Always carry a litter bag in your car, if it gets full you can throw it out the window.
Don’t remember much from my dad. He died early. But I remember he said, “don’t sit on cold concrete, it will give you hemorrhoids”. Well, at least I have something to share.
Wait, what?
“Sex is dirty; save it for the one you love.”
And from Meatballs: “It just doesn’t matter.”
“Whatever you do, don’t marry her.”
“Proper prior preparation prevents poor performance.”
(most often uttered after a plea for someone to bring me a clean towel after stepping out of the shower)
A very big, scary looking guy glared at me and growled, “Don’t fuck with me”.
I thought about it and complied with his request. Things went well. Ever since, I’ve gone outa my way not to fuck with big, scary looking dudes.
When discussing a timeline for achieving a goal, and relating it to my future age, as in, it will take so long to get there…You are going to be future ageanyway. Why not use the time between now and future age becoming who you want to be?
Move aggressively, fight defensively.
Don’t repeat yourself: they heard you the first time.
Add some extra time to the schedule for unexpected stops.
Don’t sleep as much as you feel like. Ditto for eating. Double ditto for potato chips.
Throw down about a thousand pencil lines, ink somewhere in the middle, then erase the pencils.
Men will only do as much as you expect of them.
I got this advice from my mom, and I don’t like to think it’s true but I find it useful when it does turn out to be true.
My father was the first one I heard this from: “A coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero dies but once.” Unfortunately, I was only a young (and terrified) child at the time, and it took me many years to understand it fully.
The other thing he told me when I was a teenager. I had lent some money to my best friend, and when my father found out, I thought he was going to do his usual rant and rave with heavy-handed lecture. Instead, he just mentioned that when you lend money to a friend, you run the risk of losing both the friend and the money. I was impressed, mostly because he didn’t lose his temper and talked to me almost like a human being.
I later realized that neither of these thoughts were original with him, but he had the wit to recognize them and pass them on.
Roddy
“When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging”
Maternal grandfather.
With regard to how to deal with a situation where I could try to shove it under the rug or have an uncomfortable confrontation, a co-worker once told me that, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant. Get it out in the open and resolve it.”
That advice has served me well.
I needed to read that. Thank you.
No, they didn’t. But still, don’t repeat yourself, because they won’t hear you the second time either.
How about “don’t let your cat crap in the car”?
After my husband died, another recent widow told me: Whatever you are feeling is ok. Don’t add shame or guilt to emotions that surprise you or that you don’t like.
Short, simple, but oh so helpful in the emotion storm of loss. Loneliness, fear, shock - we expect those emotions. But there are also times of anger, relief, freedom, release. Unexpected, frightening emotions that rock you to the core. It was so helpful to have her advice to simply accept the feelings and move on, rather than layering shame and guilt onto them. (Of course shame and guilt are feelings in and of themselves, but they don’t need to be layered on other feelings unnecessarily.)
“Things may not work out for you in exactly the way that you expect or hope for. Nonetheless, they will work out for you. That’s what believing in God is all about.”
My grandfather used to say to my parents - who were drinking, smoking, and not eating right and exercising as they all did in the 60’s and 70’s “The only thing keeping you alive is your youth.”
Imagine my mother’s stunned surprise when I yelled this same phrase at my sisters, never having met my grandfather (died before I was born) and never hearing the phrase before.
After that one, my favorite is “Row as if all the boats are empty”
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As I was leaving for my frist job interview, my father told me “Sit on your hands, and don’t pay attention to the loader working in the yard.” While I was trying to concentrate on not fidgeting with my hands, I noticed the REALLY COOL LOADER DOING ALL KINDS OF COOL THINGS just outside the window. I suddenly saw the relevance of this advice, which has served me well, in a less literal sense, in all subsequent interviews.
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Scouting rapids, trying to plan my line, I identified a river feature of particular concern. I asked a more experienced boater in our party “How do I avoid that pourover? The water seems to push in that direction.” He shrugged and replied “Don’t go there.” with the same tone you would use to say “How do I avoid getting caught picking my nose?” - “Don’t pick your nose.” It reminded me that my fate was in my own hands, and if I did nothing, the world would have it’s way with me, whereas if I did something, I had some say in the way things unfolded.