The Drive with Chlesea

Today I drove with my 18 year old daughter Chelsea to Heber City, Utah to fix my wife's car. My wife was in Heber City to cheer on her best friends daughters at the Utah High School Rodeo finals.

So, as we were heading up there, Chels found my cd's and I knew we were in for a treat. We started with Journey, followed by Colin Ray, followed by Kelly Clarkson, and then Wicked. She loves Journey, I then MADE her listen to the Colin Ray song, What if Jesus Came Back Like That, and then we listened to Kelly Clarkson and then the cd of Wicked.

Chelsea is a singer. She has sang her whole life and I love it. She has been in musicals, plays, concert choirs and is on a cd for a musical I co-wrote. Since she has threatened me if I tell everyone what song and cd it is on, I will not.

She sang loud and beautiful. I listened and smiled. That is how we operate. Me and Chels.

She tells me something and I smile, and sometimes the things she tells me I just shake my head. She is so much like me it is scary.

I hate it that she has tatoos, and she hates it that I have a big belly. I hate that she hasn't finished hair school, and she hates it that I keep bugging her about it. I don't like her piercings, and she doesn't like that I am grumpy some times. But life goes on. We all pick our battles. I have people that say, "My child will never have a tatoo, or my child will never have an earring in their nose or eyebrow". I used to say that same thing. I know that my daughter is a good person.

We are the same, and yet we are so different. But we understand each other. People tease us because we get along so well together. I love that girl! And she loves me. It makes the world go around!

Oh, and she is happy, and very positive. So, I guess I have done something right!

Mr Positive

Some of my friends gave me the name Mr. Positive. Not because I am always positive, but because I try to be so. I swear more than I should, just drive with me and you will hear it. I really try to find positive in people.

Right now I am going through a very tough part of my life, but I have to keep positive. It is hard. At times I cry, at times I am depressed, but I keep getting up each day and telling myself that today is going to be a good day.

So, it is 12:30 at night and I am going to go to bed. But you can bet on it, that when I get up, I am going to look for positive things to fill my day.

One step at a time. One breath at a time. Keep striving to fix the bad and make it good.

A Feel Good Story from my Journal

I just opened the door at the newspaper office at 9:05 this morning, and a very nice older lady walked in. She had her hair in curlers, and slightly hunched back, and smelled like Ben Gay. I opened the door for her and she said she wanted a hug. I had seen her before, but I didn’t know who she was. I got up to her and gave her a hug.

Which I thought a little strange.

"Do you know why I gave you a hug?" She asked

"No, but if I was 40 years older, we might be a couple now", I replied

In today's newspaper you said people are not as nice as they should be. You always have a way of making people feel better about everything. I just love your column in the paper. It is what I always look forward to reading first. And I live by what you write. Someday you will be famous. Then she winked, and walked out.

That was the end of wrote that day. But it has me wondering why she though that. And for the few days I have been staying in Morgan, Utah, where I ran that paper. And during the day I have been cleaning out my moms old store, and at night I have been reading a lot of my old columns. I think the last count was 289 of them. And as I am reading them this last few days I have seen that almost all of them were positive.

Then I wonder why? I was going through a divorce during that time, I was struggling to make enough money and I was putting in a lot of hours, way to many.

As I look back now, I think my column was positive because I wanted and needed positive examples in my life. I still try to write about positive things, because I still need reminders in my life and my readers that there are good people out there.

It is a great day to be alive.

I was in my old hometown today. I ran two different newspapers there for nine years. I had to take this photo. It is at Steph's Drive in on main Street.

It says, It's a great day to be alive. It is.

People see positive, they act positive. People act positive, they live positive.

I wonder how many people were happy today because they saw that sign.

Thanks J.R. for running such a great place. GO LIVE!