I learned several interesting, if not valuable, things over the weekend.
1) When put on the spot, I feel like the world's most boring person. I was asked the other day what I did with my personal time. You can insert the sound of crickets chirping here. I couldn't think of anything except reading. Totally lame. I know that I do things. I think it's hard as an adult. So much of our lives center around work and family that it's hard to realize all the things you do outside of that frame.
2) The little fabric covers you put on the arms of chairs have a name. They're called antimacassars.
3) I have a much harder time opening up to people than I thought. There's a lot of risk in being known, and I'm not much of a risk taker. I had envisioned an outing going much differently because in my head I'm alway cool and calm and never reserved. In actuality, I have a lot of self doubt. I also feel that I express myself far better in writing, but we can't live our lives that way. In writing you can always take things back or change them to better express your thought, but in speaking, you simply have to do it. You have to leap. This makes me incredibly nervous.
4) I took a strengths test a while back. It turns out that one of my strengths is empathy. I've sort of been aware of this my whole life, but now I have it in writing. I've also learned that as strengths go, it kinda sucks. It's the reason I'm a cryer. It's the reason that sob stories make me such a soft touch even when I know they're probably not true. I can know someone is lying to my face about their down and out circumstances, and still in the back of my mind I feel this deep since of sadness for them. I think, "If they feel like they have to lie, then something must really be hurting them." I'm not the person to call them on their crap and tell them to get their act together. That"s not my strength.
5) I miss singing. It's not my greatest gift, but it's a gift I enjoy.
