Dad Jokes

Sometimes my dad – and the other men in my family – say outrageous things that I don’t agree with or like to hear. Most of the time, though, their comments and jokes are harmless, and – dare I say it – actually funny. (Don’t tell them I said that.) And here’s something about my varied sense of humour: I like dad jokes. Dad jokes can be hilarious regardless of delivery, which is great.

Now, I could post a bunch of the things my dad has said, but then I’d have to provide context and do a bit of translation, and that wouldn’t do those jokes/comments justice. So, for now, I’ll post some of my favourite dad jokes (thanks, Buzzfeed).

“Make me a sandwich.”
“Poof! You’re a sandwich.”

“When I went to choir practice —
Dad: ‘Don’t forget a bucket.’
Me: ‘Why?’
Dad: ‘To carry your tune.’”

“The best joke you know?”
“You.”

“What time did the man go to the dentist? Tooth hurt-y.”

“I want a cross between a bulldog and a shitzu.” – Actually what my dad said, so there’s his contribution

“On all of my medical forms growing up my dad wrote ‘red’ for my blood type. To this day no one knows my actual blood type.”

What are your favourite dad jokes?

Thank You

I wanted to write a separate post for this, because I think it’s important to stop and take a few moments to realize what and especially who has helped me in the process of making this blog a success.

My career coach, my friends from school, and people I’ve worked with have all shown their support, whether it was encouraging me to write more often, to create a Facebook page for my blog, or to just say that they like my stuff. And my fellow WordPress bloggers have been nothing short of awesome when it comes to showing their support. You folks know the struggle, the inspiration, the motivation, and the reason why we do what we do.

All of these people have all shown me such kindness whenever I wanted to share my writing with them. Those “likes” feel like fist bumps of solidarity to me, and I love each and every one of them. Thank you for helping to bring out the writer in me!

And thank you for bringing out the Gryffindor in me (I believe we all carry traits of the four Houses) – I’m learning more and more about bravery each day, and about not caring what other people think about my writing. It’s still a process, but I’m glad that I’ve started. And I definitely won’t go back.

I’ve also had a great talk with Felicia from Thoughtful Minds United, and she mentioned that it is absolutely worth it to take the time to go to each person you follow or each person who follows you, and leave a comment on their blog expressing your appreciation for their support and/or their written wisdom. I want to do more of this, for all of my followers and the people I know personally who read my blog posts. I had never thought that I would have this kind of impact on others, and I am truly humbled in realizing this.

So, thank you.

Taking a Break

Just wanted to share my monthly post on Thoughtful Minds United – not to showboat, but to express gratitude to those who’ve read, liked, and left thoughtful and kind comments on the post. Thank you! 🙂

Gratitude

I’m about to wrap up a job contract, and I’m looking back at who I was at the beginning and appreciating how much I’ve grown since then. This job, at first, was a welcome change of pace and industry from my old soul-sucking job in 2014. I knew that it was kind of a step down from what I was used to, but I knew that it was a step forward on the path that I had set out for myself. Yes, I was working for a non-profit and working with young people – but the role was something I had not wanted. I went in dreading the workload and fearing what would happen to me and how others would see me.

That fear pretty much dictated my attitude towards the job for the first several weeks. It took a lot of prodding from my career coach and practising trust in myself to help me feel better about the work. And the job did get better. I realized that having an internal support system can make or break your experience. Everybody has helped me become a better team leader and a more patient, confident, quick-thinking person. And they helped me relearn a few fundamental things about myself.

I recognized (again – these kinds of lessons have to be repeated) that I care a lot about my work and what others think of me. That was why I was always so stressed and nervous about the work. Eventually, I learned how to talk myself out of this stress. I learned to plan ahead and work smarter, not work more. I also learned to focus on the positive and work with it, rather than get caught up in the one thing that did not go well. This experience ended up being one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve had, and of course, I am discovering this now just as I’m finishing up.

I just hope to bring this clarity, perspective, and gratitude with me in other parts of my life.

Finding “The One”

I read this ThoughtCatalog article last week, and it really made me think about what it means to find “the one.” I haven’t read anything from ThoughtCatalog in a couple of years, partly since I lost interest in the posts and partly because Buzzfeed came around. Nevertheless, I still find really thoughtful content on TC and thought I’d share it.

The author is right: you can be “the one” for yourself. One thing that took me a while to truly get is that you should and need to become as complete and interesting a person as you can. And in order to do that, the notion that another person will complete you should be thrown out the window.

It’s really difficult to do this. We’re conditioned to feel that we need one special person to make our lives worthwhile: a soul mate, a better half – or just the other half. Women especially feel this pressure to find that person. And I bet that this doesn’t always happen. Not to be pessimistic – I know that there are countless stories of magical partnerships – but I just want to point out that we shouldn’t be letting ourselves feel this kind of pressure to find fulfillment in another person. It’s not fair to us, and especially not fair to that other person.

So, I say we spread this feeling of fulfillment to the other parts of our lives: family, friends, work, career, spirituality, religion, travel, hobbies, passions… there are so many things that can make us feel complete and happy. And we can work on these things instead of waiting to find that person. As Uncle Iroh said, “life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not.”

http://www.youthhealthmag.com/articles/4314/20141207/spending-the-last-month-of-the-year-with-self-love.htm