Kindness is a trait, not a forced act, right? At least that's what I always thought. One month into my 2012 New Year's Resolution, and I can say that making the cognitive effort to be kind to some one is starting to come a little easier. I know that sounds weird.
This week, my random act involved a little trip to the DQ. Yes, I am one of those weird patrons who loves Dairy Queen even in January. It was simple enough, after ordering and pulling to the window to get my delicious treat, I told the cashier that I wanted to pay for the car in line behind me. (Luckily there was no repeat of my first attempt at McDonald's, as darkness masked my ability to be the Judgy McJudgerson I usually am.) While the cashier was slightly confused, my weekly act was completed with minimal effort on my behalf.
What was funny, was the conversation I had with the Hubby, who was in the passenger seat while waiting to get my debit card back.
Hubby - "So, if there's more than one person in the car does it count as more than one week's worth of random acts of kindness?"
Me - "Uh...I don't think so."
Hubby - "What if they order 12 DQ cakes?"
Me - "Then our fat ass tax return will do some good at some one's party. Plus, who picks up DQ cakes at 8 pm?"
After the clerk ran the other car's ticket, she handed me the receipt and card, which I passed on to the Hubby so I could drive. He immediately screams, "SCORE! It was only $3!!!"
So, yes, even $3 worth of free ice cream can brighten some one's day. Plus, I now realize that the Hubby has no price recognition for the Pedicure I gave away last week!
January 29, 2012
January 28, 2012
Pinterest Project
Hello, my name is Jessie, and I'm a Pinterest-aholic.
I can waste hours on there looking at amazing craft projects I'll probably never do, but now know how to do just in case.
This pin in particular inspired me. It's a pin for updating a piece of furniture with wallpaper and paint.
Since the Hubby and I are planning on putting our house on the market this spring, we had to keep the nursery pretty neutral colored, which is not at all fun when you are working on decorating a baby's room.
So, inspired by Pinterest, I decided not to buy new a dresser for the nursery. Instead, I got this bad boy off of Craigslist.
I had the Hubby sand it down, and now I've painted it white. The next step was to find some kick ass wall paper to bedazzle the drawers. I wanted something fun, bright, and kid friendly. Now, I have no experience what-so-ever with wallpaper. So, I started off at this little gym of a store which is about a block away from my work.
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Yes, that is Dizcount with a "Z", and should have been my first sign of what was to come. This is where I'm pretty sure Pinterest almost got me murdered. This place was indeed as shady as it appears on the outside. Upon entering, I was greeted by a woman in a moth eaten fur coat, and about 7 cats. Moth lady warned me that they did not currently have heat, but that I was free to look around. After telling her what I was looking for, she led me to the back warehouse area, and started making suggestions. Very, very unhelpful suggestions. The entire store smelled of mold and stale cigarettes, and what's worse, there were random dolls and building materials stacked up. Scary dolls.
Moth lady had no perception of personal space, which more than once caused me to turn around and her to be 3 inches from my face. It was a creepy sensation to feel her breath on my face since there was no heat in the building. After about 10 minutes, I hauled ass outta there.
I should probably go and check out Home Depot tomorrow, but now I'm thinking I might scrap the whole wallpaper idea and use some old school Mod Podge action. We'll see how wallpapered out I am tomorrow.
.jpg)
Yes, that is Dizcount with a "Z", and should have been my first sign of what was to come. This is where I'm pretty sure Pinterest almost got me murdered. This place was indeed as shady as it appears on the outside. Upon entering, I was greeted by a woman in a moth eaten fur coat, and about 7 cats. Moth lady warned me that they did not currently have heat, but that I was free to look around. After telling her what I was looking for, she led me to the back warehouse area, and started making suggestions. Very, very unhelpful suggestions. The entire store smelled of mold and stale cigarettes, and what's worse, there were random dolls and building materials stacked up. Scary dolls.
Moth lady had no perception of personal space, which more than once caused me to turn around and her to be 3 inches from my face. It was a creepy sensation to feel her breath on my face since there was no heat in the building. After about 10 minutes, I hauled ass outta there.
I should probably go and check out Home Depot tomorrow, but now I'm thinking I might scrap the whole wallpaper idea and use some old school Mod Podge action. We'll see how wallpapered out I am tomorrow.
January 21, 2012
Random Act of Kindness - Week 3
During college, I pretended to be a waitress at a restaurant in my home town. I say pretend because I kind of sucked at it. I am not the most graceful, by any means, which more than once left the poor patron drenched in a tray full of drinks. Luckily for me, my best friend's parents owned the restaurant so I was never fired.
