An Unforeseen Complication

Simple is good.  Take simple and work it hard.  Don't make simple so complicated.  That makes absolutely no sense.  That is an unnatural perversion of the concept of simple.


I have taken the time and made the effort to get to know the employees at my new neighborhood coffee shop.  Some of them are more receptive to this than others - wary of a deranged looking hipster doofus - but I think most people like to be addressed by name and with a smile.   I spoke briefly with the manager last week about the upcoming holiday weekend and he mentioned that he was taking his family to a local vacation spot.  Today I asked him how the trip went.  I can tell when I surprise someone with a question like that.  I don't think many people take the time to inquire in the first place and even fewer remember what the response was.  I can feel the ice melt a little in my world, the barriers come down an inch.

Recently I sent an email to the real estate agent who helped us with our apartment.  She's a nice lady and I wish her well.  We sent a few messages back and forth, and she invited us to join her the next time her daughter, a singer, performs locally.  And SuperK and I had dinner with the guy who was our landlord for a year when we first moved to The New City.  I like him and his wife, even though the owner-lessee relationship always starts off a little tense.  No one likes to get taken advantage of, after all.  But we treated his property as if were our own and he allowed us to break our lease a month  early.  In fact, he bought our dinner that night.  We saved him a lot of clean-up and repair money by taking care of his place.  A nice relationship has ensued.


This weekend I made a few phone calls to guys I know in The Program.  These are guys who by all rights should really be making calls to me or to anyone that comes to mind.  Some of them didn't call back.  I expected this but I made the calls anyway.  It helps me to talk to other men in recovery.


Now this kind of behavior is easy for me.  I'm outgoing and as un-self-conscious a guy as you'll ever meet.  I don't mind talking to people I don't know that well and I'm not offended when I'm rebuffed.  Whatever.  But it's my small attempt to stick a little positive juice into the day.  It usually feels inadequate to me because I want everything I do to be dramatic and explosive but I've come to believe that good actions lead to good results.