Not many of us are Olympic medalists or Nobel Peace Prize winners. This does not mean we cannot be proud of our accomplishments. I’m not talking about the pride before a fall kind of proud. It is certainly not the “I’m better than you!” sort of pride we see all too often these days. It is not a showing off, competing for attention, or vain pride.
No matter how silly or insignificant they may seem compared to those celebrated by the media, each of us accomplishes things we are proud of. We may not even be aware when we do them, but a memory of something brings it up in your mind and puts a smile on your face.
If you took a minute or two and thought about the little victories and accomplishments you feel good about, I bet you could write a list of them.
My List:
See the Poster on the Right ->
I am growing avocado trees from seeds
I was inches close to kicking a field goal at Candlestick Park
I was “Vanna Bee” when my hubby taught a grade school class about Bees.
None of the above would get me any kudos or recognition. This is fine with me. I did them because I chose to, and in that sense, that also makes me proud of myself.
There are no photos of me kicking or being Vanna because I was busy at the time… Apparently, no one else in my family can take photos.
Happiness does not come from people, places, or things. So before you get ready to argue with me, let me explain…
Many things make people happy. Pleasant surprises, good news, your favorite food for dinner, looking forward to seeing family & friends. Grandchildren. Being successful. Happy is a great thing, but it is temporary most of the time.
Why Can’t I Have Both?
Your world returns to normal and routine again before you know it. Now you have happy memories, like movies to play in your head. Maybe you took videos and can play memories on a device. I usually don’t because when I’m involved with something, I tend to forget about photos until it is over and too late. My friends, who are grandma’s, think it is absolutely horrid because I don’t take a ton of pictures and videos. But, hey, I’m too busy having fun with my grandkids to be their lead photographer. Why doesn’t hubby take photos? He is taller, his hands are steadier, and he’s not stuck in the kitchen half the day.
I will stop there. I can tell there is an underlying rant stirring up. Did you notice?
The Master Ranter
Rants that bubble up out of nowhere when you are talking about something different can be the best ones. However, today is not the day to rant because I want to focus on things that make me happy. So for those who enjoy focusing on peeves and annoyances, don’t worry. Your day will come. Perhaps sooner than we think.
So – whether you use your fingers to count, write up a list, or make notes on your phone, get comfy and close your eyes a minute and focus on things that make you smile, laugh, feel all warm and tingly, make your day, give you sudden emotions (click here for definition). Not the BIG ticket items or philosophically deep things. More of every day and silly things that make your life enjoyable and more fun.
Things that make me happy:
wearing pajamas
hearing kids giggle
when my dog hugs me
a mug of hot coffee
watching snow fall
hubby holding my hand
writing
dancing
rock
OK. I told you some of mine. Please share some of yours in the comments! When you comment, I know you are out there, and that makes me very happy 🙂
Because I don’t know how my week is going to go, Thursdays will either involve giggles OR somebody throwing snits.
In case you didn’t grow up in West Virginia, a “snit” is snotty fit. Unlike the tantrum, a snit is violently verbal, not so much physically abusive, although, a few have been known to morph.
This week has been all over the map as far as good and evil go. It will be more of a middle ground, which is totally not as fun as the other two – for you, I mean.
Once Upon a Time…
For those of you who use computers, you will enjoy this story… My laptop is hanging in by a kilobyte and last week it could not find it’s own hard disk (a.k.a. it’s brain). I, a computer technician, immediately went into “rescue” mode and backed up every folder, file, MS Office docs, photos and a gazillion quilt guild files.
After setting up the basics, and trying to get oriented to a ‘Windows 10’ system, I plugged in the back-up flash drive. When ever things are supposed to go smoothly, they do not. I know this, but I was not prepared for the magnitude of problems I got myself into.
First, I did not realize that the ‘backup’ drive (OneDrive) would copy all the files I copied over. It only had 5 GB of space, so it rapidly filled up. This sent me a bunch of error messages, wanting me to buy more room. Forget this! I would figure out the way to control the OneDrive thing later but I needed to get my files loaded and keep working on getting my system ready.
So, I told OneDrive to delete the files. That was the beginning of the disaster that ensued. They were deleting along just fine and when I closed that window, and I saw the second window that warned me “if you delete contents from OneDrive, those files will also be removed from your computer.
WHAT?!?
Who thought up THAT brilliant plan? Obviously Windows 10 programmers. Because said programmers are not stupid, I decided that it was some kind of joke. I was NOT amused.
Not time to panic, I told my self. Now that the OneDrive was turned off, I could download the files again to the computer. BUT WAIT!
The #@$%&*! OneDrive ate the files off of my back-up disk also.
Frustrated and too mad to think, I shut off the new toy and went to bed. This morning, I figured out how to handle this. I got my laptop and booted it up, so I could pull the missing files off of it. It would no longer accept my Windows password. This was my own fault for using the same one for my new desktop. And, Windows website to reset passwords was “out for maintenance”.
Being determined, (a.k.a. stubborn as heck), I logged in using the Guest account that required no password. HA! Take that you little computer… Then it occurred to me that if my file permissions were textbook – I would not be able to access my real account. I prayed that these were messed up along with all the other things today.
They were! The files I needed were in a folder called “Membership Records.” Unfortunately, there were many different folders named just that in a variety of places. I found the ones which contained older versions of our quilt guild’s 2021 Member Roster – Last year, Jan & Feb of this years. Where was the March One? I could not have lost that file! I did not have time to start from scratch, and I just got many member renewals in the mail that I need to update that file with! As the chair of the membership team I was mortified. Embarrassed Ashamed. One thing kept running through my mind – “Diane was gonna kill me!”
After my tantrum, I did a search of the entire hard disk of the laptop. One of the listed folders had a Roster file dated March 22, 2021.
Whew! It is afternoon now. This adventure began in the morning, so I am too exhausted to work on that file now. I am really thinking about a nap, but alas, I have grocery shopping and housework to do. A frustrating morning with a bit of a happy ending.
Jodi Lea's Place 