Things You Should Mean

So I have had people lately giving off-hand apologies or thank yous at work or at restaurants or whatever, and I realized that something that is a real peeve of mine is when certain things are not MEANT when they're said. These are those things.

1. "Thank you". Its such a simple thing, to thank someone, but if you don't mean it, don't say it just to be polite. It waters down the meaning if you aren't truly thankful for the goods or service you have received. A heartfelt thank you is really powerful, and a weak one just cheapens the words.

2. "I promise…". For most of my life now, I have tried to use the phrases 'I'll do my best to' or 'I think I can' or 'I'm pretty sure' instead of 'I promise'. This is to avoid breaking my word in cases where I am not sure I may be able to keep it, or using it for things like taking out the trash or some other trivial thing rather than important uses. You SHOULD use it when you are making big, life-changing important decisions, such as wedding vows, quitting bad habits, and the like. If you say the words but rarely, they will have a real, almost jarring effect on you when you DO use them, and you're more likely to follow through.

3. "I'm sorry". I hear this spoken glibly SO often, and I am guilty of this as well, but saying this when you just bump into someone in the hallway, or you leave something out where someone trips over it a little, or say some joke that falls flat, and you say 'sorry', do you REALLY mean you're sorry? Do you mean that you deeply regret the actions or words that you yourself have done that have led to this, almost to the point of tears? Or if its a sympathetic I'm sorry, the things that have been done or said to the other party, etc? If you had ANY means possible, would you go back in time to change it? Does the thought of it happening again fill you with a heart-sinking horror? THAT is what it means to be sorry. Need to find another word or phrase for the little things, like 'my bad' or 'pardon me' or something.

4. "I love you". So many people so often confuse this with infatuation, lust, or some other feeling or emotion. To me, when you love someone, you're willing to live for them. Dying for someone is easy; any fool can go out and get themselves killed for a cause or a person. But dedicating your entire life, the ONLY lifetime you will ever have, to someone else's happiness and well-being with NOTHING expected in return? That's love. And its SO often abused or misused, that its meaning has become murky and often misunderstood.

Man, I should write a book. This stuff is gold and people need to hear it.

Eight Years of Bloggery

So next month marks EIGHT years I've been blogging. I go back and read early entries and shake my head at how snarky and immature I was. I'm SO much better now, right? Ha ha, maybe not. I really need to go back and see which of the links I posted are working and which need deleted. Meh...not important though. And the Colombian travel post is still freakin' hilarious.

Boredom Sets In

Man, I am bored today. We've caught up on work and our computer issues are fixed for the time being, after the stupid IT department getting their incompetent sausage fingers all up in our servers. Seriously, it was working FINE, and they had to go and screw with the permissions in such a way that no one can get to ANYthing they need. Or worse, they can see it but can't touch it.

Also, I just may have tracked down my oldest friend who is not also a family member. We were best buds for a long, long time. From like, kindergarten through middle school. Good times. I couldn't find him on FB or Twitter for a long time, but his wife is on FB, so I sent her a message. We'll see if it pans out. Its wiggedy weird seeing him with long hair, goatee, and two or three kids.

Badum badum badum…singing the bored song…tra la la…bored bored bored…

I need a new messenger bag. I have used two different ones for the last eight years. I used my Umbrella Corporation bag for four years, then my sweet girlfriend (fiancee?) got me a new one, which I used for two years, and still have, but the strap needs some repair work, plus I like having it for trips and nice occasions. So I'm back to the UC one, but it is falling apart. Still, six years worth of use for thirty bucks isn't bad.

Yesterday I edged around the sidewalks and driveway of our house. MAN, did they need it! That's the sort of thing that is really easy to miss. You think it looks fine, and then you edge, and discover an extra four to six inches of extra sidewalk. So that's done, anyway. I started powerwashing the walk, too. I'm sad that our porch either got red dirt in it when it was setting, or has some sort of rust stains or something, because it would not powerwash clean. The sidewalks did, though, and they look WAY better. I'm excited to do the rest. I would have done it yesterday, but after a couple hours of edging and powerwashing, your arms turn to jelly, let me tell you. I'll do more today. Hopefully, if I can keep things looking super nice, we'll have a good shot at Yard of the Month. Its stupid, as there are no tangible benefits to winning, but it'd be a nice ego boost to have accomplished it in less than two years, considering we've had to redo EVERYTHING involving the yard. Grass, shrubs, flower beds, the works. The back yard was even worse. Three foot tall weeds, unpainted fence, pine trees encroaching and killing what grass there was…yuck. And now it is an oasis of suburbanly serenity.

Ok, time to go find something else to waste time on.