{"id":360,"date":"2009-07-13T10:12:33","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T17:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=360"},"modified":"2025-11-08T09:28:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T16:28:20","slug":"optimist-vs-pessimist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=360","title":{"rendered":"Optimist vs Pessimist"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day I got a speeding ticket.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Put me right into a funk, I’ll tell ya.\u00a0\u00a0 And it wasn’t even on the freeway.\u00a0 Between my house and Eithne’s is a big long hill.\u00a0 So I’m coming home from dropping something off, cruising down the hill and I see a motorcycle cop.\u00a0 Dammit!\u00a0\u00a0 I know the city needs money but, Dammit!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sure enough he pulls me over.\u00a0\u00a0 He was very nice about it, although not flirty.\u00a0 I’ve been pulled over by flirty…very fun…still get a ticket but you’re not unhappy you got it!\u00a0\u00a0 Still, Officer P. Fletcher was cordial, unsmiling but took a lot of extra time with me.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, it was a new car for me that’s why I didn’t have my tags.\u00a0 Sure I bought it used but from a dealer, don’t they know what they’re doing.\u00a0 Me, sincerely, “Should I be worried I don’t have the tags by now?”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I think he wasn’t sure what to make of me.\u00a0 Suspicious details\u00a0surround me.\u00a0 Hot red car, cute stylish woman driving it, but she’s got three kids in the back, her license is a PO box but her insurance is a street address.\u00a0 I was raising red flags everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0 And getting out of the car to see if my personality could ‘raise’ anything else to get out of the ticket has never been my style.\u00a0 Especially with my kids in the car!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(I could segue here into ticket stories but I’ll save it for another blog, this is about my pessimist.)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So the whole things puts a large damper on my personal enthusiasm and the two sides of that coin start arguing in my head.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pessimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>What did I do to deserve a ticket!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Optimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s just your turn, someone has to get it, don\u2019t take it personal.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Pessimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The universe hates me.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Optimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Well if you thinking that you\u2019d better get ready for more bad luck.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Pessimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>So it\u2019s my fault for liking motorcycles & the idea of seducing a cop?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Optimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>If you can bring stuff to you by thinking, start thinking of winning the lottery!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Pessimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Only bad stuff seems to happen that way.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Optimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Bullshit, go to traffic school and its off your record.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Pessimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Have to because of the accident I just had, and it all costs money!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Optimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But think of the people you\u2019ll get to meet.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Pessimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Yucky reprobates\u2026slimy idiots with beer bellies.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Optimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Go to traffic school by the beach and go as Cat\u2026you\u2019ll have a blast.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Pessimist:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Hmmmm, the gas might be worth that\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And boom, now I’m looking forward to it!\u00a0\u00a0 That’s how the optimist wins.\u00a0 She finds something, anything, positive to dwell on instead of the negative.\u00a0\u00a0 And if its something to look forward to in the future…jackpot.\u00a0 Because nothing keeps your spirits up than something hopeful to look forward to.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

That, my friends, is a muscle every one of us needs to develop to survive.\u00a0\u00a0 Its one of the reasons GNO is so important to us.\u00a0 Its something we can look forward to in our future.\u00a0 But to really stay happy you have to see the path your on as something hopeful for the future.\u00a0\u00a0 Much harder to do…and baby steps is often the only way to do it.\u00a0\u00a0 Because with a new muscle we have to use it a little, a lot of times.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Like on a ticket.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As we drove away my youngest admitted he was hiding.\u00a0\u00a0He said, “I thought we were all going to jail!”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I got a speeding ticket. Put me right into a funk, I’ll tell ya.\u00a0\u00a0 And it wasn’t even on the freeway.\u00a0 Between my house and Eithne’s is a big long hill.\u00a0 So I’m coming home from dropping … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3447,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/3447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}