my corner of the world and will continue to inspire me as I take on the task of writing a blog.
If anyone reads this, thank you for coming along on my new journey and I look forward to using this blog as a way to express myself and show my appreciation for all of the people and experiences that bless my life.