Be nicer to people.

for me to be bitching and moaning. I’m in the kitchenette at work, washing an apple, a pear and my grapes and a co-workers steps in and asks if it’s okay if she dumps her water down the drain. I say in just a minute. She proceeds to dump it anyway and leaves. I rewash my fruit and walk out and wonder why she couldn’t wait two minutes to dump it or dump it down the drinking fountain. It’s just too early to ge into it.

Cats are people, too!

I’m actually making an attempt to give my cat more attention because it seems like she’s grow real lethargic. I’ve been brushing her on the deck when I get home. She loves it. And it gets rid of all her wonderful white hair that wants to cling to everything. She does seem more lively since I started paying more attention to her. Of course the weather is not nearly as warm as it had been previously so I’m sure that helps.

Front desk guard has been moved down to the parking garage. Claims she’s happy there because she’s “learning new things.” How much is there to learn?

Okay, I give up! The front desk guard has won. She’s beaten me down. Today, I entered the building and walked toward the elevators on the south side of the building. She was sitting by the entrance to the northern elevators. I heard her comment to someone that she liked the dress they were wearing and then she yells across the lobby at me and warmly greets me by name. That’s it. I give up. She’s nicer than me.

I am losing the battle.

I don’t like this that the front desk guards are “out-friendly-ing” me.

It started with the female always being so peppy and individually greeting each person when they walked past. I figured she would be beaten down and blurry-eyed in a matter of weeks like the rest of them, but no! She has to keep greeting people and saying hi and then she introduced herself as Beth and now greets me by name every time I enter the building (4 times a day). I should have been the one to make the introduction.

To make matters worse, she has got one of the other guys greeting me by name (we’ve never been introduced). We had him beaten down and dead and she’s resuscitated him and he’s back among the living. I did ask her what his name is today when I returned from lunch (Mohammad) so tonight he’ll be getting a goodbye by name!

I’ll blame my lack of initiative in being nicer on my lack of sleep with normal job and putting hours in at the coffee shop.

Didn’t actually work there yesterday, but I did do the shopping and restock it so it felt like I was there too long. Got to go running in the pleasant weather. I stopped by Ravenna Park and was planning on just running down around Green Lake and back and then doing the shopping, but about half way around the lake I passed a skater. She caught back up to me just before I reached the community center and initiated conversation so I was suckered into doing another lap around the lake. So I ran another 2.8 miles with June as she skated along. It was actually quite nice because I didn’t have to run particularly hard (just under 7 minute pace) and the weather was wonderful and she was nice. The run ended up being 8 miles instead of just over 5. Yet another person who was nice before I had the chance, before I took the inititive to be nice.

I feel like I can deal with people at work today. Yesterday, I could not. What’s different? Yesterday started cloudy and ended sunny and today is supposed to do the reverse? Quit playing phone tag with AA? Didn’t run last night? No work tomorrow? Could be any of these, but I’m guessing that’s it’s because as I walked toward the building this morning no one harassed me and asked to for “Real Change?” Maybe there’s a lesson here that some people will be nicer if you leave them alone….

On my lunch break, I like to relax. I like to get outside and get some fresh air and get away from it all. Today’s lunch: accosted by the homeless advocates. “Real Change, Real Change?” For once, I would like a “real change” and to not be pestered to buy propaganda for the homeless. Continuing on my way, I see a guy dressed in all black with his face painted like someone from KISS, except it’s a bit bloodier. He’s slumped against the north side of Macy’s. Outside of Westlake Center, across the street, clowns are performing clown acts. Along the south face of Nordstrom, the black clad gentleman is walking toward me. His shirt says ‘cannibal corpse”. Is this like zombies that eat zombies? I wouldn’t really be scared of those. I think they’d leave me alone. Past him, a crazy lady screams behind her, “just cuz it’s not roses don’t mean it can’t be sold. Floowwers! Floowwers!” Just after her Sarge sits in his wheelchair and harasses people with his constant. “roosses! Roossses!” One block later, I’m at my building and there’s been some type of big accident right next to it; four police cars and a couple of ambulances. Back on the 8th floor, my co-workers want to know if I saw the accident. “What was going on with the guy they put into the ambulance with no pants on? What happened to his pants? I look at the clock. It’s 2:30 PM. 2 ½ hours to go. Maybe I could be nicer to people if they would just leave me alone.

So I had a dream last night that I was at a wedding. It was outside of a house and when I left the house to go out to the wedding (through a small opening, of couse, not a normal door) the table and chairs were all pushed up close to the exit. I was only half dressed (shirt, pants, shoes…no jacket or tie or anything else). And sitting there facing me was a guy from college who asked if didn’t I think the shirt I was wearing was a bit old. I remember biting my tongue in the dream and not asking if he had graduated from college. Instead I left and finished getting dressed and then returned.

That’s me, working hard to be nice even in my dreams!