Glass Half Full

There are times (trust me, there are a LOT of times) that I and start feeling sorry for myself and situations I am in. However, I think that it really doesn't make matters any better. I actually think that it's bad karma to sit around wallowing when there are others who are way less fortunate than I. Whether it's the state of my finances, situations at work, or the behavior of my children, I try my darnedest to always look on the bright side of things.

At work today, my first table was 4 young men. They were super polite and had these adorable almost Southern accents. When it came time to pay their bill, they wanted individual checks. This is a lot more work as I had to try and remember exactly which meal went with which drink. I managed to figure it out and gave them their checks. After they were gone and I went back to collect my tips, I found that they had each left me a dollar. Their total bill was over $56 and they left me $4. That's just about 7%, about half of what is considered a minimum tip. If I had screwed up something or somehow given them bad service I could have understood, but that wasn't the case. For a few hours it really bugged me. Then after work I was telling a friend about them, and she said that she had served them before too, and that was just how they tipped. Then she said, "but you almost don't mind because they are so polite, not like some of the jerks we have to deal with". And you know what? She's absolutely right. I think I would rather wait on guys like that all day long for $4 a pop, then deal with jerks for twice as much. Suddenly I was glad I had the pleasure of serving those guys today, and hope they come back with their sweet little accents and good manners.

Then there are things like this that my children do. Remember in the movie Meet the Fockers when they go to the Focker family residence and Dustin Hoffman says "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down."? I don't know why, but that line has stuck with me. It might have something to do with the fact that every day I come across things both brown and yellow that the kids have forgotten to flush. Sure it's gross, but every time they do it they probably save me a gallon of water. And then, when I go to do laundry and find something at the bottom of the hamper that I know they haven't worn or just wore for an hour, I don't have to be mad because I'm using the water that should have already been flushed.

See how it works?

So if you are having a bad day, remember, there is always SOMETHING to be grateful for, even if it is just someone's good manners or something your kids forgot to flush.