- I got my eyebrows threaded for the first time ever yesterday so I can mark that off the list. 👀 Cost me ten dollars, I was in and out in about 10 minutes, didn't hurt as bad as I thought it might, and I've never had so many hairs in my eyes in my life!
- I've ordered a copy of my birth certificate so I can get my first passport. Playing the waiting game there.
- I want to send a care package to a random soldier. I found all the steps to do that yesterday and will be contacting the USO next week for the rest of the info.
- I have procured a bottle, a cork, and instructions for how to send a message in a bottle these days. Lol I need my bottle to go FAR! What on earth should I write??
I LOVE my job and feel fortunate to have found what I was passionate about and turn it into a career. Each workday I gain perspective from something and I learn new things everyday; sometimes small, sometimes big, sometimes re-learning things I've forgotten.
Hmmm, without telling you what I do for a living...we'll say that when I'm at work, I'm surrounded by stories. Stories of all kinds and some of the most impactful on any given day come from the people that come up to me and tell me theirs. Here are a couple of recent ones that had my gears turning long after...
- A woman came to me in distress, said she was a published author and no longer able to locate her website. After giving her the contact information for the company who ran her site she told me her story and was sad that her book hadn't sold any copies in two years. I told her maybe it was time to write another one! After she left, I sat and thought about her for awhile, then looked up the book. There was only the one, self-published two years ago, sold on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, no reviews, and only nine pages.... Things aren't always as they seem at first. lol
- I work with two guys who gave me their life stories. One is a disabled vet who was the unlucky guy to get into some nerve gas on a deployment, just taking a piss one day and unknowingly breathed it in. Never even had a clue. Now, he has uncontrollable tremors, lesions all over his body, walks with a cane on the good days, and spends a lot of time sick or in the hospital getting tests. How's that for life throwing you a crappy curve ball. He tells me that even now he misses the action. He'll never be able to feel that adrenaline rush in the same way.
- The other guy has Absence Seizures which cause lapses in awareness. On the outside he'll just look blank like someone in a daydream but inside he's seizing. He's had it since he was ten, was never able to have a driver's license, and loses whole chunks of time when he's blacking out. He told me a recent story of ordering a sandwich, walking a few blocks and back to his third floor desk at work before "waking up". He had to leave work and retrace his steps to his last memory to ask people what had happened. He crossed multiple streets while blank!! I imagined for awhile what a life like that would be like.
- I sat and secretly watched a homeless man (who seemed very happy!) pull out, carefully examine, categorize and repack several food items back into his bag. This was all done with intense focus and took quite a bit of time. I picked up from his comments to others that he had located a bag of goodies just outside in the back of a parking lot. I saw some yogurt, ramen noodles, snack packs, etc.. His day was made and he was so happy that the people around him started smiling as well. The thing that really threw me as I was secretly watching was that he gave some to another guy. Even with so little, he gave of what he had. That right there inspired me. It not only inspired me but it reminded me that you never know who's watching you or how you might be helping someone without ever knowing it. Also, anybody can help anybody. Period. It doesn't matter where you are in life or what you have or don't have. It just has to be the right time and the right place.
- There is a guy who rides around in a motorized wheel chair who always greets me in some way no matter how many times he's seen me that day. A couple days ago he stopped at my desk, we started talking, and he gave me his story. He used to own a landscaping company, also built things in his spare time, worked on cars a lot, etc.. A guy who liked to use his hands, lots of manual labor stuff. Then he had a stroke that changed his entire life immediately. He recovered somewhat only to fall while getting on a bus one day, completely shattering his hip which put him in a wheel chair. He ended up have two more strokes that left his entire left side paralyzed. Now he rides around in his motorized wheelchair and is getting a business degree. We agreed that in life, no one ever knows what's around the bend.
Anyway, like I said, I get stories like these almost every day. Its a beautiful thing. Moving on!
I ran into a book full of Xhosa Proverbs (Thanks to Trevor Noah's Born a Crime for teaching me what Xhosa is!) a few weeks ago that sucked me in and had me thinking. It stayed in my mind so I found it again to jot down a few that I liked and want to come back to from time to time. I'll leave you with those.
Dawn does not come twice to awaken anyone
Make sure you take those opportunities when they appear.
No elephant is overburdened by its own trunk
Anyone should be capable of handling their own responsibilities in life.
No partridge scratches the ground in search of food for another
Don't expect others do to for you what you should do for yourself.
An infant that does not cry out, dies on its mother's back, or is dead on delivery (stillborn)
Make your needs known and ask for help when you need it.
A bird builds with other birds' feathers
Equivalent to "No man is an island"
Headed out to try to have a some kind of a Sunday! Byeee!
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