A testing weekend

“Truth or consequence say it aloud, use that evidence race it around,” My Hero, The Foo Fighters

This weekend was crazy exhausting for me and I apologize for my internet silence the past few days. Other than pretty severe sunburn making me quite sick to my stomach at the moment, it was a great weekend. Greatness aside, amongst all the chaos I was presented with a bunch of what would Laura Bush do moments. Prepare to settle in and read some examples and how I handled it. A weekend filled with tests.

Situation No. 1: Friday night I found myself conversing with a friend about many different things to kill time. As usual the conversation turned to one of his friends that I really don’t want to discuss. As he was talking about this person I just kept thinking about what I could say in rebuttal as I have a lot of bullets in my belt. I don’t view this friend of his in the same light that everyone else apparently does. Guess I am the lucky one huh? Anyway, as the conversation continued I wanted to scream everything I knew about the topic, but would Laura Bush do that? I bit my tongue and didn’t say a word. I won’t lie, I do think I made a few facial expressions but I didn’t say a word. How Laura Bush am I?  

Situation No. 2: I received a text from a former close friend. A friend that I haven’t spoken to in weeks but was at one point close to (at least I thought so). They wanted to see what I was up to this weekend and if I wanted to get together. When I first read it I got a little pissed off. All I could think about was how clearly I was a last resort. You don’t have anything else to do so you will settle for hanging out with me. And as I was getting ready to fire off a text that echoed those sentiments, I stopped. I deleted what I had written — I don’t need to treat people poorly just because they treat me that way. Yeah, it will get me hurt, but I can live with myself. I responded that I was pretty busy this weekend but would keep them posted on what I get into incase they want to join. And I did the next day. I was happy with the way I handled the situation until they couldn’t bother to even text me back. Nothing. You could at least have texted back “screw you” just so I know you got the text. But nope. Again I left it at the no contact, I can take a hint, but realized that when this person is involved I may no longer be Laura Bush. How long can you be nice to someone before it destroys you?

Situation No. 3: My sister was home this weekend visiting from California. She was only home for a weekend and by Saturday night I really hadn’t spent that much time with her with my work schedule. Before I knew what weekend she would be home, I made plans for other functions. I was presented with a dilemma — stick with my original scheduled plans or cancel and spend time with her. Neither option appealed to me as I figured either one would land me in the dog house. To make a long story short, I picked family time. I was worried about telling my best friend that something she told me about months ago I wouldn’t be at. I broke the news to her and she was Ok with it. There was no guilt, no anger, she was fine. That made me realize I made the correct call and both her and Laura Bush would be happy with it.

There were other Laura Bush moments this weekend, but I will just leave you with these three for now. I have to save something for those writer’s block days. Life is going to continue to present me with difficult situations begging for me to ask, what would Laura Bush do?