While the experience told me that food service was not my calling in life, it did make me realize how stressful and under appreciated of a job it is. Do you know how hard it is to keep your temper in check when a table of 6 leaves a $2 tip after making you run around for 2 hours?
So, last night the Hubby took me out to dinner, and our server worked her ass off to keep my sweet tea filled, and rolls on the table. Trust me, seven months prego and I'm not shy with what I want. I was talking to the Hubby about how I had kind of cheated on my week 2 Random Act of Kindness, when I got an idea. I had been carrying around with me a gift certificate for a pedicure at my favorite spa. (I had gotten for a work gift exchange, but some how ended up walking out of the party with it myself. Mad skills.) Well, with our tip, I left the gift certificate for our server. I assumed since she was on her feet all day dealing with needy people, she could use a nice pedicure. Hopefully it made her night since I didn't get to see her reaction.
As I lay here in my recliner looking at my poor swollen feet, I know that I would appreciate a pedicure right about now, but this is the first week were I really feel like I hopefully made a difference in some one's day. Maybe this kindness stuff will work out after all.
While the experience told me that food service was not my calling in life, it did make me realize how stressful and under appreciated of a job it is. Do you know how hard it is to keep your temper in check when a table of 6 leaves a $2 tip after making you run around for 2 hours?
So, last night the Hubby took me out to dinner, and our server worked her ass off to keep my sweet tea filled, and rolls on the table. Trust me, seven months prego and I'm not shy with what I want. I was talking to the Hubby about how I had kind of cheated on my week 2 Random Act of Kindness, when I got an idea. I had been carrying around with me a gift certificate for a pedicure at my favorite spa. (I had gotten for a work gift exchange, but some how ended up walking out of the party with it myself. Mad skills.) Well, with our tip, I left the gift certificate for our server. I assumed since she was on her feet all day dealing with needy people, she could use a nice pedicure. Hopefully it made her night since I didn't get to see her reaction.
As I lay here in my recliner looking at my poor swollen feet, I know that I would appreciate a pedicure right about now, but this is the first week were I really feel like I hopefully made a difference in some one's day. Maybe this kindness stuff will work out after all.
January 20, 2012
Random Act of Kindness - Week 2
Okay, so I'm bad at blogging regularly. I'll hopefully get better.
So it's actually kind of hard to perform a Random Act of Kindness once a week. Hopefully it gets easier with time.
For Week 2, I donated items to a charity. I know, I know, this is kind of a lame Random Act of Kindness. But, all of these items were in my eBay/Craigslist pile that I had intended to sell. Like 3 beautiful decorative mirrors we got at an auction, the hard copies of my Harry Potter books (don't worry, I still have the Kindle editions!), and the fluffy skirt that went under my wedding dress that I've been holding on to for 5 years. I know I probably could have sold these items on eBay or Craigslist, but instead I donated them.
It's not much, but I'm counting it. Plus, I promise I'm going to make up for it with my Week 3 Random Act of Kindness. This one will be a good one!
So it's actually kind of hard to perform a Random Act of Kindness once a week. Hopefully it gets easier with time.
For Week 2, I donated items to a charity. I know, I know, this is kind of a lame Random Act of Kindness. But, all of these items were in my eBay/Craigslist pile that I had intended to sell. Like 3 beautiful decorative mirrors we got at an auction, the hard copies of my Harry Potter books (don't worry, I still have the Kindle editions!), and the fluffy skirt that went under my wedding dress that I've been holding on to for 5 years. I know I probably could have sold these items on eBay or Craigslist, but instead I donated them.
It's not much, but I'm counting it. Plus, I promise I'm going to make up for it with my Week 3 Random Act of Kindness. This one will be a good one!
January 17, 2012
Reminder of My Selfishness
I hate to always post stuff about the pregnancy, because there are other things going on in my life. I guess nothing else really stresses me out right now in comparison. I hope to avoid becoming one of "those moms." You know, the friends who have their babies and then that's all they ever talk about. They change their Facebook page to become completely about their child, and even change their voicemail to answer as "So-in-so's Mommy." No thanks.
However, that being said, I'm still going to post about being pregnant, but at least it is on my completely selfish tendencies, and not the current condition of uterus.
You see, my dad has had a scheduled mission trip to Africa planned for the past two years. He's going with a group of other medical people and are going to provide medical care to the villages, while at the same time spreading the gospel. Problem is, he is supposed to leave 3 days before my due date and not get back until two weeks after my due date. So what if he didn't know I was going to be pregnant when he first worked on setting every thing up. Hell, I didn't know I was going to be pregnant when he first started talking about it. I still kind of want him to cancel to be here for the birth of his first grandchild. But, he can't cancel because he was one of the main organizers. Sigh. But I still whine about it.
