Day 18!

Day 18: Get Rid of the Negative.

I had no idea how many negative thoughts run through my head in one day.

Until today.

I considered myself a fairly optimistic person who enjoyed the art of sarcasm as my form of humor. What I didn't think about was how much of my humor was fueled by my negative thoughts.

Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling like I was hit by a train. I was incredibly sick, I had already had a day off from work that week, and I knew I had to get to work somehow. So between getting sick and getting ready, somehow I made it into work. I proceeded to have the most pathetic attempt at working for one hour before I knew I had to give up and go home. White flag.

So as I was laying on my couch, thinking of the repercussions this could cause me at work, feeling bad for myself, drinking water and eating soup, I tried to think of the positive in this scenario. I get to watch re-runs of Everybody Loves Raymond all day because Drew Carey makes it impossible to watch The Price is Right when you're sick, I guess. But when I started thinking of the positives, I wasn't feeling better. I was feeling guilty.

How dare I think of the positives of being sick from work today! I'm missing work, damn it, and we're really far behind! So I read work emails until I fell asleep because the mental fight between feeling guilty or feeling negative was too much for my sick-brain to handle.

And after a long day of the back-and-forth, I had to pick up my friend Troy from the airport. He's never been to Philadelphia and was excited to experience all of the charms and magic our city had to offer. Within the first hour in the city, he had made a Good List and a Bad List. Here's what it looked like:

Bad:

Traffic

Pollution

A lot of cops

Building on fire

Guy peeing on the side of a CVS

Good:

Cheesesteaks

I attempted to think of the people in traffic as having their own story and coming from nice, loving families, until someone cut me off on the boulevard. Then the screaming commenced and Philly Danielle scared the hell out of Charlotte Troy.

But if you would have caught me on my day off this week, which consisted of a manicure, teriyaki steak, and a Ryan Gosling movie, it would have been much easier to write today's blog. So let's just pretend that Friday was Wednesday, and that I didn't fail at being a positive person amidst the traffic and disease.