{"id":4157,"date":"2021-03-14T23:46:30","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T17:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=4157"},"modified":"2021-03-14T23:53:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T17:53:04","slug":"the-best-of-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=4157","title":{"rendered":"THE BEST OF EVERYTHING"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This blahg is not the blahg I intended to publish this week\"A<\/a>.\u00a0 I had another blahg all mapped out in my mind with lots of audio recordings.\u00a0 I won’t spoil it by giving anything away.\u00a0 That blahg will be coming in the next month.\u00a0 Part of the problem in the delay was that I lost my motivation and began to suffer some depression last week.\u00a0 When you’re feeling low, everything you want to accomplish either gets pushed aside or seems unaccomplishable.\u00a0 That’s a real word.\u00a0 Look it up!\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0A few things happened this week to take me out of my funk and inspired this blahg.\u00a0 I haven’t talked much lately about my mental health or even wanted to talk about mental health in general.\u00a0 I’ve been hearing and reading all the news about mental health and the current pandemic and I just didn’t want to tackle that topic.\u00a0 I wasn’t planning on avoiding it but I like my blahgs to be uplifting, inspiring, or at least entertaining.\u00a0 Depression to me was like something from the Seniors’ menu at a restaurant where you skip over it because it doesn’t apply to you.\u00a0 Me, I like to order from the kids’ menu and get that hotdog that they won’t let us adults order.\u00a0 Why are restaurants hiding the hotdogs?\u00a0 Cut it out!\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0My recent bout of depression was brought on by some detractors who don’t want me to fill in on a job contract for a colleague who is expecting a baby in June.\u00a0 I haven’t done anything wrong but sometimes the peanut gallery gets it in their mind that they think they know something or heard something and never thought to check to see if any of it is true.\u00a0 \u00a0That’s enough of that.\u00a0 I should know better than to listen to the voices of the detractors but I’m human and you just want to yell “DAMN IT, I’M LIKEABLE”.\u00a0 I didn’t do that and so it was hard to get out of my own head and stop flailing myself with the “POOR ME.”\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Last week I had an encounter with my colleague who is expecting.\u00a0 She had been in a virtual meeting which I had not attended but where my name was being put forth as a replacement for her while she is away on maternity leave.\u00a0 I was trying to feel her out on how that went without directly asking what people thought of me as her replacement.\u00a0 She didn’t really elaborate but I got a sense she was trying to protect me from some of the negativity.\u00a0 I had it confirmed later from another colleague but I began to feel guilty later that I had put my female colleague on the spot.\u00a0 No, it really wasn’t guilt about that as much as it was that I didn’t even ask her how she was feeling or how the pregnancy was going.\u00a0 Later, I went back and apologized to her and said I shouldn’t have tried to pry information from her and that I was even more sorry that I didn’t ask her how she was doing.\u00a0 She seemed to appreciate that and I was determined that in future encounters I was going to make sure I focused more on her.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0So, this is where this blahg begins.\u00a0 A few days ago I saw my colleague again and made it a point of asking her how she was doing.\u00a0 We chatted briefly about the pregnancy and I asked casually if she had any cravings.\u00a0 \"A<\/a>Her answer was surprising.\u00a0 She said she hadn’t had any cravings but everything she ate recently seemed to her to be the best of that particular things she had ever had.\u00a0 She gave this example of snacking on M&M candies in the evening.\u00a0 She said she’s always had a bowl that she snacks on in the evening but eating them recently made her feel that these M&Ms were the best M&Ms she’s ever tasted.\u00a0 I commented that wouldn’t it be great if you could keep that feeling all the time and that no matter what you were eating or viewing or hearing or experiencing at any given moment was the best.\u00a0 It would be the ultimate ‘living in the moment’ experience you could ever have.\u00a0 After that, I didn’t give that notion much thought. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 On my way home that afternoon after discovering this new philosophy, I stopped to gas up my vehicle and I bought a PLINKO instant scratch ticket.\u00a0 \"Plinko<\/a>This ticket had instant prizes but if one of your lucky numbers matched one of the scratched and uncovered numbers with the corresponding word “CHIP” then you could take it into your local retailer to reveal your prize.\u00a0 I learned that a video would play at the retailer and I could win up to $10,000 instantly or a “PLINKO” chip that I could play on the real board for a minimum of $100,000 up to a maximum of $500,000.\u00a0 The big board is of course at the Ontario Lottery offices in Toronto and is similar to the PLINKO game we’ve all seen on the game show “The Price Is Right.”\u00a0 I was excited.\u00a0 It took me two days before I got back to the retailer and I had convinced myself that I was going to get that “PLINKO” chip for the big board.\u00a0 I knew the odds were against me and ultimately they were with me only winning $10 which doubled my money from the $5 I had paid for the scratch ticket.\u00a0 It was a disappointment but for those two days I lived that fantasy and dreamed big.
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\u00a0 \u00a0This morning, while shaving, something else happened that reminded me of that “best of something ever had” idea.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>I don’t know what it is but I always get great ideas while I’m shaving.\u00a0 Some of my short story ideas occurred while I was shaving and so did ideas for my blahgs.\u00a0 I probably should concentrate more on what I’m doing if I don’t want to cut myself.\u00a0 Usually when I’m shaving I have my I-pod playing my music on shuffle.\u00a0 I have such a wide range of music on there that I never know what I’m going to hear.\u00a0 This morning I heard “When I Am King” by Great Big Sea.\u00a0 The lyrics really struck me.\u00a0 Here they are:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wake up
\nWithout a care
\nYour head’s not heavy, your conscience clear
\nSins are all forgiven here
\nYours and mine
\nFear is gone without a trace
\nIt’s the perfect time in the perfect place
\nNothing’s hurting, nothing’s sore
\nNo one suffers anymore
\nThe doctor found a simple cure
\nJust in time<\/h4>\n

All these things if I were king
\nWould all appear around me
\nThe world will sing when I am king
\nThe world will sing when I am king<\/h4>\n

Oh, she walks right in
\nShe don’t even knock
\nIt’s the girl you lost to the high school jock
\nShe shuts the door, turns the lock
\nAnd she takes your hand
\nShe says she always felt a fool
\nFor picking the captain over you
\nShe wonders if you missed her
\nSaid she always told her sister
\nOh, that you’re the best damn kisser
\nThat she’s ever had<\/h4>\n

All these things if I were king
\nWould appear around me
\nThe world will sing when I am king
\nThe world will sing when I am king<\/h4>\n

Daylight waits to shine until the moment you awaken
\nSo you never miss the dawn
\nNo question now, you know which road you’re taking
\nLights all green, the radio plays just the perfect song<\/h4>\n

Well, the war’s been won
\nAll the fights are fought
\nYou find yourself in just the spot
\nIt’s a place where everybody’s got a song to sing
\nJust like the final movie scene
\nThe prince will find his perfect queen
\nThe hero always saves the world
\nThe villains get what they deserve
\nThe boy will always get the girl
\nWhen I am king<\/h4>\n

By the way, Great Big Sea was an awesome Canadian band.\u00a0 Below is a video of them singing “When I Am King.”\u00a0 It turns out the video is from a concert that was held at the Empire Theatre in Belleville, Ontario in 2006.\u00a0 I live south of Belleville but I work there.\u00a0 I’ve been to concerts at the Empire but sadly I missed this one.
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n