Merry Christmas Eve Eve
I was so crabby yesterday! As I walked out to my car after work, I asked myself, "Self? You have to fix this. What would make you happy?"So I reviewed why I was grumpy.
My perception, completely overblown, of a bit of rudeness the previous day at work. (Stef, get over it already.)
I hate the commercialization of the holiday season. I worry, yes worry, about people spending money they can't afford to spend. (Stef, worry about yourself.)
I was annoyed by hearing parents talk about their smarty-pants kids being home from college, when I would just be happy if my smarty-pants college kid would remember to keep his cell phone charged. (Stef - those other kids have plenty of foibles too; the parents just don't talk about those.)
I realized I really had nothing to be grumpy about. So I stopped. Wow, that was easy.
Then I had a wonderful massage.
Steve brought home dinner.
Life is good again.
~ ~ ~
Here's a note to future boarders about one of the quality services offered here at Chez TaCo. (Tadio Comstock - get it??)
If your car runs out of gas on the way to work, not to worry. We will give you a ride to work, then go to where your car is, call AAA to bring gas, drive said car to the gas station to fill 'er up and then deliver the car to you at work.
Yep, that's my boy I'm talking about. He was closer to work than home when he ran out of gas so he was going to walk to work since he was already late. He was unable to call me because his cell phone was out of juice (see note above). A nice woman stopped, let him use her phone, and then drove him to my office, where he wanted to take my car to work.
Steve was working late that night or I would have let Simon take my car - but instead, I left work to drive him to work, for which he was an hour late.
After work, I went to his car (which was safely off the road on a quiet back street, flashers flashing) and did what I said above.
My only regret is that I wasn't able to wash his vehicle and detail it properly. Maybe next time.
My email to Steve about this was titled: "Hi. My name is Stefani and I'm an enabler."
I really was prepared to let Simon deal with his car himself but he wasn't going to get out of work until 11:00 that night and I worried about his car sitting there for hours into the night. As it was, the AAA guy had to jump it too.
I did all this with the help of DJ, our other tenant. As he drove me back to my car, there was a tag tied to the door handle. I thought for sure it was a ticket - that Simon would have to pay, of course, but it was just an "abandoned vehicle" tag left by the police. I guess they do that so people know it has been reported. There was nothing I was required to do about it. Whew!
Oh - the other thing that annoyed me at work was how cheerful and social people were being while I was trying to work, dammit. How dare they?? Even at our office-wide Monday Morning Meeting, people were in an unusually good mood. That was another thing that snapped me out of my misery - I can't let all the good times pass me by while I'm pouting about nothing.
If your car runs out of gas on the way to work, not to worry. We will give you a ride to work, then go to where your car is, call AAA to bring gas, drive said car to the gas station to fill 'er up and then deliver the car to you at work.
Yep, that's my boy I'm talking about. He was closer to work than home when he ran out of gas so he was going to walk to work since he was already late. He was unable to call me because his cell phone was out of juice (see note above). A nice woman stopped, let him use her phone, and then drove him to my office, where he wanted to take my car to work.
Steve was working late that night or I would have let Simon take my car - but instead, I left work to drive him to work, for which he was an hour late.
After work, I went to his car (which was safely off the road on a quiet back street, flashers flashing) and did what I said above.
My only regret is that I wasn't able to wash his vehicle and detail it properly. Maybe next time.
My email to Steve about this was titled: "Hi. My name is Stefani and I'm an enabler."
I really was prepared to let Simon deal with his car himself but he wasn't going to get out of work until 11:00 that night and I worried about his car sitting there for hours into the night. As it was, the AAA guy had to jump it too.
I did all this with the help of DJ, our other tenant. As he drove me back to my car, there was a tag tied to the door handle. I thought for sure it was a ticket - that Simon would have to pay, of course, but it was just an "abandoned vehicle" tag left by the police. I guess they do that so people know it has been reported. There was nothing I was required to do about it. Whew!
Oh - the other thing that annoyed me at work was how cheerful and social people were being while I was trying to work, dammit. How dare they?? Even at our office-wide Monday Morning Meeting, people were in an unusually good mood. That was another thing that snapped me out of my misery - I can't let all the good times pass me by while I'm pouting about nothing.
Woo-hoo - here's to a brand new day!
Labels: Life Update, Paper Art
posted by Stefani at 5:30 AM
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5 Comments:
Merry Christmas, Stefani. I like the way you think. :-)
There's a line somewhere between enabling and helping. To my way of thinking, you helped Simon out in a time of need -- isn't that what family and friends are for? Do we really want our kids to believe that if they are struggling, even if it's only because he's out of gas, they can't call on us to help? It seems like a kind and loving thing to do to help him out, especially since I can imagine how stressed he was. Now if he had gotten a ticket and you paid for, that would be enabling. Some day he won't do dumb-ass things like run out of gas and forget to charge his phone. And some day he'll help his kids out when they do the same dumb things. As I always say, "This is what learning looks like."
You certainly had every reason to be grumpy but you did a good job of talking yourself out of it. And you allowed Simon to live!! Will he ever appreciate what a wonderful mother he has? Maybe not until he has kids of his own.
"This is what learning looks like," is what I say to Simon also, said it about this event too. However, I'd like to see a little more learning and trying than I've seen lately. I chalk some of this up to the break-up with the girlfriend. The statute of limitations runs out on that soon though.
Steve has a theory that "kids" finally mature and make good decisions consistently around age 30. And there's a gradual increase all through the twenties. It's not like they can be f-ups until their 30th birthday then presto, they're smart.
Simon's 22. Hoo-boy, 30 seems a long ways away.
I know, Dad, good or bad, it won't last. :-)
A massage and dinner brought in? Yeah, baby!
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