Man up, high road, call it whatever. I think it is a good example of treating someone as you want to be treated. Look how good it worked!
Happy thoughts to you for a Happy Thanksgiving!
hmmm, poking around now for that SNOW icon to insert here for you. The first soft quiet snow of the season has arrived. Eat your heart out Jeff but don't eat yellow snow.
Live your life while you are still living. Riding the trail less traveled.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Had mom over and the kids. So much better then last year. I did a turkey and too many other side dishes. Ate to much, but we had fun. My mom looked very tired this year. I wonder if this will be her last holiday. The weather was perfect, except no snow. Yes it did snow one Thanksgiving here that I recall. Thanksgiving this year was overcast and very cold, in the 40's - that is cold for here. Today it is clear and cold. It is 37 deg.
Today is also my birthday. While Thanksgiving was comforting b/c I reflected on the good things, today sucks.
My thoughts are focused on failure, my failures. How I screwed up my family. How I only get 40% time with my kids. How I am 52 and I feel so old - good news, only 10 more years to social security. How I really don't like my job very much. Few real friends. No social life. No sex. Discontinued hobbies. How the finances will go down after I am forced to buy her out of the house - I will have to pay for that house all over again. How some 30-something up-and-comer will take my job.
No one to put their arms around me in that special way and wisper in my ear that you did not open ALL your presents yet - just wait until the kids go to bed ..............
How what I know and what I do really is little to show for 52 years of living.
Did I mention that I feel so old? I should not have to start over again. I should be in front of my own fireplace today surrounded by family and friends, reflecting on a good life. But no.
I don't want to date. I don't want to play that stupid game again.
I don't like me. How after two years of this sh*it I am still acting like a jerk. Mr. know-it-all. How I still treat others in the wrong way.
I don't like me today.
Maybe I will go to Chucky Cheese today. Order the MRSA special, with extra pepperoni.
You are so lucky that I live in Georgia instead of Ala-freakin-bama because if I did I would smack the snot out of you.
I will have to do it virtually I suppose, although, I woke up in a wonderful mood today, determined not to eviscerate a single soul before noon.
Now look what you have gone and done to my day.
Lookie here, Mister,
It's time for a ball check.
What is with you?
Where is your gratitude?
I guess it is drowned in that little pity party you have thrown yourself before your first cup of coffee.
You need to get out of your own way and quit being so self absorbed and get your ass down to the veteran's hospital or the homeless shelter or the domestic violence shelter or the cancer ward or the animal shelter.
You think your life sucks?
You have no clue.
You are viewing your life through the lens of entitlement, engulfed in the smallness of your ego.
Go do something for someone who really has problems and then come home and get on your knees and thank God for your many blessings...that job with direct deposit and paid holidays and a secure retirement and health insurance for you and your family; that beautiful home that is not going to foreclosure on the courthouse steps any time soon; those beautiful, healthy, smart vivacious children; your mother WHO DID survive her recent illness to be with you another holiday; your gifts, your talents, your intelligence, your abilities; your country where you have the freedom to use all those things to do whatever the hell you want to do or piss it all away.
Gratitude comes when you look at what you have instead of what you don't have. Until you discover that, you will continue to live an unfufilled life.
You can choose to view this day as a gift from God, or you can squander away another birthday.
Annie, I think maybe Jeff simply needed a nice pat on the tush here, you can ream him tomorrow when its not his special day.
Jeff, I feel you on the birthday thing bud. I had mine on Thanksgiving day, double barrel smack down without your significant other. Good news is, tomorrow you will feel better.
BBA - don't tempt me. But I would have the kids in tow and they would ask what I was doing to that woman's rear
And thanks.
Opened presents: Kids got me a great railroad picture book by O. Winston Link. I like steam engines. Pure power. Better than sex.
I also got a sleepware set. My son said "mom got that at the last minute - we got you the book".
Then I opened the cards:
My mom's card: On your B'day don't let a silly little Calendar make you feel old - (open) - that's what MIRRORS are for!
Yuck. Did I mention I feel old?
But her card had money in it
Then I opened the other two:
Background: Day before Thanksgiving former W calls and tells me she has my B'Day card from the kids but they need to sign. She tried to stop by daycare but I had already picked them up. She wanted to come by my place to get the kids to sign.
She was on her way to be with her family. Day before Thanksgiving, rainy, roads in bad shape, many cars. This was at 4:00 - she should have been on the road long before. Getting dark.
I told her to forget the card, to get on the road. She insisted she stop. I objected again, I was really concerned that she should get moving. She insisted again and said she would call when she was in my parking lot - the kids could come down to sign so she would not be delayed. I said okay.
Ten minutes later a knock at the door. In walks fW. She was talking away about her bad day and why she was running late. She gets the kids to sign the cards - two of them, one from each child I assumed. She talked some more - I almost had to toss her out but I wanted her to have all the daylight she could for the trip.
Without looking, I put the cards with the one my mom gave me (mom always gives it to me two weeks early).
Saved them for today: first card had 'Dad' on the envelope; both kids signed it. I thought that strange since there were two cards.
The second card had 'Jeff' on it.
It was from HER. First card in almost two years. A laughing camel on the front. Inside: Ha,ha,ha - 29? Now that's a good one!
Then she wrote: "Happy Birthday, Old Fella." She added a big smiley face and signed it.
Needless to say my mouth fell open like I was trying to catch a horsefly.
What do I make of this? No comment. I did not expect it, especially after our "custody" discussions earlier in the week.
And she just had to come by to give it to me.
No, I will not read anything into this. But my mouth is still open.
