Ever Feel Like You Have Been Taken For Granted?

Today is April Fools day so I sent an email to my coworkers telling them I found a new job, a promotion at another location.  It was very interesting to see how people would react once they thought I was leaving.  While all of them but one fell for the April Fools joke, some congratulated me, others hugged me, while others just hated to see me leave.  I did of course tell each person that came to me that it was an April Fools joke instead of letting them linger on believing it was true. The one negative person in the group who likes to be seen as the wise one, did not fall for it and new it was an April Fools joke.  It just goes to show you how the difference between a positive and negative outlook impacts your communications skills.  For the most part, I felt loved and appreciated once again and feel like a very integral part of the team.

Pardon me, Ma'am

Pardon me, Ma'am, I think you mistook me for someone who "cares", "gives a damn", kinda like "here's a quarter call someone who cares", or "My Give a damn is busted". Don't waste my time if you are not concerned and if you don't really care. Both you and I have much better things to do with our time than to waste our breathe dealing with idle chit chat about things neither you nor I care about. If you really want to talk, then talk, tell me what is really on your mind, what you really want to talk about, and then maybe something can be accomplished, otherwise, it would be best if you go your way and I go mine.

I am ME, please respect that, OK?

First off I have to let everyone know that I really love and respect my Wife.  She is a very special woman and nobody can ever replace her.  I have a commitment to her unbeknownst to any woman before her, and I never plan to ever leave her side.

Secondly I would like for everyone to recognize that both my Wife and I are individual people.  We have our own likes and dislikes and because we are husband and wife does not mean they are all the same.  After all, even though we have been together for the last fifteen or sixteen years of our lives, there are still things that we both experienced on our own, before and after we met.  We are not together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so we are different individuals.  What makes us special is that we respect each other, each other's space, each other's individual idiosynchrasies, and the need for our own time to ourselves, as well as the need for us to spend special time together doing the things we like to do, and we enjoy helping each other to accomplish our individual and mutual goals, no matter how hard some of these goals are to accomplish.

So the point I am trying to get to, for all of you, is that my Wife and I are very happy together, as much as we are happy apart, we are individuals as much as we are a couple, so PLEASE stop the queries about "Where is she/he?" when we are out alone.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with one of us being out shopping, having a drink, or doing whatever we like to do on our own.  In fact it makes us enjoy each other more when we are together.  Grow up!  This is the 21st century!  We are not out looking for someone else to be with, we are just out doing errands and taking a moment to relax and/or one of us has something we have to get done on our own which does not require both of us to work on at the same time, so we tell the other one to get out of our hair!

So the next time you see one of us out by ourselves does not mean we are out trying to pick someone up, heaven forbid!  It just means that we are individuals as much as we are a couple.  We would very much appreciate it if you would treat us the same when we are alone as when we are together, after all, we are the same, alone or as a couple, and we love our friends the same, whether we are alone or together.

Opinions

I don't remember where I heard this one, but it is good.

"Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one."

Props

WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT ALWAYS REAL.

Yep, if you believe everything you see you are a pushover. At 54 years of age I think I realize that everything I see is not what I think I see.

Case in point.

My Dad worked for the B&O/C&O Railroad.  In fact he spent his entire working life working for them, eventually retiring at 60 years of age with 30 years of service.  At one point in his career he took on a job on another section of the track between Columbus and Washington Court House in Ohio after working on the section between Washington Court House and Midland City.  He started out as a Trackman but had moved into Foreman when taking on the Columbus to Washington Court House section of track.

Until he found a place for us to move to near Columbus he had lived out of his station wagon during the week, coming home on weekends to be with his family. I had a toy gun that looked very real.  So when he slept in his station wagon at night he kept my toy gun with him so he could pull it out when thugs came around.  Lord have mercy if anyone ever called his bluff, but they never did as far as I know.  I am not sure if he ever had to pull the toy gun out, but if he would have needed to, it would have looked like the real thing.

So the moral of the story, it is better to be safe than sorry, but you never know if it was the real thing or not unless you call the bluff, and if you decide to call the bluff, is it worth it to find out the real truth?

In the midst of a high school football game...

My wife and I went to one of the first varsity football games that our nephew was in and while the game itself was a very good game between Fenwick and Monroe in southwestern Ohio, I was very impressed with a little girl reading a book amidst all of the cheering and noise.  Nothing was interfering with her desire to read this book.  She was probably around ten years old and the book she was reading was about an inch thick. Now this is a Friday night, so obviously it was not a homework assignment for the next day, perhaps she had to do a book report over the weekend, who knows?

I just know that I could not get over how she tuned out an entire football crowd and just stood there reading the book for at least an entire quarter if not more of the game.  She changed positions a few times while standing, but kept her attention in reading of the book.

I wondered what she was reading and was really impressed with her desire to read like that.  I also thought of how she was going to grow up and be a scientist, doctor, lawyer, or even a president some day.

I have no idea who she was, but she definitely left an impression on me that I will remember the rest of my life.  We need more individuals like this to keep society strong and successful.