Puddle-Splashing!!!

Is it just me, or is puddle-splashing one of the most therapeutic things in the world?! If you don't have recent enough experience to answer that, then I'm sad for you. Although, in all fairness I should admit that I belonged to your numbers until recently... until about an hour ago, actually.

I was walking home from some friends' place with my roommate. It had been raining on and off for a lot of the afternoon and got harder in the evening. While walking there we had tried to avoid the puddles. I was barefoot (wearing flip flops earlier that kept slipping off my feet, I changed into slippers and somehow thought that it was a good idea. i ended up carrying them with me for most the way there, and all the way back because they got soggy pretty quickly.), and wearing an ankle-length skirt that I was trying to keep off the ground. When leaving their house, I walked right into a deep puddle. Figuring the damage was already done, I started jumping up and down. Esther tried to avoid it at first, but the fun was just too addicting. By the time we got home, we were both soaked. We had some good times kicking water at each other and jumping up and down in the puddles. My skirt was dripping water from it's hem, as was my hair onto my neck.

But, friends, it was so much fun! We decided it was a great way to start the week. It completely cleared my mind of last week's unpleasantness, and helped me relax. I recommend to anyone reading this that at the next opportunity, you jump in the puddles. Don't think about the soaking wet clothing, or the possible run-ins with mud, just grab a friend and enjoy the rain!

ps, obviously I'm not the subject of the picture, but I figured it was a similar enough with him being in a suit, and me being in my Sunday clothes...

I Could be in New Orleans...

... and I don't mean that in a good way. I spoke to a branch president on the phone yesterday who works on a marine base in New Orleans. He was trying to get something figured out for a student who's coming back to BYU this fall and was hurrying to get it done before they were told to evacuate because of the hurricane headed their way.

I had been in a... not-very-nice-mood for a lot of the day because I was tired of dealing with students whose registration problems were their own fault, but they refused to take responsibility for it.

After speaking with this branch president, I tried to remind myself, "You could be in New Orleans getting ready to evacuate right now." It didn't really help. Then I remembered a guy who had come into the office the day before needing help. He was not one of the problem-students. While working with him, he mentioned that his professors already new that he was undergoing chemotherapy, and had been for a while. He had been in a good mood, and was grateful for the help I was able to give him.

These two thoughts combined to help get me out of the rut that I had been in for the majority of the week. Then, in looking for a new "quote of the week" which I hang on the wall at work (which, more often than not, turns into the "quote of the month" because I forget to change it), I came across this: "Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life." - Joan Lunden

So, the day ended with me in a much better attitude than I had started in. It helped that my car passed it's safety and emissions tests, and I finally got the oil changed, and I got the little rock chips in my windshield repaired for free!

So, even though I sometimes enjoy quotes like, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and then throw it in the face of the person who gave you the lemons until they give you the oranges you originally asked for," it's probably not a good idea to post that on the wall when I'm trying to give myself a positive attitude adjustment.

So, until it becomes more natural for me to just be in a good mood regardless of the stup- ahem, "special" people around me, I'll just keep telling myself, "Hey, I could be in New Orleans."

8/8/08

They say today is the luckiest day of the century. Apparently 8 is considered the luckiest number in China.

This is when you pull out a gun, snarl at the camera and state, "I make my own luck." Or you can just stare straight into the lens and say, "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

Or, you could do neither of those things, decide that lucky numbers don't really exist and go through your day just like normal.

The Reason I'm Starting This Blog...

All righty. I just tried sending pictures to multiple people and got back a lot of "undeliverable" messages back. So... rather than beat my head against a wall, here is what I was attempting to send:

This is how I spent last Saturday -

Running to the Plane.

Getting on.

Climbing to Altitude... (14,000 feet)

Ready...

Set...

Go!!!

Flying Blind.

Awesome View. Loved it!

Yay! That was the first thing I said when I landed. I loved it!