it's all in how you say it...

I had an experience at work a couple weeks ago which has stayed with me.

I had a table of 3 come in to eat and I took their order, brought them their food when it was ready, checked in on them a couple times. All seemed fine...UNTIL she came up to pay and complained with quite a bit of anger. She felt I had been "abrupt with a rude tone" when I was taking their order, which I of course was by no means trying to be. I tried to apologize, which she did not seem to want to hear at all from me. I found myself getting more upset due to her tone and manner. I started to tear up

(which is not normal for me, but I was a bit PMS'y)

at which point she got even angrier and said "see you are getting upset right now" which implied I had been upset or moody before. Just for the record I was having a great day and was not in a bad mood like she thought. Of course I am going to get upset when someone is face on attacking me and what I believe to be my character. I can only guess that my tone when taking their order had been non- friendly to them for some reason, but what I find interesting in retrospect is how abrasive her tone was when talking to me. It was like she felt justified in being so rude and confrontative as in her mind I had treated her that way.

After she left I asked my co-worker her opinion upon the whole exchange & she felt I had been sincere with my apology. She felt that I had made every attempt to pacify & please this guest and made the comment that "come on it is just food!"

Agreed!

So, since then I have listened with more awareness to not only my tone, but those within customer service in my daily life. I think as a whole we expect so much from the people who wait on us, be it at the store or a restaurant. Take a moment to reflect on the fact that they are people also. Yes, they are there to do a service, but remember they are people too. I would bet that if you give them a smile or polite word they will return the favor!

40 things...

So, I'm making a list of 40 things I want to accomplish in my 40th year.

I figure I am starting a new era so i should kick it off with a bang!

I am taking suggestions on things to put on the list as I am stalled out at 25....feel free to give me ideas!

To give you perspective I have put my top 10 below...

1. Zip line

2. go to a museum & see a major work of art (Van Gogh, Degas etc)

3. try stand up paddling

4. Hike all of the trails listed in the Day Hikes of SLO Co. book

5. reach my goal weight (1/3 of the way there!)

6. Finally make that trip to Catalina with my bestie

7. travel to any of the cities on my "want to see" list

8. ride a horse

9. pay off my credit card

10. read all the books in my TBR pile

and what would you do?

so big can be sexy, but is it healthy?

Found this blog :

http://myfitspiration.com/2011/09/is-big-really-sexy/

to be interesting as I was told about this show by a friend and after watching 3 episode so far I am torn on how I feel about the show as a whole.

I am working very hard at being a healthier version of myself and I do worry for the extra weight that the woman are carrying & how it can affect their health.

At first I thought they all seemed so comfortable with their bodies, but I will say after watching multiple episodes they all seem to have some self esteem issues just like most women.

In a episode where there was a fashion show, more than one of the women had problems with being seen in a swimsuit on the catwalk.

I think as women we have things we love & hate about our body at any size. I always hear from friends how much they will love their body when they lose weight, yet when they get to their goal they find that they are still not satisfied.

I am working with learning to love my body at the size it is while making it a smaller, healthier body. I want my body to be a strong one, able to let me do more and life longer, losing weight will enable me to do this, which is why I am working so hard.

I will never be a small girl, I have always been of the curvy variety & have no shame in liking that for myself. What I want is to be more athletic, strong, and confident with a lighter step!

I do love though that there are shows on TV that show women of a larger size to show everyone that there is beauty in all sizes!