Yes, I realize how selfish and egotistical it is to believe that the birth of my first born is more important than the good he would do on the mission trip. No, that doesn't make me feel any different.
Yes, I realize how selfish and egotistical it is to believe that the birth of my first born is more important than the good he would do on the mission trip. No, that doesn't make me feel any different.
January 11, 2012
Birthing Class Recap
The Hubby and I are expecting our first in March. We are stoked/scared. Me, being the OCD person I am, have been making lists and planning this and that.
(I just had to delete a crap load because it started to become a bitch session for how I need the Hubby to help more with the planning, organizing, and generally getting our house ready for a small human to live in, because it sometimes feels like I'm doing a lot of the planning alone. Then, I remember that I'm probably hormonal . Or maybe not. But I deleted it just the same.)
Part of my planning process included signing us up for classes offered at the hospital. Trust me when I say we were signed up way in advance.
We've already taken a breastfeeding class, which was both entertaining and educational. Entertaining because we are pre-adolescents trapped in the bodies of responsible adults in their upper twenties. Although, the teacher's reference to making the baby take "Big Mac" bites would have any one laughing.
But, the actual eight hour prep course Birthing Class was the biggie. Hubby and I arrived at the class early. This was mainly his doing, not mine, since it was at the hospital were he works, and therefore thinks he's "kind of a big deal." We scored seats not in the very front, but close enough where we were going to be able to absorb the information. Although I've already read a bazillion articles, blogs, books, etc. about birthing, I thought the actual practice would make the whole experience seem less scary. Apparently nothing makes shooting out an 8 pound watermelon from your vajayjay less scary.
At one point in the very repetitive first half of class, Hubby and I gave each other the look, as in, "Why is this lady treating us like we are in grade school?" Then, we looked behind us at the rest of the class. I swear, there were at least two 14 year-olds in there with us. Now, I'm sure they will end up being great parents. But, during the Q & A section after the tour of the hospital, when the only question one of them had was if they could bring their X Box 360, I started to have little panic attacks for them.
Overall, we were able to gather some helpful information out of the class, like how to work through the contractions, and to remember that the pain has a purpose. Although, I'm definitely still taking the drugs. In fact, I may go ahead and order this shirt so the doctor remembers.
(I just had to delete a crap load because it started to become a bitch session for how I need the Hubby to help more with the planning, organizing, and generally getting our house ready for a small human to live in, because it sometimes feels like I'm doing a lot of the planning alone. Then, I remember that I'm probably hormonal . Or maybe not. But I deleted it just the same.)
Part of my planning process included signing us up for classes offered at the hospital. Trust me when I say we were signed up way in advance.
We've already taken a breastfeeding class, which was both entertaining and educational. Entertaining because we are pre-adolescents trapped in the bodies of responsible adults in their upper twenties. Although, the teacher's reference to making the baby take "Big Mac" bites would have any one laughing.
But, the actual eight hour prep course Birthing Class was the biggie. Hubby and I arrived at the class early. This was mainly his doing, not mine, since it was at the hospital were he works, and therefore thinks he's "kind of a big deal." We scored seats not in the very front, but close enough where we were going to be able to absorb the information. Although I've already read a bazillion articles, blogs, books, etc. about birthing, I thought the actual practice would make the whole experience seem less scary. Apparently nothing makes shooting out an 8 pound watermelon from your vajayjay less scary.
At one point in the very repetitive first half of class, Hubby and I gave each other the look, as in, "Why is this lady treating us like we are in grade school?" Then, we looked behind us at the rest of the class. I swear, there were at least two 14 year-olds in there with us. Now, I'm sure they will end up being great parents. But, during the Q & A section after the tour of the hospital, when the only question one of them had was if they could bring their X Box 360, I started to have little panic attacks for them.
Overall, we were able to gather some helpful information out of the class, like how to work through the contractions, and to remember that the pain has a purpose. Although, I'm definitely still taking the drugs. In fact, I may go ahead and order this shirt so the doctor remembers.
January 10, 2012
Random Act of Kindness - Week 1
So, Week 1 of my year long kindness quest was kind of a failure. My random act of kindness ended up being just moving some of the carts at Target to the cart area. Hey, it counts.
But, I was kind in other ways, just not random. Make sense?
For instance, we bought dinner for the Hubby's parents, sister and bro-in-law. Kind? Yes. Random? No. Although, Hubby argued it was random because they didn't expect it.
So, to be a Random Act of Kindness, does it have to be randomly done, or to a random person?
I also wrote a nice evaluation for a birthing class we took, even though the class was only so-so. Kind? Yes. Random? Well, it was anonymous, so that may count. (More to come later on the birthing class.)
