Mr. Squirrel and Bad Days

I haven't written in a few months because I felt like I didn't have anything to write about. Things in my life were complacent and nothing exciting was happening that I felt like I needed to write about. In the car over thanksgiving break, Ben and his sister Leigh were talking about.

Ben: "Yeah, why haven't you written anything?"

Me: "I feel like there's nothing to write about."

Leigh: "Yeah Ben. You can't just write to write. You need to be INSPIRED."

So true! I don't want to just write to write. But a few things have been hanging on my heart for awhile. I'm really struggling with having bad days. I seem to have one wrong thing happen and then I treat the whole day as a "bad day." For instance, yesterday morning I locked myself out of the apartment. I'm not usually so absent-minded, so I was frustrated with myself. When I called maintenance, I was charged $20. "What in the hell???" I wanted to scream, but instead I said "Oh..." That's what I get for forgetting.

The rest of the day was mediocre. Things came up at work, I was tired, Ben was in his "hangry" stage, things were just bad.

On top of it all, my poor dog has conjunctivitis. I was crying over this. Dogs and babies can't really tell you when their in pain. So I held him and told him he didn't need to suffer in silence. I drove to two different stores looking for any type of medications I could give him. Ben told me to relax, and that made it worse.

As I sat on my bed, weeping because of how much my dog was suffering (probably the minimal amount of suffering a dog can go through mind you) I noticed Benny had brought my his favorite stuffed animal squirrel, Mr. Squirrel. He brings it to me when I walk through the door, he brings it to me when he wants to play, and he basically has it in his mouth always. Even with his goopy red eyes, he was still wagging his tail and in good spirits.

He dropped Mr. Squirrel in front of me and ran back and forth, almost to say "toss it, I'm open!" I just sat there, crying. "OH MY GOD, BENNY. YOU'RE SO SWEET. HOW COULD GOD LET YOU GET CONJUNCTIVITIS? THE INTERNET SAYS YOU'RE GOING TO GO BLIND..."

I was an emotional wreck. And then, it hit me. Here I was crying about my dog being in pain, when in reality, Benny seemed like he could care less. He was still his playful self, just with bloodshot eyes and faster blinking habits. I needed to snap out of it. If he can still have a good day with a bad thing going on, so could I.

I sat on the bed and wiped my tears away. "Okay Tay, it's time to stop being a little bitch."

(Excuse my french)

So that's it. Life's tough. Be like Benny. Grab a Mr. Squirrel and be happy.

-Tay