A Kind Deed From a Total Stranger

A while back my sister, her husband, and their two children went out to dinner at a restaurant where they live in Ohio. At the end of their meal they asked for their ticket and the waitress said, "Oh don't worry, it's already been paid for." She continued, "The person who paid for your meal wants to commend you both on your wonderful parenting skills -- specifically the kindness and patience you have toward your children." My sister and her husband were both suprised. They didn't know who had so graciously paid for their meal but they were thankful.

A few weeks later, they went back to the same restaurant where the incident had taken place. While there, the waitress they had had last time came up to them and said, "Oh hi! I remember you all. You were the ones who got your meal paid for." My sister then told her how suprised she still was and also asked the waitress if she would tell her who paid for it. The waitress said she didn't have a name but only knew that he, the person, was a priest. Then the waitress said, "I don't know how you both do it. It's amazing how you handle your children with such grace and patience. It's something I don't always see working here."

My sister and her husband are now on the lookout to pay the gift forward to other parents. So, parents: Be good to your children always. You never know who may be watching.

Cognitive Distortions of Great Proportions!

This semester I'm taking a course in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). In short, CBT deals with thoughts and emotions as being the foundation of behavior (which is probably not the best definition). Therapists often attempt to help the client change/modify their maladaptive behaviors and/or cognitive distortions, for example.

So, in today's class we briefly discussed a few of the typical cognitive distortions. I learned these in my undergraduate courses too and I still find them interesting:

Absolutistic Thinking - Looking at situations or experiences in an "all-or-nothing" way; Also known as "dichotomous thinking," or "polarized thinking." Thus, the person tends to categorize experiences, etc., in 1 or 2 opposite categories.

Example: "I am completely terrible at this" or "School sucks"

Overgeneralization - Taking [the concept of] what happens in one instance/situation and overextending it by applying it to other instances/situations, related or unrelated.

Example: "I'm no good at ping pong. Therefore, I'm not good at any racket sports."

Personalization - Relating a negative event to oneself even though there is no evidence to support that they themselves caused the event; OR believing one is the target of an [negative] event even though there is no evidence to support it.

Example: "If I would have been home, mom wouldn't have died." (person as cause)
Example: "That darn telemarketer called me just so I'd miss the best part of my soap opera!" (person as object of negative event)

Selective Abstraction - Taking a detail out of context and letting it be representative of the whole experience. Usually, the negative is focused on.

Example: Having an awesomely fun time for about 5 hours at a party and, during the party one has 5 minutes worth of a bad time, and then concludes that "This party sucked."

** It is much more common for people to selectively abstract the negative than it is for people to selectively abstract the positive.

Magnification/Minimization - Magnifying the negative and minimizing the positive.

Example: "I served in Iraq, won a Bronze Star, and became Mayor of the city. Anyone could have done it." (Minimization)

Example: "I am so angry that you forgot to put a new roll of toilet paper on." (Magnification)

Arbitrary Inference - Reaching or jumping to a [negative] conclusion when there is no evidence to support it.

Example: "I know he hates me." (mind reading)
Example: "I just know I am going to get struck by lightning." (negative prediction)

I'm an Addict

How ironic! My last post was about crack and this post is about addiction. However, it is not the type of addiction you may think!

I have recently developed an insane addiction to...

Racket sports! (not weed)

I spent about 6 or 7 years of my life playing tennis (which I hope to play agian soon) and now I have begun playing ping-pong and raquetball. I wonder how long this will last? I must have a thing for swinging rackets and flying balls. Recently, I have found myself wanting to play ping-pong practically everyday.

A few of my friends up here play and I am so glad! My friend Makiyo and I have been playing a lot. She's pretty good. So are the others I've been playing with. Forrest Gump would be proud. ;)

As for raquetball, Makiyo just bought her racket and goggles this weekend and then I followed. There are two courts here where I live and now I am finally going to utilize them. I have no idea how to keep score and the goggles look REAL sexy on me. Whatever the case, it is fun.

I hope I can play after class tonight! Yay!

Oh crap -- I still have homework to do before class tonight. Later!

P.S. If you're up for ping pong, hit me up.

Today's Lesson: How to Make Crack (And Feel Good Doing It)

Last week I wrote a post about the very interesting class, or rather "professor," I am taking right now. I have a feeling more strange "lessons" will come about as the semester progresses.

Today's Lesson: How to make crack

Although our prof didn't go into too much detail about the ingredients, she did tell some of the basic necessities for making crack as well as how to smoke it and how wonderful it feels to get high. Though, she later explained that she herself has never actually smoked crack and that the only reason she hasn't is because she is already crazy enough as it is and that getting high would definately land her in the psyc ward.

Also, she explained that the sentence for possession of:

5 grams of crack versus 500 grams of powder cocaine...

is the exact same. Interesting.

Crack = the cheapest stuff to score; "barely does anything for ya."

Finally, she talked about how some people have never gone anywhere (as in on a vacation trip) in their lives and that "crack is the only trip they'll ever take."

Interesting thought.

(Note: I posted this last night but then deleted it today and then, later, decided to repost it again. Thank you if you commented earlier -- I have put your comments (which were in my e-mail) in the comments section. Also, no thanks to you if you were one of those annoying automated things that leaves senseless comments!)