Red Bites

I had a great day today. But it didn't start that way.

I was very frustrated on my way to work this morning, wrestling with a negative attitude. This has been an especially rough week at work. A rough month for that matter, both at work and at home. I was considering making a phone call to someone who could cheer me up when something caught my eye. I spotted a book in the passenger seat next to me that I had purchased a few weeks ago. I had picked up this book, the "LITTLE RED BOOK of SELLING" by Jeffrey Gitomer, a few weeks ago at Barnes and Noble in Fayetteville.

While waiting in line for my sausage and cheese biscuit and a diet Dr. Pepper at the Hardee's drive-thru, I reached over and picked up the book and proceeded to open to the pages marked by the book's red ribbon page maker. The first paragraph I saw was titled "Bad day or bad attitude." It was one of the books informational bites called "Red Bites" and it hit me between the eyes! Here it is:

"Bad day or bad attitude? People always blame their attitude on the day. I'm having a bad day is baloney. What you're really saying is: I've let other people get to my attitude. I've let other circumstances get to my attitude. That's not only unjustifiable, it's a sign of mental weakness. If you tell yourself you're having a bad day, I promise you will have one, and if you tell yourself you're having a great day, I promise you will have one. The day is not bad unless you name it bad."

Talk about a slap in the face! It was a gift from God and it was just what I needed.

I had a great day today!

SIDEWAYS

I received two nice Father's Day gifts this year. The first was a Cobra XRS 9678 Ultra-Performance Digital Radar/Laser Detector from Chris and the kids. This was not something that I ever asked for, but something I have found I absolutely love!

My second gift arrived in the form of my 20 year old stepson, Kip. We picked him up from the Little Rock airport on Sunday. He will be in Harrison for a couple months this summer. When he approached me in at the airport, I didn't recognize him. He's put on several extra pounds over the past six months, cut his hair quite short and grown a rather long, scruffy goatee. But as soon as he spoke, I recognized him. It was the strangest feeling to be looking at someone giving you the look of "you know me," yet your mind is saying, "I've never seen this person in my life." But is was so nice to be with him again and see how he is growing into independant adulthood.

I saw the movie Sideways on Sunday night. The movie is billed as a comedy, but proved to be a serious, and tragic look at how two men struggle to cope with addictions , immoral inclinations, and their extraordinary average lives. This movie is certainly not appropriate for children of any age. The movie did have some beautiful clips of Santa Barbara wine country, but save yourself the pain of enduring all the crude comments, obscene sexual references and nudity and visit the vinards in person. No stars.

Chris and I now have less than a month before our trip to Italy and Germany. We fly out of Springfield, MO on July 2oth. We get more excited every day. I brought home a 10 CD set of learning the Italian language about a week ago. We'll see how that goes.

Well, just a quick blog to attempt to get me back online. Have a terrific week.

Gene