Another point of contention, my sarcastic brothers argued that none of this is really random at all, because I'm pre-planning my random acts of kindness. Can you plan random?
But, I was kind in other ways, just not random. Make sense?
For instance, we bought dinner for the Hubby's parents, sister and bro-in-law. Kind? Yes. Random? No. Although, Hubby argued it was random because they didn't expect it.
So, to be a Random Act of Kindness, does it have to be randomly done, or to a random person?
I also wrote a nice evaluation for a birthing class we took, even though the class was only so-so. Kind? Yes. Random? Well, it was anonymous, so that may count. (More to come later on the birthing class.)
Another point of contention, my sarcastic brothers argued that none of this is really random at all, because I'm pre-planning my random acts of kindness. Can you plan random?
January 5, 2012
A Kinder, Gentler 2012
Since the Hubby and I will be bringing a human into the world this year, I thought it an appropriate New Year’s resolution to try to do one random act of kindness per week. The world needs to be a kinder place, right? And if every one cared just a little bit more, than surely it would be a better world to live in for my unborn daughter.
Problem. I am not a kind person; I am snarky, judgmental, and self-entitled. However, I am also quite cocky, so I assumed this would be a piece of cake. (And still assume for that matter.)
Tuesday night, I entered Target looking for my first victim. (Hey, if I’m going to be nice I might as well get to shop at the same time.) I thought I would start out small, like helping some nice little old lady carry her bags to her car, or lift something into her cart. Granted, I’m seven months pregnant and not in the best position to offer that kind of help. But don’t worry, I didn’t make it that far.
While at the glorious Target, I decided it would be a good time for the Hubby and I to register. Once he arrived on the scene, I politely waddled to the desk in back and asked for assistance. I was pointed to do it by myself at the kiosk. Normally, I prefer machines to human contact, so not a big deal. Although I didn’t like her tone....
Long story short, the stupid kiosk kept having us have to do every thing over when it messed up, I snapped at the poor teenage clerk that the service was ridiculous and I would do everything online, and stomped out of the store. Pretty sure the Hubby had to apologize for me to the workers.
2012 Resolution - 0 : Angry Pregnant Girl - 1
However, I am determined not to give up. Today, while in line for McDonald’s (because I’m pretty sure they put crack in their sweet tea), I decided that I would buy the next car's food. As I pulled forward, excited to see the recipient of my generosity, a Cadillac Escalade pulled up behind me with some Real Housewife of Southern Illinois in it. I decided her manicured fingers would not touch any free fries from me.
Sigh.
2012 Resolution - 0 : Judgmental Pregnant Girl - 2
Plus, on my way back to the office I flipped some one the bird for almost pulling into me. But, I’m not adding that to the scoreboard, because this jackass totally deserved it.
So, watch out people. My Random Act of Kindness for Week 1 is happening tonight.
Problem. I am not a kind person; I am snarky, judgmental, and self-entitled. However, I am also quite cocky, so I assumed this would be a piece of cake. (And still assume for that matter.)
Tuesday night, I entered Target looking for my first victim. (Hey, if I’m going to be nice I might as well get to shop at the same time.) I thought I would start out small, like helping some nice little old lady carry her bags to her car, or lift something into her cart. Granted, I’m seven months pregnant and not in the best position to offer that kind of help. But don’t worry, I didn’t make it that far.
While at the glorious Target, I decided it would be a good time for the Hubby and I to register. Once he arrived on the scene, I politely waddled to the desk in back and asked for assistance. I was pointed to do it by myself at the kiosk. Normally, I prefer machines to human contact, so not a big deal. Although I didn’t like her tone....
Long story short, the stupid kiosk kept having us have to do every thing over when it messed up, I snapped at the poor teenage clerk that the service was ridiculous and I would do everything online, and stomped out of the store. Pretty sure the Hubby had to apologize for me to the workers.
2012 Resolution - 0 : Angry Pregnant Girl - 1
However, I am determined not to give up. Today, while in line for McDonald’s (because I’m pretty sure they put crack in their sweet tea), I decided that I would buy the next car's food. As I pulled forward, excited to see the recipient of my generosity, a Cadillac Escalade pulled up behind me with some Real Housewife of Southern Illinois in it. I decided her manicured fingers would not touch any free fries from me.
Sigh.
2012 Resolution - 0 : Judgmental Pregnant Girl - 2
Plus, on my way back to the office I flipped some one the bird for almost pulling into me. But, I’m not adding that to the scoreboard, because this jackass totally deserved it.
So, watch out people. My Random Act of Kindness for Week 1 is happening tonight.
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