By Charlotte Byus
The last few weeks I have not had much to write about, I have tried, but most came out fussing or complaining. I kept the notes but realized I needed to work on Charlotte and find my happy place. The following was not funny at the time, but a day later I really had to laugh. Yesterday was Friday the 13th on a Sunday. Every Sunday there are two ships at port in Galveston and if you do not get to the port between 6:30 – 7am you will not find a place to park. We three who car pool decided last week we would leave 30 minutes earlier than normal, that is where the crazy day started. I should have posted a note several places in the house but did I? Well no!

So Saturday night, RR set the alarm 20 minutes later than normal because I knew I could get ready timely and not waste sleep time. Now one of the problems with that is about 2am, I had a coughing spell, finally went back to sleep, only to be in deep sleep when the alarm went off. Pushed the button on the coffee pot and headed for the shower. I got the make-up on, the hair fixed and was heading for clothes, when I looked outside and saw my car pool drive up. OH DARN, Nothing for breakfast, no lunch fixed and no clothes on! Threw the pants on, CRAP – no socks – start over – answer the door saying “give me 5!” I threw on my clothes, put a cold pack and two waters in the lunch box and hit the door. CRAP again! Momma Kitty thinks she is starving! Stop and feed the cat.

Finally made it to the car and apologized and off we went. About then, I discovered I did not have my glasses on, Oh CRAP again! Well the good thing is we made it to the ferry with 10 minutes to spare, yea! The bad thing – it was our turn to go through screening, I must say, there were NO nice words said by all three of us! And then we began our wait, and we waited, no 7am ferry. So I called the ferry tower. “Hello, where is the 7am ferry?” “Well, you see we had engine trouble and had to start another ferry, it should be there in 7 minutes.”

So we waited some more – finally a ferry showed up and off we went. By then, it was 7:40 and once again, we were going to have a problem finding a place to park.

Got to work and guess what? A new way to sign in, we all laugh. We made it through that and head off to set up our stations. We loaded our turnstiles full of lanyards and headed for the elevator. As we’re getting off the elevator, one of the wheels got stuck in the opening between the elevator and the floor. Guess what? Both went down! There were hundreds of lanyards all over the floor with broken holders everywhere. We grabbed everything and headed for our area to repair and re-hang. Needless to say, before the four of us were able to finish our task, we had happy travelers everywhere. Time to Smile!

About an hour into our day, I was still struggling to see my screen and tell people the total price of their purchases – thank goodness this was not my first day. At least I knew where all the buttons were. A family came up and the Mom saw the problems I was having, I acknowledged that I had left my reader glasses at home. This wonderful lady opened her purse and handed me her extra pair. Oh My, I just wanted to cry for joy. I asked if I could give her a hug, she laughed and said “of course.” I Can See! Now if I can quit coughing from sinus drainage. I had no time this morning to take my meds. I had gone through the cough drops in my pocket and was trying to work and turn my head into my arm at the same time. Another nice lady saw my problem and handed me a handfull of cough drops.

On our way home, we had to laugh about the horror of our day and be thankful for the kind and wonderful people we meet every sailing day. Even the smallest rainbow can help your day.

The moral here, for me, is: people are always watching and will help if you let them. All of our problems, no really, all of my problems of this day were helped and solved by strangers and kind people.

Open your eyes and heart and look around, someone may need your help or a kind word. You will never know if you just keep walking ahead in your own world. Look around and Be Nice. Our world really needs this from each and everyone of us.

Peace and Love

[4-23-2018]