No More Pity Parties Allowed
Another week is over. This was a rough one, and I decided to throw myself a pity party from Thursday to Saturday. I was upset that I had not heard from anyone in a few days, and went into a “nobody loves me” mood. On Saturday, my Bunkie had decided she had had enough of my pity party and told me to snap out of it. My happiness cannot depend on other people, it needs to depend on me. If I spend all of my time waiting for others to make me happy, I will never be happy. She is right, I need to stop arranging my life around everyone else. If I don’t hear from them, I don’t hear from them. Everyone is busy, especially this time of year. I only have a few weeks left and I don’t need to spend it moping around, so I have decided to start a smile experiment. On an episode of “The Middle” a few seasons ago, one of the characters, Sue, had to conduct an experiment. She decided to see if smiling was contagious, and started smiling and saying Hello to everyone around her. So now I am going to try it. The girls around me all smile back, and most of the female officers smile and say hello when they walk by, but a lot of the male officers just either nod or ignore us all together. For the next 7 weeks, I am going to make a point to smile and say hello to every officer I walk by. The two males that work in the kitchen and the new camp administrator are my main targets. I am tired of getting nodded at, grunted at & half smiles. I have been trying it off and on over the last few days, and have not been successful yet, but I am determined to keep trying. We have a couple of new guards that need to learn to smile also. They come in looking tough, and forget that they can smile, say hello and still be “in charge”. So I will smile and say hello to them each time I see them too. I figure by the time I leave here, they will all either think I am over friendly, a little crazy, or trying to hit on them. I am lucky to have a counselor and case manager that are always ready to say good morning and smile. It is nice having them around, they make it just a little bit friendlier around here.
There are lots of activities scheduled between now and New Years to choose from, starting with Bingo last night. I didn’t win anything, but still had fun. Hopefully there will be enough to keep my mind off of everything I am missing at home. I did hear a song this week that I really liked. It is “Joyful, Joyful” by Casting Crowns. I love the way they took one of my favorite hymns and made it more contemporary.
I hope everyone has a great week. I will write again closer to Christmas.
Julie
7 more chicken days!
3 more visit weekends!
2 more blanket exchanges!
camplifeandme 