If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say…

It has been quite the week. I have recently discovered that I have simply become a vampire. Not one of those shiny, emo ones. No. One of those “what does the sun even look like” ones.

My sleep cycle has complete reset itself to being up until the sun rises and then sleeping through most of the day. Case in point: I was up until 8 this morning and finally crawled out of bed to start my day around 3.

This actually works because I’m not on the road right now so there’s no need to be awake early and everything is really getting done through email for the time being. I actually wrote a few blog posts for my professional blog last night. By professional blog, I mean the poor blog that I’ve been neglecting all year.

Sorry friend!

How neglected? Well, this post here will be my 80^th of the year for my Across the Universe blog. The post I made at Digital Walls this morning was the 8^th.

I’m the worst.

Additionally, the strain of the holidays is starting to show… on anyone who actually has things to worry about for the holidays.

I have zero plans for Christmas. I am working Christmas Eve at the restaurant and then the day after so going anywhere is out of the question. Shannon (my sister) and I decided ages ago that we were no longer doing presents for Christmas, birthdays only.

So I’m all set with holiday stress.

Other people? Not so much.

This was never more evident than this afternoon when I was attacked in the Target parking lot.

A story:

I was looking for a parking spot and was about to turn down a parking lane (totally had the right of way) when a woman decided that it was her turn and cut me off. Rather than just cutting me off and continuing on, she decided to stop and start screaming at me.

We were both in our cars and I had music on so I heard none of it. I just kind of sat there and watched it unfold. So I smiled and waved. She carried on.

I ended up finding a spot before her (because I don’t mind walking) and started making my way towards the store. She drove by me again and flipped me off when she passed.

Like an adult.

She pulled into a spot and jumped out of her car and started screaming at me. I was utterly dumbfounded by the whole situation. Rather than getting sucked into the screaming and yelling, I decided to just pull out my phone and start recording her.

Well, not really. But I pretended like I was. This made her stop and clearly reconsider the scene she was making.

In a moment of calm I said, “are you done? Because I’d like to go shopping now.”

She told me to go fuck myself.

Merry Christmas.

I really don’t know what she was looking to accomplish but this seems to be a common theme for me this week.

I’m not picking up the rope.

Do you know about the rope?

A friend I used to work with at the aquarium in Boston told me about the rope years ago. It appears when someone is trying to provoke you, they are trying to get under your skin and engage you in a tug of war. They are throwing out the rope.

Don’t pick up the rope.

I’m seeing this more and more in different aspects of my life. It’s been happening a lot. I’m not going to go into more detail than that because there is an ongoing issue that needs to be resolved and putting into a public forum wouldn’t be the smartest thing in the world.

So I won’t.

I was talking to one of my favorite Starbucks barista’s about it today and she threw one of my favorite George Carlin quotes my way, “Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

Always take the high road.

So I’m on the high road.

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

So let’s remember to share some kindness this holiday season!