by adowling on February 8, 2010
Goodbye is never easy to say. One begins to ponder their own mortality, which is always frightening. Watching what my grandmother is going through and watching my mom try to deal with the pain of losing her mother is heart wrenching.
Being the eternal optimist that I am, I think back on the good times we had together; holidays, weekend sleepovers, the good southern breakfast. I’m also thinking about my own life and the path that it’s on.
I’ve often questioned whether I was on the right path, if my life was headed in the direction it was supposed to be. I don’t know that there is such a thing as a ‘right path’. I think life comes down to one simple question, Am I happy? 90% of the time yes. What, no one is perfect.
I enjoy my work, I enjoy my job, I enjoy writing this blog (I wish I had more time for it), I enjoy meeting all you wonderful people, I enjoy spending time with my family, I enjoy lazy Saturdays where I sit down and read an entire James Patterson book. I enjoy laughing with my friends and learning something new from my husband. I enjoy chasing the cat around the house and driving my car too fast on Hwy 25.
I don’t look back on my life with any sort of regret, sure there are things I’d change but who doesn’t have those wishes. I look forward to life and living it to the fullest, no moment wasted and no chance untaken. Comfort zone be damned.
Thus endeth my existential moment for this week.
by adowling on February 3, 2010
If there’s one thing I’ve learned this week, it’s how to travel with a sinus infection.
First of all, don’t do it. Flying with a stuffy head is not cool. That piercing feeling you feel as the plane lands is your eardrum cussing you for doing something stupid.
If you must travel for work, training in my case, with a sinus infection there are a few things you need.
- Drugs, day time and night time. The day time drugs will help you get through the training class with just tolerable sneezing and sniffling. The night time drugs will help you sleep in that foreign bed.
- Kleenex from home. Make space in your bag for them. When was the last time you used a Kleenex in a hotel and thought “that’s soft”?
- Cash. You need to keep yourself hydrated and one needs cash to purchase drinks from the vending machine around the corner, or the café in the training center.
- Sometime to keep you entertained on the plane other than a book. I don’t know about you but I can’t read a book with watery eyes. Fill up your listening device with the latest HR Happy Hour episode, put in the ear buds and relax; that stabbing ear pain will eventually go away.
- A sense of humor. The first thing I did at training was apologize for being one of Snow Whites Seven Dwarfs. If you’re traveling with a sinus infection, or any cold for that matter, you already feel like crap so you might as well laugh at yourself for looking like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.
The best tip of all? Keep your butt at home. No one likes to be on a plane with someone sniffling, sneezing, and coughing.
My apologies to the passengers of United Flight 5673.
