Every Life is a Pile of Good Things and Bad Things...

So this year has gone really quickly… It’s been crazy and I don’t understand how it’s September already! I feel like it was JUST March – obviously, since that was when I last had a chance to post here… This year has been a mix of highs and lows – thankfully far more highs than lows.

The Highs:

- Getting a new job at work – this is the biggest reason that I have not written. I’m so busy that by the end of most days I am totally fried and just need to curl up on the couch and decompress. But it really is one of the highs – even with that. It’s definitely better to be busy than bored.

- Getting to see a lot of my family at our reunion this past summer – not all of my enormous family… But a lot. And I always love getting to see my grandparents…

- Going on an awesome, long horse-back ride at the reunion – it was just me, J, and the guide. We went off-trail, we cantered, we jumped a log while going up a hill… Our horses wouldn’t stop bucking and rearing and biting each other because both wanted to be in front of the other… But it was a beautiful ride and we got to see a TON of the property that we’d never seen before

The view from the top of the peak we rode to...

- My bestie is having a baby!! I love the crap out of her and am dying to meet my new niece! And I may or may not have a problem of buying cute things for her when I see them… I can’t help it……..

When I started this post a few weeks ago, I had a list of trivial silly “lows” here… Because, honestly, things are pretty dang good. Sure, there are frustrations and “woe, is me” pity party days, but when it comes down to it, the hardest part of most of my days is deciding what I want for dinner, so that tells me life is pretty wonderful. At that time, this post probably would have gone the way of about 20 other posts that I started and never finished in the past months that I’ve been absent here… But then the only “low” that really matters hit…

One of my coworkers passed away last week. It was VERY sudden and horribly shocking. It’s been so hard for all of us to wrap our brains around. And it breaks our hearts that he was alone when it happened. He was such a good guy… It’s hard to admit that he’ll never be here again. Last week was really bad around here… A lot of starting to feel ok and then having to remove his name from an e-mail template and having it hit all over again…

He worked for the company for 30 years and he touched COUNTLESS lives. In the days after we found out, the list that we were all trying to compile of “people that need to be notified” just kept GROWING. We wouldn’t be able to go more than a couple of minutes without thinking of someone else that needed to be on the list... And I am SURE we have missed people and it hurts my heart to know that they will find out far later than they should have or in a far kinder way than they should have.

The mark he has left on this company, this state, this planet… is HUGE. Everyone that we talk to says the same thing – “I really liked him.” It’s rare to find someone so universally liked. And so respected… If you were at the Staples Center last night, you would have been involved in a moment of silence in his honor before the national anthem at the King’s pre-season game. Simply because of his relationship with everyone there through work and sponsorships over the years… I believe there is going to be a moment of silence for him at the Angel’s game tonight… So many different companies, brands, groups, organizations, and people have all let us know the ways they plan to honor his memory.

He had a huge heart – we are still finding out things that we had never even known he did because he didn’t care about getting recognition – he just wanted to make someone smile. Even though he was never married and never had children - children LOVED him and he loved them. Whenever someone brought their kid in, they would inevitably end up down at his office. He volunteered his time at children’s hospitals… He was just such a good guy…

He was responsible for me getting to do some of the coolest things… Like going to see the Endeavour get towed by the Tundra, touching the Stanley Cup, and driving on the track in the parade lap for NASCAR races… Simply because he knew I would have fun being there. 

I don’t have the time it would take or the right words to honor him properly. All I know is that this has made me slow down a little, hold J a little tighter, be a little more thankful for everyone and everything I have, be a little more forgiving... The stupid stuff is a little less annoying. The happy stuff is a little more precious. And I really hope that I am able to hold onto that… To not let it slide to the back of my mind and go back to getting so irritated by the little things that really don’t matter… It’s something I think we all need to be reminded of sometimes. I just wish it didn’t take something like this to do it.

I guess I'll just end with one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes:

"Every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don't always soften the bad things, but, vice versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant."