Patricia Stoltey

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A Tough Day

June 2, 2009 By: Patricia

Monday was a lousy day for a lot of people.

An Air France flight was lost somewhere in the Atlantic. Turbulence and lightning don’t usually knock airplanes out of the sky.

The General Motors bankruptcy was distressing, even though we knew it was inevitable. Another 20,000 workers to lose their jobs. Dealerships to close. More taxpayer money thrown into the GM wishing well.

I had a heck of a time trying to blog about something pleasant when all this was going on, but even in the toughest situations, there’s something good. So in the midst of reading the headline stories, trying to figure out why our President puts a period after every phrase in his speeches, and puzzling over the stock market gains on a day when all hell was breaking loose, I saw these good things in my life:

1. I added almost 1,300 words to my novel.

2. I learned how to use the Instant Message chat capabilites in my e-mail program.

3. Because my critique group was meeting at my house last evening, I managed to sweep the front step.

4. The grilled cheese sandwiches my husband and I had for supper (with an excellent salad) were made with sharp cheddar cheese. Grilled cheese sandwiches are one of the greatest foods known to man.

5. I don’t personally know any vampires or werewolves so I’m fairly certain they don’t exist. This is an especially good thing.

We’ll hope today goes a lot better for folks who are having a rough time.

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Comments

  1. Linda Suzane says

    June 8, 2009 at 5:13 pm

    I so enjoyed this post since I was the one you learned to chat with and I definitely agree about grill cheese sandwiches. I love all different kinds, Velvetta cheese, or sharp cheddar with ground pepper on sour dough, or monterey jack, mild cheddar, and mayo. It’s hard to choose which is my favorite. Just depends on what sounds good.

    I think I should do more look on the bright side posts.

  2. Enid Wilson says

    June 3, 2009 at 2:50 am

    Great idea, Pat, to find some sunshine in the rain. I think I will follow your idea and have some chocolate to make myself feel better.

    In Quest of Theta Magic

  3. N A Sharpe says

    June 2, 2009 at 10:46 pm

    I love this post – accentuating the positive. (BTW, congrats on 1300 words on the WIP. I have got to get going on mine again. I really need more hours in a day.) I heard there was a newspaper that opened for the sole purpose of reporting the good news. They went bankrupt in record time and had to close their doors. What a sad sign of the times.

    You are definitely right, those were horrific headline stories to deal with. My heart really goes out to all the lives both incidents have touched.

    And, finally, grilled cheese (mmmmmmm, the ultimate comfort food ‘specially if you had maybe a little cup of cream of tomato soup to go with it…okay, now I’m hungry, sigh.)

    Nancy, from Just a Thought…

  4. Jane Kennedy Sutton says

    June 2, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    I like your positive approach to all the negative things in the news. And congrats on the 1300 words!

    Jane Kennedy Sutton
    http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/

  5. kbkeilbach says

    June 2, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    Your blog reminded me how important it is to savor the little things. I had a divine BLT today, and it was worth every calorie. Yum!

    Kimberly
    http://kbkeilbach.blogspot.com

  6. Terry Odell says

    June 2, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    You have to have tomato soup with those grilled cheese sandwiches.

    Good luck Galen — our house hasn’t even had a nibble yet. Makes keeping it clean a drag if nobody’s going to look.

  7. Marvin D. Wilson says

    June 2, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    Way to look on the bright side. 🙂

    The Old Silly from Free Spirit Blog

  8. Galen Kindley says

    June 2, 2009 at 11:15 am

    Well, I’m in full sympathy mode with you. Here’s what happened on my “bad” day. Six days short of closing, the sale of my house fell through—buyer lost his job. Lots of repercussions from that, I can assure you.
    Here’s the—relative and so far, not confirmed—good news. I’m trying to work with the buyer to simply postpone, not cancel the purchase through a rent-back thing where he moves in, pays rent, gets job, buys house, we all live happily. We’ll see.

    Best Regards, Galen.
    GalenKindley.com

  9. Helen Ginger says

    June 2, 2009 at 9:42 am

    Patricia, those grilled cheese sandwiches sound good. Even with sharp cheddar, though, they’re not the same as the ones my mother made with white bread. Curses on healthy wheat bread!

    I, too, am glad vampires and werewolves don’t actually exist.

    Helen
    Straight From Hel

  10. The Practical Preserver says

    June 2, 2009 at 8:11 am

    There’s always good out there, but sometimes you have to dig deep to find it. It seems that when one thing goes wrong it gets much easier to find other bad things things as well. Then it takes a special effort – sharp cheese, for example – to burst out and find the glory and the beauty again.

  11. Karen Walker says

    June 2, 2009 at 7:27 am

    Love this post, Pat. It can be so hard to find the positive in the midst of chaos, especially hard things we have no control over.
    Karen
    http://www.karenfollowingthewhispers.blogspot.com

  12. Elizabeth Spann Craig says

    June 2, 2009 at 7:08 am

    Good for you for looking at the positive!Love your post. And grilled cheese sandwiches are sounding really good right now.

    Elizabeth
    Mystery Writing is Murder

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. Read More…

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