Pick me ups or pick 'em out

When I have a really bad day - as in my attitude starts to go downhill fast about my experience here - I try to do something to pick up my spirits. And I am not referring to alcoholic kind of spirit (at least not frequently!). More of an 'intervention' that I do to myself. I find someone to go out dancing with. I get my nails done. Arrange a card playing party, etc. I've been quite dedicated to getting my nails done as of late. The other day I was video conferencing with my sister who told me that my nails looked "hideous". Gotta love my family for never holding back. Regardless of her opinion, I loved them - I got a hand painted design on my fingernails and toenails for the equivalent of $5. What do you think? Actually, I don't wanna know if you're just gonna say the same thing as her. The pictures don't give 'em justice anyway.





Also, I try to put my job in perspective because it can be easy to get bogged down in the sheer volume of need that I see on a daily basis. I find that is better to focus on the mini-triumphs. Like being able to give someone medication who cannot afford it or offering a client access to our used clothes so that they have an alternate outfit to wear. I can't help myself; I need to measure some amount of good that happens in our offices.

Speaking of which, today I came back from my lunch break to see the cleaning lady and a volunteer from our tutoring program picking lice out of the kids hair. Not their own kids. The kids from the program. It was just their sense of compassion kicking in. They told me that these girls were in pain and probably didn't have attentive mothers. Who knows. The fact is, they were willing to painstakingly pick out lice/eggs out of the thickest heads of hair in the world. I call that an act of love. And that, I suppose, is something that you would miss if you didn't slow down to gape at it occassionally.