It’s good to have, you know? I’ve started to be reminded of that more and more.
I ran into a little, let’s say, situation at work today. Put simply, it was second hand story about some particularly disappointing and shameful behaviour. THANK GOD I had a couple of good girlfriends who are also coworkers I could run my reaction by. As it was, they were both off-site, but also just a text message away. They knew the players, they knew the politics and they totally got my response. One of them was able to step in to join forces with me to right the wrong while the other was there to be the voice of reason and supportive fury. Together, the three of us came up with a plan to correct the damage that had been done. It can’t be repaired overnight, but it will be made right. I’ll see to that.
It was good to feel the camaraderie, to know that there were people out there I was connected to, who’d listen to my gripes, who’d tell me if I was off-base.
Later, a totally different friend came into my office for a quick visit. He’s one of my closest hockey friends. As the season is basically over (does anybody even care about the Stanley Cup anymore?!?) we haven’t had a lot to talk about lately, but as a regular sports guy, we’ve made it work with other news, reviews and recaps. He’s a big baseball guy (Yankees) so he was one of the first people I reported to after I had my baseball dream. What was my baseball dream, you ask? Well, it was just a dream I had a few months ago, just when the baseball season was getting underway. I’ve been to a dozen professional baseball games in my life and a handful of them were good. It isn’t my sport and that’s okay. The dream, though, it was that I was a baseball fan, a real and dedicated one. I even had a completely random team: the St Louis Cardinals. What? How? Why? Who knows. But I told him about it and he was thrilled. He could even accept that it was different than his team (although he did admit to liking them.) I think he was just so excited I had actually shown an interest in any team.
A few weeks later, he checked in with me…
We laughed. He said he could hear me saying my response which is what I’d been going for. Perfect.
Not about to let a good dream die, today when he came by my office, he brought me my very first piece of Cardinals merchandise – a t-shirt. I was thrilled with it and we laughed some more.
It was a pretty challenging day, but I got to hit it off with some new people and to remind myself of the pretty great ones I already knew. Being as independent and reclusive as I am, I sometimes forget how much people (myself included) need people. It’s okay if I’m limited to just a few people and not all people. I still need – and take joy in having – some.
Have a great weekend!
