It is fitting that a good post should follow a bad.

Today I was really able to witness how doing the right thing isn't always the easiest...but how much more it pays off and how much better it makes you feel.

I complained in the last post about the manager at work that was talking terribly. The more I thought about it last night the more miserable it made me that I had to go back to work today and deal with it again.

After telling my parents about it they suggested talking to him about it.

I got to work a few minutes early. But nobody else was there and everything was still locked up. All my co-workers arrived and finally quarter after eight, Steve, the manager, came...he didn't know none of us had keys. Before he'd even gotten the door unlocked he said d*** it and another crude word. The realization that I had to say something was beginning to sink in.

I started cleaning up the mess I had made yesterday and he came over to talk to me about something, I forget what. I was dreading having to bring it up...my poor heart was palpitating. I let him finish and then I charged right in, "Steve, we're going to get something straight between you and I."

I doubt I'll ever see his face fall like it did again. And his arrogance changed into scared unsureness. He said dumbly after me, "we're going to get something straight between you and I?"

"Yes," I said, "Yesterday, the way you talked was awful and it really upset me. I didn't hear you say one sentence in which you did not take God's name in vain, or use some crude language. You can either change how you talk, or I'm going to leave. It was completely uncalled for and if you don't want to stop then I'm out of here."

He just stood there nodding the whole time not quite knowing what to do. Then he pulled himself together and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was offensive to you. It won't happen again."

I thanked him...and continued picking up the mess I'd made. A minute later he came back up to me and said, "but to be fair, you do want to be fair about this right?"

I nodded.

"Well, to be fair, you have to admit it is quite harsh of you to say, I mean it was an exaggeration to say that I talked that bad. I noticed yesterday that the way I talked bothered you and so I stopped."

I was flabbergasted. "I'm sorry Steve, but I was around you from morning until night and your language didn't change all day. What's your definition of bad language? Maybe yours is different then mine."

Then he told me to leave my mess alone and that he'd take care of it and that I was to go plant the begonia's. I knew he wasn't happy with me...

So I went and planted the begonia's all day and didn't hear him say one bad word. It was so refreshing.

He was fine to talk to after that when I had to. I didn't have a problem doing it. But he sure did act different towards me compared with yesterday. If he had any questions, which he didn't have a problem asking me yesterday, he went directly to Lanelle. Also, all yesterday he praised how I worked to no-end (which got really annoying) and today he didn't say one word...even when he walked by at the end of the day and was pleased with how much was accomplished he wouldn't say so.

Not that I cared...I was just so happy and relieved!

Honestly, I think he talks bad so much that he didn't realize how often he did it. I didn't feel triumphant over him for crushing his pride...I felt triumphant that I'd done the right thing.

Friday THE 13th

I don't believe I've ever had such bad luck on a day that one is suppose too.

1. I woke up 20 minutes before I had to leave to work: I had to throw together my lunch, get ready, go out to the office...and grab a cup of coffee.
2. My vehicle was really difficult to drive and a mile down I realized I had a VERY flat tire....a slow trip back to the house...jump into a different vehicle...and arrive to work 10 minutes late.
3. I get out of the vehicle with my lunch box, water bottle, and cell phone right onto a huge ice patch and fall face forward slamming my knees and knocking the air out of myself. I picked myself up and determined to make it inside that door!
4. It would be my luck to have to work the one weekend that the manager from the Minneapolis greenhouse came. Ugh. He was horrible and I'm so thankful he's not my normal boss. I didn't hear him say one sentence which didn't take God's name in vain or swear or use some crude word. I almost went bonkers. And I had to work around him for a dreadful amount of hours!
5. Chuck, who helped me load a cart, stacked them so badly that three different times they some fell off and I spilled soil all over the floor.
6. (warning: may contain inappropriate content) during lunch hour, every one left to eat and run errands...I ate my lunch there and ran to my car to grab a pack of gum. While jumping out of the car, my cell phone, which was in my back pocket, caught on the door somehow...and tore my pants! I panicked for about 3 seconds and then remembered no one was around...I grabbed my sweat jacket and tied it around my waist. And guess what...No one even noticed!
7. When I punched out of work...my time card looked funny. Somehow the machine hadn't grabbed it right after I ate lunch and hadn't recorded the last 6 hours of work. So I wrote it in by hand and hope to goodness it comes out alright.

Undertaking Trouble...joyfully!

Sometimes I just need to be reminded that it isn't bad:

"Every trouble is an opportunity to win the grace of strength. Whatever else trouble is in the world for, it is here for this good purpose: to develop strength. For a trouble is a moral and spiritual task. It is something which is hard to do. And it is in the spiritual world as in the physical, strength is increased by encounter with the difficult. A world without any trouble in it would be, to people of our kind, a place of spiritual enervation and moral laziness. Fortunately, every day is crowded with care. Every day to every one of us brings its questions, its worries, and its tasks, brings its sufficiency of trouble. Thus we get our daily spiritual exercise. Every day we are blessed with new opportunities for the development of strength of soul."

George Hodges

You don't believe me? Well wait 'til you hear this

I think I win at having the funniest co-worker on the planet.

Terry makes my day. She's almost 50, is very robust, and is always ready to laugh. She's led a very hard life but she's absolutely crazy about anything funny. She's keeps everyone in a good humor all day long.

For Example: Yesterday the oldies station was on all day and randomly while the rest of us were silently planting she'd let out a holler along with the crazy singer from the 60's making all of us nearly jump out of our skin.

Then she came up with a great idea. She decided that randomly throughout songs she'd shout, "TT!" or "TS!" and it was signal that we should 'Tighten Tummy" or "Tighten Shoulders" because she thought we should all try to stay in shape while on the job.

Later in the day I said "Hey Terry, TM!" She looked at me in bewilderment as did Crystal, the other girl working there. I couldn't figure out their confusion...Terry was the one that came up with it to begin with. "What does TM mean?" They both asked, "Tighten Mouth?"

"Tighten Tummy!" I said....."ohhhh" *much laughter ensues*

















Yeah. Yesterday I had a Charlie Brown day: everything I touched fell apart.