DUNGEONS & DRAGONS!!!

 

I had one of the worst weeks at work I think I've ever had.  So many problems and interruptions.  I didn't do anything I had planned.  

I blew up at my son, and I need to apologize.  He has patiently been trying to teach me how to play Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playing game for super smart people, and I've just got too much on my plate right now.

In this game, you create a fantasy character, and you travel on an amazing adventure with other characters, and the Dungeon Master (my son) narrates the story and decides if you fail or succeed after a roll of the dice.  This is a drawing my son drew of my character.  I'm a Druid Firbolg.

"It will be fun!" he said.  "You will love it," he told me.  "It's not that hard," he encouraged.  Well, that's all crap!  Picking up trash is a piece of cake compared to learning how to play Dungeons & Dragons with all the spells and abilities and levels.  Geez!

My job has been so stressful the last two months that I have been stress eating.  And yesterday, I stepped on my bathroom scale, and I gained 10 pounds!  Even with all the walking I do every day!  Really?

So I started on a healthy eating plan, and that means no potato chips, no cookies, and no candy to calm my nerves.  And when I stepped on the scale this morning, I was down three pounds.  I had no idea I was eating so much food!

I was in a really crabby mood after work, and I thought about something one of my friends told me today,   She said, "Picking up trash is like therapy for you!"  

So off I went to the Dollar Store on Main & Mapledale to pick up trash and find some therapy.

The Gionino's Pizza Shop is across the street from the Dollar Store.  The smell of their award-winning pizza about killed me!  I'm sure they pipe that smell across the road to get customers.  Wow!  Really good pizza is the ultimate comfort food!

And right next door to the Dollar Store is the Ido on Main, my favorite restaurant.  I could actually imagine the taste of their fried chicken as I picked up trash, and that wasn't a bad thing at all.

I picked up 1,307 pieces of trash at the Dollar Store, and over by the fence, it was really bad, as it usually is by a fence.  There was a man sitting in his car watching me.  (That would have been creepy had I known he was watching me.)

Then he got out of his car and came over to chat.  He said he watched me transform that area into a park!  I smiled and felt so good.  

We talked a while, and he said he sees me all over town.  I wonder how many people see me and wonder why I pick up trash. . . those who haven't heard my story on TV.

I felt so good after talking to him.  He said he would buy me a water.   I told him I had water in my car.  But then the manager came out with an ice-cold bottle of water, and I took it.  That's the second time she gave me a bottle of water and thanked me for cleaning the parking lot.

I know businesses are supposed to clean their properties.  It's the law.  The Gionino's is trash free.  The Ido on Main is spotless.  But the Dollar Stores can't keep up.  I told the guy I met tonight, "I keep the parking lot clean, because I can either clean it here or clean it when it blows down the street."

The manager stood at the doorway and looked at how nice the parking lot looked after I cleaned it.  That felt pretty good too.

There were hundreds of cigarette butts in the mulch around the store.  I told the manager, "It takes two to ten years for a cigarette butt to biodegrade.  That's why there are so many here."

Somebody has to pick them up, and I guess I was voted in.  Nobody else seems to care.  I'm thinking when the cigarette butts are piled up so high you can't see over them, then maybe someone will shovel them up.  But for now, it's me.

Heading home, I drove down Sweitzer, and it was a mess.  I pulled my car over and picked up 661 pieces on both sides of one block.  I think it was the only block that was bad.  I don't know why.  It's all clean now.

The therapy definitely worked.  I feel so much better now.  

Ready for the weekend!