So after a long, crappy week, that I only just realized is going to run straight on into another longer and more craptastic week, I have decided to try something completely new – relating positive experiences Don’t worry, I’ll be dry and cynical and true to the spirit of this blog, and myself. It’ll be a whole new trip for us! Ready? Vamanos!
Very Lovely Things People Have Done for Me
1. A couple of months ago I had an extremely painful one-day meeting in Atlanta. Many things went wrong that day, including, but not limited to, the theft of the phone from the conference room in which I was hosting a meeting of partners. The meeting was arranged to allow the attendees to fly out and back the same day, leaving me no time to visit my sister and her family, who live in Atlanta. But, in a move that should really win her sister of the year, my sister took my Starbucks order and waited for me outside the downtown Atlanta office building. During a 5-minute bio break (can we stop saying that please, it’s not cute, it was never cute) I dashed out and retrieved my grande caramel light frappuccino (extra caramel) through her open car window. That same week I got a raise and bonus, but this still ranked as the best thing to happen to me all week.
2. Once, for no real reason at all, I decided the return flight on our family vacation was leaving at 2:30 pm. It was leaving at 11:30 am. When my husband, two small children and I arrived at the airport only 3 hours late, a kind agent named Lyn took great pity on me, hustled us out of line, and put us another flight ASAP and for free. No doubt she did it to spare herself and the passengers on line the tantrum that was clearly imminent. I mean, no one wants to see an adult woman screaming and crying in frustration on the floor of an airline terminal. (FYI – this would be the same trip during which my carefully packed clothing remained carefully packed in a carry –on on my bedroom floor, to be unpacked only upon my return.)
3. When my older daughter was a wee baby, a friend of my cousin’s was moving and trying to place her nanny. Although she hardly knew me, and although I already had a nanny, Marilyn insisted I meet her nanny. She pursued me for literally months until I met beautiful, sunny, sweet, Nicole who has been our nanny and friend for more than 12 years.
Fairly Awesome Gifts People Have Bought for Me
1. My Aunt Alicia always bought me the best gifts ever when I was a kid. Every Chanukah we got lots of gifts, but hers were the ones my sister and I looked forward to the most (sorry, Aunt Yetta, who gave me a coloring book when I was 12, I know you tried your best). More often than not, she got us something personalized, and as we are named Rani and Jayn, you can imagine that meant the world us. No picking up a Jayn or Rani pen at the drugstore for us. Also, this was not the age of internet instant personalization, my aunt no doubt had to fill out actual paperwork on paper and send away for these items 3 – 6 weeks ahead. There was a bracelet, there was a tote bag and umbrella set, there was a book with a main character named Nyaj, and I loved them all. None of them, though, could hold a candle to the personalized brass gum holder. It was (and still is) a little brass box with “Jayn’s Gum” engraved on the front and you would slide the pack inside and flip down the lid. If there is a classier way to dispense a stick of Juicy Fruit, I don’t want to know what it is.
2. When I got engaged my mother got me a Kitchenaid mixer as a surprise. It’s actually pretty surprising that she held out that long, which really wasn’t long at all, since I got married at like 12. Anyway, my mother needed to know what color I would like, so she got my friend Suzanne to call and pretend she was going to buy one for herself and ask me what color I recommended. And, of course, I chose a color that would match Suzanne’s kitchen. Still, my Kitchenaid is a treasure that regularly turns out yummy cookies and breads, and what is a better present than that?
3. After an email exchange with my friend Alisa, that included my telling her both that I needed to drink more and that I had been accused of always wearing implied fringe, in a boho sort of way, she sent me a delightful surprise – a flask with the words “In my heart I’m wearing fringe.” Working late into the night on yet another iteration of a budget request for work is so much more bearable when I have that flask full of diet coke beside me.
And that’s it! Six cheerful happy thoughts from me, an angry NYC chick. I’d bookmark this entry if I were you.
And that was my HAPPY post.
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