so . . . have you done anything nice lately?

i haven't.

i kinda hate babies. that's not very nice. but neither are they.

Hey hey, my my, rock and roll will never die

First I would like to say it was not very nice of me not to post for so long, and I apologize. It's funny, because for a while last week I was thinking, "I am the happiest I have ever been! I'm juggling my work and school and self so adroitly, and thinking a lot about helping other people even if not always performing life-changing acts of service and I feel extremely fulfilled. . ." and then it just like FELL APART. I don't even know why because it's not like a family member died or anything, it's just that these two little tiny things happened that really stressed me out and I forgot to care about anyone else. And do you want to hear what they were? They're so dumb, you're gonna laugh. 1) My bike lock broke while I was in the gym and my bike was stuck on campus for a week and I was really mad. 2) I lost my work name tag on the street which is an absolute necessity of course and I tried fruitlessly to buy a new one but things kept going wrong and I was so scared my boss would be mad at me for missing my name tag, but finally after three days I bought a new one (yeah I had to buy one for five whole dollars) and that same day I LOST IT AGAIN (because I was borrowing other people's bikes with seats lower than I'm used to so when I bend my legs my pockets open up and stuff falls out--even though I tried really hard to remember to but my new name tag in my purse before I started biking) and I didn't want to have to buy another one because the lady who made mine for me the first time was acting really annoyed and mean. Plus it is midterm overload week .. . . but whatever, it's lame, huh? And I know none of those is a big deal, which is why it makes me feel even worse to be stressed out about them. I am not even a cancer victim or a Bosnian refugee or a recovering alcoholic or anything. Good thing nothing truly bad has ever happened to me, because obviously I could not handle it.
Anyway. None of that belongs on a blog about nice deeds, I know. The point is I forgot to try being nice and as a result I felt like things were going even worse than they really were; it became a positive feedback loop wherein I became a terrible person. Not really, but I no longer felt on top of my life. I really think that putting your extra thoughts into other people rather than your own stupid name tags and bike locks makes that difference. Spiritual thought: When you try hard to feel Heavenly Father's love for other people, you do, and you feel it for yourself, too, and you feel like everything is going to be okay. When you forget, you feel like nothing is going right even though it's not that big a deal. So I'm going to be better this week and I'm gonna WRITE ABOUT IT, too.
Lest you stay up all night worrying about me, I'll tell you that I found my name tag (in my purse!--ha, how vexing and yet relieving), and my dad came down and sliced my lock off my bike today so I just have to mail it in and MasterLock will send me a replacement. Also I did one nice thing today and shared all the Halloween candy that my mom sent me.

I stopped myself before doing something very mean today.

That is all.

ali's niceness > jordan's niceness

On Saturday morning, my sister jumped on my bed to wake me up. Actually I was sleeping on the couch. I said, quite angrily, "jeni! This is the one day I can sleep in what were you thinking I'm so mad!" she said, defensively, "well I just woke up at 8:30 and I didn't want to either!" and then I said "you're dumb" and then we forgot about everythjg and had a great day. BUT then she specifically asked me NOT to wake her up this morning when I left for work and I specifically did. How mean. The nice part is that I texted her later and said, "sorry for waking you up, but it was really funny. Love you." I think in the end, Im the nice one. Maybe.

I did the nicest thing just barely.

All day I have been looking forward with dread to the time this evening when I would have to go to work because I was on call, but when I called in they said they didn't need me so I got to stay home! I was so gleeful at having the next three hours opened up to any activity I chose that I decided to take time from my personal homework period to serve my roommates by emptying the whole dishwasher and doing everybody's dishes that were languishing in the sink. My roommates even saw me and they didn't say thank you but it didn't MATTER because I was so happy! And now our kitchen is clean and we have bowls for our cereal in the morning . . . and I'm not at work! Hallelujah.

Don't be yourself - be someone a little nicer. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966