It’s been a week to gather so many slice ideas!

I could write about the fact that 29 voters in Northeast Iowa, by no fault of their own, had their ballots thrown out on a technicality last night by a Republican led House. Their only mistake was to trust the United States Postal Service to attach the right code to their ballot. They were in on time, but hours and hours were spent debating the meaning of “intelligent”. Ugh!

#partisonpoliticssucks

Or I could write about the fact it’s currently -7, with a low tonight at -27, and a HIGH temperature tomorrow at -16. I’ve used my snow blower more in the last three weeks than I did all of last year. Yup, the weather sucks!

#dangerouscoldweathersucks

I could write about those, but I’m not. I’m going to write about two people, a “can counter” and a Target employee. Last Friday, I made a mad run to Iowa City to pick up my daughter, and as I was leaving I stopped by our can redemption center. In Iowa, we pay a five cent deposit on most cans and bottles, and get that money back by bringing back the cans. In our little burg, we are lucky enough to have a redemption center. The previous woman who worked there was not a nice person, not at all. She’d yell at people, call them names, scold them for various reasons. My daughters refused to take cans back, and my wife rarely would do this job. The center was moved, and so was this employee, replaced by two of the most friendly, hard working people I’ve met. They greet you with a smile, do their jobs quickly, and always have something positive to say on your way out. Friday was no different, and in fact they thanks me for bringing things in because “it’s been SO SLOW today!!” I always leave with a smile on my face, not because I just got a couple of dollars, but because their positive attitudes are infectious!

On Sunday, in racing back to Iowa City to drop said daughter off, we stopped at Target for “a few things” (this is NEVER the case with our youngest daughter!”. As we are checking out, the cashier starts flipping all of us crap for buying all this stuff for our daughter (seriously, I think two things out of our cart were ours),  and our daughter, for having us buy all this stuff for her since we’d been there TWO weeks ago. As we finished up, she says to us, “Your Target entertainment is done. Have a great day!”

#StandupTargetcomedians

So, these two experiences, two random people and different days, different places, yet two such positive souls out there in the world. Can you imagine a world where this behavior was common place instead of a rarity? Where, regardless of your job, you made the conscious choice to bring your positive attitude each and every day? Quite a place, if I do say so myself.

To finish, I could have written about those negative stories above, but didn’t. Their positive energy rubbed off on me. Enjoy a little positive energy in your life, smile, and live like a happy can counter and Target employee.

#payingthepositivevibeforward