Smile.

Everyone seems to be so mad today, so flustered and never satisfied with their lives. Yesterday we had a customer who came in wanting to return a gift she had received and blew a massive hissy fit when we asked her for an ID as per store policy. She complained incessantly about how it was gross invasion of privacy and then when we said we could only give her a store credit, she said she hated the company and would never shop at it again, I swore her hooker-like black eyeliner was going to melt off her wrinkly "I hate my desk job" face.

It's not just people like her, however, that seem to need to adjust their outlook on life a little. The vast majority of people need to stop feeling that the world is constantly working against them and to focus on what they do have rather than what they don't have. I had some great conversations with one of my coworkers tonight; we'll call her Alice. Alice is an older woman, she loves spending time with her grandchildren, gardening and staying active. After the generic questions of "so where do you go to school?" and various questions about my family, we got to talking about more general things.

Alice is a genuinely easy person to talk to; she has this strange quality about her once her quirkiness and exuberance for simple, everyday things mellows. It was 6PM and I still had about three and half hours until we closed; usually I'd be bored out of my mind, but somehow talking with her made time just fly by. It wasn't like we were talking about anything truly exciting, we talked about her garden, how she tries to stay active and harbours a vendetta against Metrobus. She also hates doctors since all they do is make people pop pills to placate their whining. She prides herself in having no major health issues, no high blood pressure or cholesterol and no heart disease, her only problem is a knee which has been a little bothersome which she just blames on wear and tear (she's 64). But one thing she says is her way of staying healthy is that she maintains a positive outlook on life. She doesn't have mountains of riches or anything like that, just satisfaction with what she has, her kids, her home, her health and that she doesn't intend to stop learning and exploring the world around her even after she retires. Finally, one thing she says has kept her as young as she has is that she loves to laugh and smile. "Everybody is so angry all the time, it drives me mad!"

I have to agree with Alice about that; people do need to stop looking at what they lack and what they see as shortcomings about themselves and see what's great about them. Nobody is perfect and expecting perfection every time will only lead to pain when your goals aren't met. While I don't suggest lowering one's standards, I do think people need to learn from their mistakes and simply remember them when they move on and try again the next time. Yeah, I admit all of that sounds hopelessly optimistic, but for the majority of people, I think they should give themselves more credit than they do.

So yeah, sorry I hadn't written in a while, things have just been chugging along pretty calmly since I got home. I'm working part time in MD and am looking for a second job as well to supplement that. Other than that, I'm just taking it easy and reconnecting with friends. I've already met up with Ms. X and a few other people; I really missed them. Well, I hope things are going well in your neck of the woods.

Here's some music to sorta make up for the prolonged absence.



Kap Slap - Till Silvia Saves The World (Swedish House Mafia, Britney Spears and Miike Snow mashup)

This dude rocks, I have a bunch of his songs on my ipod and you can find more of his stuff on his Youtube channel.

Keep it real,

JP