Turn It Around

I have often joked, half-heartedly, to my husband that we have a black cloud hanging over us at all times.  If something can go wrong, for us, it goes catastrophically so.

Our tv just stopped working the other night.  We could hear it but there was no picture.  Normally this would mean tons of drama.  Something as simple as a broken tv usually turns into about five more "wrong" things before the problem is remedied.  Not this time!

About a year ago, when the tv was still under warranty, we started having problems with the picture.  We called Sam's club (where we purchased it) and they referred us to Vizio (the manufacturer).  After a few phone calls back and forth a tech was supposed to come out and take a look.  We never heard from anyone again.  After a few phone calls to get someone out here, the tv magically started working again so we just let it go.

Now, a year has passed and we have no tv.  In our "normal" world we would call Sam's, they would tell us how very sorry they are but the tv is out of warranty so too bad.  NOT in our new world.  My husband called, explained the situation and how we tried to have it looked at last year but the ball got dropped so it never happened.  He has all of his receipts, extended warranty info and all of the details of the phone calls.  The manager at Sam's Club told him to come on up and he would make it right.  Boy, did he!

I'm not sure if you all know this or not but flat screen tv's have dramatically dropped in price since the first ones came out.  We got a new 42" tv for the living room, a 22" tv for our bedroom and had almost $400 in store credit.  THAT is making it right.  As soon as the manager saw all of the paperwork he didn't ask another question, just said, "Go pick out a new tv."  That, my friends, is customer service.  A forgotten art in our new busy worlds.

A while back my husband was griping about something.  I told him it was exhausting being around him.  I explained that I had been sucked into his negative energy for too long and that I was going back to the old me.  I have always been very cheerful and positive.  I found myself looking at everything with doom on my mind and jealousy in my heart.  I didn't like it.  There is always going to be someone with more than me.  More beauty, more thinness, more money, a bigger home, a nicer car.  If I try to keep up or outdo I will never stop. 

When something bad happened I was always the one who would be calm.  Stuff happens, it's called life.  My husband would flip and panic and I would talk him down.  I found myself feeling that same sense of despondency and misery every time something else went wrong.  I didn't like it.  It doesn't fit on me.  I don't like being sad and I don't like gloom and doom.  Guess what?  The only one who controls how I look at life is me.  I choose to handle trauma positively.  I find it passes much more quickly and painlessly with the right attitude.

Since that conversation, I really saw my husband trying to handle things differently.  He wouldn't get so frustrated and angry when things went wrong.  I saw a genuine effort and control.  You can bet I was very quick to point out the turn in our luck.  I told him I noticed him trying to put forth good positive energy into the world and asked him if he noticed how this situation turned out much more optimistically than most of ours do.  He said he had been thinking about that ever since I pointed it out and he really was trying to change.  Then he told me I just might be right about this.  I, of course, laughed and agreed but in my mind I was thinking, "THIS?"  Oh darling, I'm right about everything!!