We went shopping yesterday. Many of you know how much I love THAT (not.) But it was relatively painless, except we bought socks somewhere (we always need socks, it seems) and now we can't find them anywhere. Hence, your first tip! Check your bag! Make sure that everything you bought makes it into the bag! (Because, especially since I hate shopping, you do not want to have to go back, especially on a rainy day like today when everyone will be lined up at every checkout (like yesterday even though it was a Friday) and people will be wandering aimlessly looking at stuff and I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that. For me, it's go in, get what you want and get out! (And then go to the bookstore or have lunch somewhere.) And of course, what is the point in going back to the store? Will they trust me that I did not receive the socks I bought? Why would they? I could be a sock scammer, who takes the socks out of the bag and then returns the next day and says, "oh, I didn't receive the socks I bought" and then get two packs of socks for the price of one!
Next tip . . . identify yourself on the phone, when you phone someone. Don't assume they know who you are, because they probably don't. Someone phoned me this morning (and you probably know I hate the phone even more than shopping) and she just started talking and I thought she was one person and she turned out to be someone else. I don't think she knew that I thought she was someone else, and I didn't tell her (I should have because she never says who she is) so I'm to blame for the situation as well. And it isn't enough to say "it's me" because everyone is me to themselves.
Tip #3: I'm not going to explain it, because you will all know what I mean. Take a creative risk once in a while (like my French meal turned out pretty well and I'm reading Macbeth and thinking about how we are going to stage it this fall -- exciting!)
Final tip for today . . . and it's a very Kosar tip. Try to see the silver lining. It is easy to look on the dark side, but there is usually another (better) side to see that will benefit you and everyone around you. On Wednesday, I donated my husband's tools (he had a huge number of tools and the boys and I don't know how to operate any of them and Mike decided they should be donated to Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for people who might not otherwise be able to afford them) to Habitat for Humanity. They came and took a truckload of stuff and are coming back in a couple of weeks to get the rest. It was hard to see them dismantling the benches and things that Mike had used to build all the beautiful furniture that he made. The men who did the pickup were very nice and the gentleman who was in charge was very sympathetic about Mike's death and our loss but it brought back a lot of painful memories, of course, and I knew it would, which is probably why it took me so long to have it done (over a year). But after I felt badly for a while, I remembered Mike telling me to donate the tools. He grew up in a family that always struggled financially and he appreciated the work that Habitat for Humanity does. He wanted to help and not just let the tools sit there and gather dust. When he was alive, he was able to use those tools to build beautiful things, many of which we have in our house and he was always very proud of the work he did, proud that he was able to do such creative and positive work, proud of being self-taught, and he loved wood and the smell of sawdust and planning out what he was going to build and how he was going to build it. He would be proud and happy that the tools he used in his business were going to continue to be used to make people's lives easier and better. Sad and tragic things will happen to all of us in our lives but we need to focus on the lovely things we experience. We lost Mike but we had him in our lives and each day we think about him, his laugh and his smile, and his kindness and thoughtfulness, his enthusiasm and creativity, and we know how lucky we are.
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