Ten Good Things...Anyone Else Wanna Play?

Back by popular demand (!?) The Ten Good Things.

This time, though, I took the liberty of creating a template for the list. For two reasons: One, because my sleep-deprived brain needs a little prompting in order to create a decent list in less than six hours (or to keep myself from falling asleep in the middle of it….) And, two, because I thought maybe some of you who like the list so much would like to play, too.

So how about it? Post the link to YOUR ten good things in the comments…

Ten Good Things Template

1. Best thing you’ve seen in the past week
2. Best thing you’ve heard in the past week.
3. Best thing you’ve eaten (or not, for dieters) in the past week.
4. Best thing you’ve learned in the past week.
5. Best place you’ve been in the past week.
6. Best thing you’ve accomplished in the past week.
7. Best thing you’ve said (or not) in the past week.
8. Best thing you’ve read in the past week.
9. Most touching moment in the past week.
10. Biggest dragon you’ve slain in the past week.

Here are mine:

1. Best thing I’ve seen? Standing room only at the café. We had a little event last Thursday night: We arranged with a student at the local high school to do his senior music class project at our place—so we had a "Café Concert." The students were happy, the parents were beaming, everyone was well-lubricated with various beverages (wine and beer for the adults, Italian sodas and coffees for the students.) We will have to do this again…
2. Compliments. The positive feedback is starting to roll in at the café. Customers commenting on the food, the service, the décor, telling me how much they love the place and how "we need a place like this around here." I don’t think I could ever hear too much of this…
3. I’ve been trying revive the Weight Watcher’s religion. To limited success—I’ve only lost about two pounds in three weeks—but at least my eating is not out of control anymore. All of my pants have been "shrinking" over the past several months…and I was NOT inclined to go out and purchase a whole new wardrobe. Again. So I dragged out the points counter and started recording everything that went into my mouth. I may not have lost much weight yet, but I feel a whole lot better.
4. I learned that I have moved on. In a big way. I will write more about that later…
5. I love our walks along the channel with the dog. We have been lucky enough to have decent weather most Sundays. This past week, we didn’t see any eagles, but we did say "hi" to the osprey up on top of the power tower. And we got to smell the cottonwoods…a sure sign of spring in Oregon.
6. Since we hardly live at home anymore, house cleaning is mostly about trying to control the clouds of animal hair, washing a few wine glasses and dessert dishes, making the bed and doing laundry. And I struggle to have the time or energy to even keep up with that. But last week, I actually had time to vacuum through the downstairs. Woo-Hoo!
7. I told one of my girls that she was swiftly becoming my favorite employee. Which in itself isn’t the best thing I’ve said all week but I hope it’s representative of what I’m trying to accomplish with my employees. Positive feedback. Strokes. Making a point of complimenting a good performance. Most of my crew are still in training, so I spend a lot of time telling them what they aren’t doing right. I’m trying to balance that with giving them a sense of accomplishment when they demonstrate they have learned something. I think it’s working…
8. I’ve seen a couple of really pithy bumper stickers lately. One of my favorites: "Bush Deserves Another Term…Prison." We can dream, can’t we?
9. Geez…I’m having trouble with the "most touching moment" concept. I think it’s because my life lately has been about trying to turn off emotions, the better to keep pushing forward. How about this: I’ve actually been getting compliments on my clothes from the youngsters who work for me. I guess that must mean I’m not a hopelessly dated, shriveledup old hag…yet.
10. Payroll is a big pain in the ass for me. Anything I have to take time off the line to sit down and address, and then physically leave the premises of the café to accomplish, is an iffy proposition at best. And my accountant is an idiot, but that’s a different story… But this past week, I dispatched the "payroll demon" with amazing alacrity. I got it to the accountant on time, picked it up from the accountant on time, and got the checks written and organized the night before they were due out. Which was a good thing, because my cook chose Friday morning to wimp out on me and I was stuck standing in for her during the time I had planned to sit and write payroll. I just felt like sticking my tongue out and saying "neener-neener" on that one…

That’s it for this time around. Anyone else want to play?

Tags: Ten Good Things