Imagination

I've always been a very creative person, so I thought it might be a good idea to share the imaginative perspective I have as someone who likes to create. Music, stories, jokes, it's always a major part of my everyday life.  I have a very imaginative mind, and in a way it's like people with Restless Leg Syndrome have to shake that leg. (I get that from time to time, but I always just put it on some fast music to work that out.)

In a lot of ways, my mind does its own thing.  I think a lot, for work, about life, in creative ventures.  So a great deal of my ideas are involuntary, and just sort of show up.  It's also like fishing, when I get a good one, I hang on to it, and if it's not such a good one, I just throw it back in the lake.

The other side of having an imagination is it can lead to unnecessary worry.  If I'm not careful, I'll think up some scenario that's negative, and all of a sudden it just plays out in my mind (sometimes to extreme degrees.)  I liken this to some of the scenarios in movies that actually give them a really thick plot. 

Someone once told me, "No what ifs." What that meant was to make sure to not let the creative part of your mind do whatever it wanted to, because it could.  I thought about this for a while and it helped me to get some sort of guidelines for my imaginative side.

Fast forward to today.  I am still trying to tame the negative scenarios I let play out in my mind, while experiencing the thrill ride of random fun and thoughtful ideas that show up a few times a day. 

So, I guess what I am trying to say is the next step is organizing and recording the good stuff.  As a certified smartass, I can expect no less of an attitude from the imagination within.  Many of my ideas happen as I'm driving, or am busy with other things, or in the middle of the night.  

Perhaps that is the conundrum, one side of the brain is really active, and it takes some of the attention away from the other side. The imaginative side is on full throttle, while the logical, organized side is just kind of sitting there.  It would be really nice to be able to organize and bring some order to all the interesting stuff happening on the other side of my mind.

I Know It's Been A Long Time Since I Rapped At Ya

But it's been busy at work and in a lot of other areas of life.  I feel bad for not posting for three full weeks, so here goes.  Friday was, umm, interesting. 

Grace has been getting up a little early these last few weeks and she's dressing herself, and ready even before I am.  Pretty impressive.. only a couple of months I've really had to make extensive effort to wake her up.  At one point I even told her I was going to get an air horn so she would for sure wake up and get dressed, so we wouldn't be late.  Friday was one of those great days where she was ready to go before I was.

We had enough time to walk to school (we're only a block away or so cutting through the park,) and as always we had an intellectually stimulating conversation along the way.  Friday, I think we talked about her upcoming field day, and how complicated math gets.  (The night before I showed her my Calculus book from college.) Then she asked me what grade I was in when I took that class.  Then I explained college... I should have just said "14th."

So I walked back to the house after dropping her off and noticed from a few houses down something looked a little off on the truck.  As I got closer, I realized it was a flat tire.  Not a low tire, it was flat.  The inflator didn't do a thing for it.  I looked a little closer and realized how bad it was; the tread on the inner part was exposing the inner wire stuff.  So I needed to get the spare and slap it on and get to work.

But... I drive a 99 Ranger and the spare was underneath the truck, held on by a system that required the original jack to access it and lower it to put it on.  After semi-frantically looking for the original jack (which was long gone, because how much stuff do you have from the 90's still around, especially car stuff?) I decided I need a new one anyway.  I was surprised that I didn't have one right there, but then I realized after all the previous truck work, the jack was probably somewhere else. 

Next thought - there's an Auto Zone about 8 blocks away.  I texted my boss to let him know I'm gonna see if I could make it happen and then come on in or let him know.  I texted Jamie to tell her that I had truck issues so she wouldn't wonder why I wasn't replying to an email she might have sent to me at work.  By that time I was there and quickly got the jack and headed home.

No bueno.  The crank from the jack didn't work to let the spare down, so I let the boss know what was up.  He sent a teammate out to pick me up, and I decided to let the tire wait till Saturday morning.  There was work to do.

So one of my teammates came by to pick me up for work, and we rode back in.  Another teammate of mine texted him saying I messed up my tire just so I could ride in her "cop car."  I do have some real characters on my team!

So we got in and walked up to the office and I realized that my badge was where I kept it so I wouldn't forget it.  In the truck.

This began a new adventure.  So the security guy at the front desk laid out the rules.  He's a super nice guy, by the way, but his job is to go by the book.  It used to be you showed your driver's license and a teammate could vouch for you. Not anymore.  He explained he'd need my license and to call my boss to vouch.  No biggie, I thought... but.  From the 2nd floor mezzanine the guy that brought me to work announced to us that every manager in our site was in a meeting in the building across the parking lot. 

Security Guy told me he needed someone with some authority to escort me as a Visitor.  Luckily, Guy Who Brought Me To Work found someone with enough office cred to get me by.  Security guy took my picture and printed me a pass, and said "I know you, you're a good guy. But they're making it where it's a really bad idea to forget your badge."  After some appreciation, the Office Cred Lady came to let me through the door.  Our next step was to find the admin who could set up a temporary badge so I could get in and out.  You know, for pretend smoke breaks or whatnot. 

So we went to find the admin... and ten minutes later found out she was working from home that day.  We went back to her office and she started pinging other people who might be able to help.  During the search I got a text from the boss asking where I was.  So I told him I was still working out the badge thing.  Next thing I know, Office Cred Lady had a hookup for the badge thing.  She put a name and location down on a post-it, and then got into her desk and broke out a Reese's peanut butter cup, gave me a serious look while she handed it to me, and said, "Be appreciative."

So I eventually find the Badge Lady, and she cheerfully said "You must be Mitch!"  So I introduced myself and told her what happened, and she gave me instructions for when the badge would be activated and who to bring it to at the end of the day.

She was pretty happy about her Reese's, and I hustled for the rest of the day to catch up.   But it was all good.  Everything got lined up at work, I found a new tire on sale the next morning, and was reminded of how to prepare for the next day from some really cool people at work.