Today’s Challenge: Don’t generalize about people.

Especially when discussing politics or gender it seems people want to generalize about other groups of people. I get put into groups that I don’t belong in and it drives me crazy. All men cheat? Really? That is ridiculous. All women like shoes and shopping? I. don’t. think. so. All rich older white men who vote republican are racist? Wrong. All democrats don’t want to work hard and are socialists? Nope. It is a little shocking to me how people are so quick to judge others without knowing the truth of the people who are different from us–People who have different ideas or beliefs than ours. Truth is, we are all more alike than we are different.

Today’s Challenge: Be happy with who you are even if you’re a little crazy at times.

My garbage can disappeared but my neighbor’s garbage can was still sitting by the road as if it were mine to bring in. Is it possible he took my garbage can and put it in his garage? What’s the big deal? It’s a big deal to me because I might be a slight freak. First of all, my house number is on my garbage can in big black permanent marker to avoid this very thing from happening. I am somewhat anal, maybe OCDish about certain things and my garbage can in one of them. I do not throw lose garbage in my garbage can. All garbage must be bagged before it is disposed of, so my trash can is clean and doesn’t have odor. My neighbor, on the other hand, who apparently went out of town, throws food and garbage loosely into his garbage can, and because of that, it is covered with gunk that smells and paper and things stuck in the bottom. If he had accidentally (or purposely) taken my can, I had the option of cleaning out his garbage can or leaving it nasty before bringing it into my garage. Neither was appealing. I also feared my can would be disgusting by the time I got it back. Because I wasn’t even 100% sure he had my can, I called the city and had them deliver a new can to me and I left his in front of his garage. A couple days later another neighbor came over to talk to me and he brought along the nasty garbage can explaining that my neighbor was out of town and he had somebody watching his house. “They must have brought in the wrong can.” he said. I felt like an idiot, making such a big deal about a garbage can. I tried to explain that I have issues and I like to keep my garbage can clean and I just didn’t want somebody else’s garbage can. He took a good look at the messy can, agreed with me then pushed in back in front of my neighbor’s garage. I walked back into my house feeling like such a jerk. For the next few days, I beat myself up because of the way I handled the situation and wondered why I would be so upset about the cleanliness of a garbage can. On the next garbage day, while I was taking my new can to the road, I saw that my two other neighbors had already taken their cans to the road and I was surprised to see that both had written their address on their garbage can with black magic marker. Suddenly I didn’t feel so bad, I actually felt understood and I realized that I may be a little crazy at times but luckily, I’m not the only one. 🙂

Today’s Challenge: Make a decision about your life and then go for it!

Most of you know we have two dogs now and we’re trying to make a decision on whether or not to keep Marek. We have 3 more days to decide. This decision is entirely up to my man. I didn’t want another dog. As much as I love all animals, I was looking forward to a little more freedom. I just lost my cat of 18 years (who needed a lot of care and attention the last year of her life) and I still have my wonderful 8 1/2 year old pug who is very easy to have around. Marek is 2 1/2 and the most amazing dog. I do love him but our lives have just become more chaotic, and we are living in limbo. We haven’t two-dog-proofed our home, we haven’t really done anything to make me believe we are keeping him. On the other hand, I see no signs pointing to us getting rid of him either. THIS DRIVES ME CRAZY! I have asked my man and he just says, “I change my mind every day.” I assure him that we can keep Marek and we’ll make it work. But he just can’t make up his mind. He has this deadline because there is somebody patiently waiting to make Marek her own wonderful new dog. If this was up to me, I wouldn’t have brought Marek home unless I was sure I wanted him for life–That’s how I roll. And at this point, we know he’s a great dog, a little too playful/wanting to be dominant with our pug, and our lives are crazy and chaotic now, but it’s all manageable. SO PLEASE MAKE A DECISION!!! If we keep him, we’ll two-dog-proof our home and move forward. If we decide to give him to his new owner, we can make that happen and move forward. Living in limbo sucks. Making other people live in limbo sucks. I like moving forward. I like to make decisions, right or wrong, and move forward with that choice… making a decision makes life so much easier. 🙂

Today’s Challenge: Turn bad choices into life gifts.

I went to see Oprah on Friday night–I skipped the rest of the tour, because I really just wanted to see Oprah. She spoke for almost two hours about her life. I feel blessed that I was able to experience this amazing woman live. Although I had heard some of her life stories before, I love the reminder that when bad things happen to us, our lives often move in a better direction. This has happened to me many times… and even if I don’t see the positive in the experience right away, I know deep down that there is a lesson for me to learn. I wrote about this many years ago in my first novel, The Gentlemen’s Club: A Story for All Women. Angie, went through some hard times of homelessness and being assaulted on a bus, but she always knew that with every bad experience, something good was at work. These two experiences of Angie’s, were actually my experiences, and I’ve had many more… the one I thought about yesterday, was when I was in seventh grade, I spent the night with a friend whose father had a cupboard full of hard liquor. We thought it would be a brilliant idea to drink some, but because it was my first experience with hard booze, I over did it and became very sick, unconscious. Long story short, ever since that night, I’ve never liked hard liquor, or mixed drinks. I consider this to be an amazing gift. Don’t get me wrong, in my early twenties, I loved to drink and go crazy and have fun with my friends, but I only drank beer and I kept track of the bottles so I wouldn’t get drunk, unless of course that was the goal. 🙂 These days, I don’t drink at all. I’ve had too many people I love hurt by alcohol so I’ve just decided to skip it all together, besides, I’m a hell of a designated driver!