
I hate lines. And yet, I drove to the mall tonight to get some holiday shopping done. The dashboard said the temperature outside was 65 degrees. We live in the Northeast. It's December 15. NOT normal.
The mall had people milling around but it wasn't exactly bustling. And it's just 10 days till Christmas. NOT normal.
Despite that, I stood online for 15 minutes at one department store (Macy's!) to check out. TOTALLY normal. Subprime mortgage crisis aside, could ridiculously slow cashiers be one reason for the crappy economy?
Ah, patience. You'd think that when you have a kid with special needs, you might end up with more of it. And the thing is, for Max, I do have all the patience in the world. I never, ever get frustrated with him for not being able to do something. I will go over the same thing—numbers, colors, the name of the city we live in—again and again so he absorbs it. I have learned to toss the parenting books and ask Babycenter to quit sending me weekly e-mails about milestones, and just pay attention to what Max is doing, rather than what he isn't.
I also have a goodly amount of patience for my job, which I adore. But in all other areas of life—like waiting on any line or waiting for something to load on this computer—I have very little patience. I have so much to DO in general that I have minus-zero time to wait around for trivial things.
Know what I mean?