Be Selfish, Do Something For Someone Else

Wow… So it’s been a long time, hasn’t it? I know I always say this, but I really don’t mean to go so long between posts. I have really good intentions of updating, but then something pops up that has to be done. And by “has to be” it is normally something that could probably be put off but my OCD tendencies make me do them right now. It’s one of my quirks that I can’t seem to overcome.

So what has happened since I last posted? Well, there has been no change on the job front. I’m still director, producer, web-goddess, twitter queen, editor, and whatever else I need to be at the station. I haven’t come to any decision as to where I should go from here. *cue me singing Brian Littrell’s song “Where Do We Go From Here: in my head* I’ve debated and weighed options, but, so far, I haven’t acted upon anything.

The first week of April was Masters week in Augusta. It’s the one week a year when literally thousands of people flock to the city to watch golf. When I first interviewed for my job down here, Scott told me about Masters week, but nothing compared to seeing the insanity for myself the first time. During that week you plan on avoiding one of the main stretches through Augusta and you definitely don’t even try to go out to eat. Everywhere you go, it is packed with tourists. If this gives you any idea as to how many people are in town for the Masters each year… All of the hotels are completely full, not counting people that rent houses for the week. And the hotels make their yearly quota in that single week. It’s crazy.

One thing that did uplift my spirits recently was something that I did for one of my co-workers. His wife had to undergo a heart catherization, which left her out of work for a week. Just a few days later his son was turning eighteen. With the lack of a paycheck and other things, they didn’t have money to do anything for his son’s birthday. I know that I tend to dread my birthday every year, but a big part of that is because there is nothing special about that day for me. I like the idea of birthdays to be special. So the idea that they wouldn’t be able to do anything for their son’s birthday killed me. It kept weighing on my mind. One night at dinner, I mentioned it to mom, and we talked about getting a gift card for them. Lord knows I am not rolling in money, and for several months now money has actually been really tight, but I couldn’t just let it slide.

That night I went out and bought a fifty dollar Visa gift card. It wasn’t much, but it was what I could afford to do. And the next day, I left it on his desk with a card that I had mom fill out, so it wouldn’t be my handwriting. When he opened it up, he was stunned, and there were tears in his eyes.  Words can’t explain what it did to me to see his reaction. He figured out it was me, and swore that he would pay me back sometime. He doesn’t need to, though. That’s not why I did it… Seeing his reaction, knowing that he’d be able to do something for his son, made it all worthwhile to me. So maybe grocery shopping was tighter that week. And maybe I wasn’t able to buy myself a little something that I was wanting. But my coworker was able to do something for his son on his eighteenth birthday. That was more important.

Another thing going on has been some genealogy research. We really don’t know much about mom’s side of the family, so we’ve started digging into it all. So far it has been an interesting study, and, come to find out, my family has definitely been with its share of issues over the years. I always knew that my grandfather had a sister that died by falling off a porch swing and breaking her neck and another sister that was killed by her husband. Then my grandmother had a brother that was killed by his wife. Fun stuff, huh? It gets even more interesting, though.

Our first surprise was the discovery that my grandma didn’t have three brothers. She had four. There is a brother that no one ever knew about, no one has ever spoken of. From what we’ve been able to find out, he was a twin to one of the other brothers. We’ve been able to track him up until he was six years old. After that there is no record of him anywhere. We have no idea what happened to him.

The other big discovery was that my great-great-grandfather committed suicide. I’m beginning to think emotional issues run in our family. It explains a lot. But I would love to know what drove him to kill himself. I’m not sure that is something that we will ever be able to find out.

All in all, it has been fun looking back at my family’s history. I think because I come from a small family, seeing that there are so many more family members makes me feel like our family isn’t quite so small. Something else all this has brought me is a name I would like to use one day for a daughter. I’ve always wanted to use a name from our family for at least one child… particularly a girl. We have strong women in our family, and I’d like to pass that onto my own daughter. Rose is a name that I’ve frequently considered using because it comes from my great-grandma, but now I’ve discovered a name that belonged to a great-great-aunt, and I fell in love with it. It is now at the top of my list. I know, I’m rambling and not telling you what the name is. Well, here you go… I want to name a daughter Savanna Belle. Isn’t that pretty?

I’m sure there is plenty more that I could ramble on about, but I think I’m going to close here for now. It’s getting late, and I need to get into bed soon. I’m really going to try to make a point of posting more frequently… even if it means not doing everything that “has” to be done. We’ll see how that works. LOL I’m going to do my best!

A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one another, it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden. ~ Buddha