Today

Today was a very challenging day.

I say that because being the eternal optimist that I am, I don’t want to refer to some annoying set backs as a ‘BAD day’.  It all started when I woke up at 10:00 am and realized that I overslept and would probably be late for my DMV appointment to replace my license that was stolen a day earlier.  I hurried on my bike to the bus stop, got to the DMV and realized that I forgot my bike lock.  So, I rode my bike back home and decided to treat myself to a nice breakfast. After a filling meal, I made the effort to do something about replacing my glasses that were also stolen, along with passport, cell phone, camera, and various other belongings.  It turns out that the eye doctor’s office could not give me my prescription over the phone so I they said they would fax it in half an hour to a local UPS office in town.  Well, after biking my way to get new passport photos, I went to pick up my fax, which had, after two hours, not arrived yet, I was furious.  My patience was wearing thin since missing my DMV appointment, struggling with various little annoyances getting out of the house, trying to get info on non-working websites, knocking over my easel with my bike, you name it, it happened.  So, since I didn’t have my cell phone to call and bitch out my eye doctor’s office, I looked around for a pay phone, which by the way, don’t exist anymore, I was ready to cry.  I rode by a fancy boutique hotel asking if they had a payphone and a waiter said, “no, but you can use our regular phone”.  Those words rang out like songs from Heaven.  Seriously, I couldn’t believe my ears,  “You mean for free?” I thought.  Well, I called the eye doctor’s office and made some heads roll and got them to fax the info right away, to which I expressed my great appreciation, of course, I’m not an ogre after all.  Just to make sure that I gave enough time for the fax to arrive, I stopped by a local brewery to have a beer to help adjust my attitude, and I’m so glad I did. The two guys I sat next to at the bar, Ian and Seth, were from England and we started to chat it up a bit.  I mentioned that I was planning a trip to India and Ian said, “Oh, I’ve made that trip”, and he proceeded to give me his ‘must see’ recommendations. That exchange at the bar and the waiter letting me make a phone call, left me feeling like everything was going to be okay, and all coming from kind interactions between complete strangers.  It truly made all the previous little setbacks seem like tiny pebbles in the road instead of roadblocks.  The human spirit continues to amaze me when I least expect it, and for this reason I remain an eternal optimist.