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Living the Last Lecture
This is a continuation of my previous post, Tiggering My Way Through Life, Part 1.
Most people have heard of Randy Pausch by now, and his incredible Last Lecture. When I saw that for the first time, I was of course in tears, but also I understood just what he meant by “Are you a Tigger, or are you an Eeyore?”
All my life, I’ve tried to be a Tigger – but sometimes Eeyore won out. I remember my mom trying to make me “calm down” or “settle down” when I’d be “too excited” about something. I wanted to enjoy everything to the fullest, not smile quietly and act Victorian.
My childhood friend is often embarrassed by my antics when we go out together. Some people would rather stay on the sidelines and be quiet. Me? I’d rather enjoy myself, and to heck with what other people think.
When our office joined a bowling league last spring at the Gravity Alley in Honesdale, we were surprised at how serious most of the other teams were. We were not professionals (I think I finally ended up with an average of 60).
We were there to have fun…I was the Gutter Queen along with my bubbly coworker Sharon. She and I fought for last place; I’m not sure who won, but we had a great time trying. We all cheered enthusiastically if someone hit a pin.
That is, hit a pin…not got a strike or a spare, but hit something. Keeping it out of the gutter was cause for many high-fives. Sharon and I often did a “Butt Bump” in celebration if one of us hit more than one pin. Other teams looked at us like we were nuts, but we had fun.
A bystander pulled me aside and said “I used to bowl in leagues for years. Never did I have as much fun as you guys are having!”
So much of our days is spent in “serious” activity – we have business to attend to, people to meet, things to complete, games to win. It really is nice to stop and smell the evening dew and….moo.
The Last Lecture – a truly productive way to spend an hour. You’ll be glad you did. Randy recently went on from this world, many of us were hoping he’d beat the cancer, but you know, in a way, I think he did.
The other night The Man About the Place and I took the kids out for dinner. It was a spontaneous decision, and we headed to Newfoundland, planning on some pasta or something from Napolitano’s.
Dang, it was closed. The Man and I did not want to go to Scranton, nor did we want fast food. We settled on Kay’s (after convincing The Boy that it was NOT KFC) in Lake Ariel. Had a nice time, nice atmosphere, nothing fancy schmancy, just very nice. Good food.
My husband probably wishes that he drove home.
Upon leaving Kay’s parking lot, instead of turning left to go home, I made a right and said “Let’s see what’s up this road!” As a real estate agent, this is what I do – drive around to see what’s around the bend. The Man was pleasantly surprised to discover an establishment that offers kiln dried wood. Interesting.
See, if we would have just gone straight home, he’d have never known it was there.
Have You Moooed Lately?
We follow this road to its conclusion and end up on Golf Park Road. We turn right.
Well, now the fun begins. I’m silly from eating too much pasta I guess, because we come across a herd of cows, just standing there looking at us. I did the natural thing; I rolled down the window and “MOOOOOOed” at them. The kids giggled.
The Man remained poker faced but I think I made him smirk, anyway. Then we all got to laughing at how funny the cows looked, just staring at us. We came up with things the cows might be saying or thinking.
A bit further down the road, we saw some deer. We pulled over and talked to them too. Silly…I suppose. I see deer all the time, usually with gritted teeth hoping they weren’t about to jump in front of my Honda.
Tonight though, we stopped and talked to them. Well, I talked, the kids laughed, and The Man probably wondered if we were going to get home before midnight.
Tigger would have been proud of me, I think.
Stay tuned for Part Two – Living the Last Lecture.
