Yesterday I had the most amazing day. I hung out with my friend Matt from high school. We went all over the place - DE, PA, NJ. We went to this amazing little cafe near my house (it's the same one I took you to last year, Kelly, when you stopped in DE!) and I had a fantastic Thai Chicken Sandwich and Edamame, my favorite. After that, we came back and played with Syd for awhile. The rest of the day was spent traveling around, buying Christmas gifts and getting lost in the barren frozen tundra that is South Jersey right now. It was great to catch up and even greater to get out of the house and do something different. I hadn't been that happy in awhile, just riding around with nowhere to be exactly and nothing that really needed to be done.
I am totally pumped for everyone to open their Christmas gifts. I thought very long and hard this year about what to get people. I wish tomorrow was Christmas morning so that I could give my gifts... but I guess I can wait another 36 hours. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I need to finish wrapping, do a few loads of laundry, help my mom when she gets home, dinner at Romeo's as per tradition in our household, and then a Christmas Party that we go to every year hosted by the family of one of Kelsey's good friends. I'm excited, I love Christmas Eve - it's always so full of seeing people happy and catching up and drinking wine and even though I'm 22, I still feel anxious going to sleep on Christmas Eve :-)
I don't know why, but lately I've been really bothered by a lot of things I see. I almost cried yesterday while I was at a red light, watching this woman trudge through the snow on her way to the bus stop. She was carrying bags from a department store - presents perhaps? And she just looked so cold, I just wanted to pull over and offer her a ride, but I never know if that kind of thing would weird someone out. I was in the mall tonight and we were walking by the Santa display, where kids can get their photos taken with the big man. I hesitated for a minute, to watch the photographer try to get the attention of the baby on Santa's lap. The baby was dressed in the most adorable outfit, and his parents were next to the photographer, calling his name and waving at him. And then the man standing next to me said, "Oh, that baby has Down Syndrome". It bothered me - yes, the child had Down Syndrome, but seriously - this adorable child is sitting on Santa's lap, smiling for the camera, and his parents are standing 5 feet away, and is it really necessary to state that? Is it really the first thing you could say? It irked me. I smiled at the baby's dad, and kept walking.
I find myself more and more frustrated with the things that are wrong in this world. So many things are so wrong, and it's amazing how we don't even question it. We are distracted by the media, by our own lives, by the "buzz"... and we don't remember the things that really matter. We are taught that strangers are dangerous. Which, it can't be denied that some strangers are dangerous. But I hate going out in a crowd of people and not being able to relate or talk to anyone around me, just because I don't know any of them personally. Is that weird? I just wish people were more into their communities and thinking about those around them instead of always themselves. Tonight, outside of a kitchen store, a man bumped into a huge rack of door mats. Half of them fell off the rack. He looked at them, and kept walking. I was behind him, so I walked up and picked them all up. Doesn't he realize that someone else would have to clean up his mess? I sometimes long for a more collectivistic society.
Well, it's time for bed... I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. I'll be floating around the east coast for the next week and a half - Maryland, New Jersey, Vermont, North Carolina... I'll be back in DE on January 3rd, but hopefully I can get a post in before then. Love to you all -
1 comment:
"I don't know why, but lately I've been really bothered by a lot of things I see. I almost cried yesterday while I was at a red light, watching this woman trudge through the snow on her way to the bus stop. She was carrying bags from a department store - presents perhaps? And she just looked so cold, I just wanted to pull over and offer her a ride, but I never know if that kind of thing would weird someone out. I was in the mall tonight and we were walking by the Santa display, where kids can get their photos taken with the big man. I hesitated for a minute, to watch the photographer try to get the attention of the baby on Santa's lap. The baby was dressed in the most adorable outfit, and his parents were next to the photographer, calling his name and waving at him. And then the man standing next to me said, "Oh, that baby has Down Syndrome". It bothered me - yes, the child had Down Syndrome, but seriously - this adorable child is sitting on Santa's lap, smiling for the camera, and his parents are standing 5 feet away, and is it really necessary to state that? Is it really the first thing you could say? It irked me. I smiled at the baby's dad, and kept walking.
I find myself more and more frustrated with the things that are wrong in this world. So many things are so wrong, and it's amazing how we don't even question it. We are distracted by the media, by our own lives, by the "buzz"... and we don't remember the things that really matter. We are taught that strangers are dangerous. Which, it can't be denied that some strangers are dangerous. But I hate going out in a crowd of people and not being able to relate or talk to anyone around me, just because I don't know any of them personally. Is that weird? I just wish people were more into their communities and thinking about those around them instead of always themselves. Tonight, outside of a kitchen store, a man bumped into a huge rack of door mats. Half of them fell off the rack. He looked at them, and kept walking. I was behind him, so I walked up and picked them all up. Doesn't he realize that someone else would have to clean up his mess? I sometimes long for a more collectivistic society."
I know how you feel. I get the same way. I also try to correct these things, as you do. One time I saw a man who's truck ran out of gas. I told him to wait where he was and I drove to the nearest gas station and bought him a container of gas so that he could get there to fill up his tank. We have to do things like that. I am a big believer that a smile can change someone's day, and a little positivity is contagious. Keep helping others and making a difference. The world needs more people like that. I hope you have a great holiday.
-Marcy
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