What a day filled with many events! On my dog walk this morning, I found a neighbor’s wallet where it was lying in the street and reunited it with its owner. I found out later that it fortunately had only been lost, not stolen.
Then at 11 I went over to an elderly neighbor’s home to discuss ways of making her home safer from some trespassing teenagers who have been harassing her lately. Together with her sons, other concerned neighbors, and our community officer, we brainstormed ways to keep this from happening again. She is a very sweet woman and expressed tremendous gratitude for my offering to help. To me it’s nothing. That’s what neighbors are for.
At 1 PM, I showed up at the city council meeting to present a resolution from the Parks board, requesting the new Neuse River Greenway Trail be designated part of the Mountains To Sea Trail. After waiting over 90 minutes for my agenda item to be heard, it was approved unanimously in 90 seconds. It was fun.
I had time to pick up the kids from school, and soon after I cooked up some dinner for them. About 5:15 the kidsitter arrived and I raced out the door to join my wife at the Governor’s Mansion for a reception for her organization, Leadership North Carolina.
It was the second time I’d been in the Governor’s Mansion, the first being one of the public Christmas open houses during Jim Hunt’s last term. To my surprise I didn’t feel particularly comfortable there and I’m a guy who’s daydreamed about occupying the Governor’s Mansion. I think the problem stemmed from not knowing hardly anybody there and not sharing the common bond of having gone through the LNC course like most at the reception.
I was also feeling extremely self-conscious about not being employed. Here I was around all these movers and shakers and I’ve been looking for work for two months. I kept waiting for the inevitable question of “what do you do?” to surface, at which point I probably would’ve turned as red as the nearest antique sofa. Fortunately it never did, and as the night wore on I began to regain my confidence.
There are strong signs that this uncomfortable, in-between state I’m in is coming to an end. I’ve always considered that the best learning comes from being out of one’s comfort zone. With any luck I’ll feel a little dumber soon!