Nice and Nostalgia

N is for nice. People always say I'm "nice". In grade school, whenever we had one of those activities where you're supposed to write something you admire about the people in your class, I always got a page full of, "You are nice." I'm not saying they're wrong, but I assume that they wrote that because they didn't have anything else to say since I never really gave anyone a chance to get to know. I was shy/anti-social that way. Still am, come to think of it. I had a friend in high school who, after I said something sarcastic, said "Annie, you're too nice to be sarcastic. It just comes out sounding rude." Food for thought, for sure. Anyway, I don't feel like the nicest person in the world. I have hurt enough people I care about to know differently. But, I am trying to be nice in the fullest sense of the word. It's one of my aspirations.

N is also for nostalgia. This one kind of forced itself on me today. While I was out and about this evening with my little family I kept hearing songs that reminded me of different times in my life. The first was "Smooth" by Santana featuring Rob Thomas. That takes me back to college when I thought it was the best song in the world. I loved it. Even bought the single. The next was "You Were Meant For Me" by Jewel. I loved Jewel for the longest time. I used to listen to her all the time and I really mean ALL the time. The first concert I went to that was my own choice was Jewel. That was awesome. Wendy and Kelly went with me. It was so fun. The third was... shoot, I forgot the name of it, but it was a Sublime song that reminds me of a certain summer in Vegas and a trumpet player in a ska band named Wes. Wait! I remember, it was "The Wrong Way". Ah, good times.

This story has nothing to do with the letter N, but I laughed so hard I had to share it, although I know it was really only this funny to me. We went out to dinner today and as we drove down the street with our windows open a hapless dragonfly flew itself into our car. I watched in utter amusement as this poor dragonfly, perhaps thinking it had caught a free ride, had to keep flying as we moved forward because it wouldn't land. The irony of it struck me with immense hilarity. I was busting a gut. Anyway, I guess you had to be there and in my head at the time to think it was funny.