u l t r a m o o k i e

I wandered over to my sister’s blog this morning and she had a posting where she got all introspective and stuff.

What interested me was that she made a comparison between us — we are our parent’s only kids.  She figured that when the genes were sorted out, she got the “worry-til-your-hair-goes-white, I-hate-people” gene, while I got the “easy-going, happy-go-lucky” gene.

Was she right?  Kinda, I guess.  When my sis and I are together, we are vicious when it comes to other people.  If we don’t like them, we don’t like them — they become the fodder for our endless joking, until we find someone else to bash.  But, when we’re not together, usually I am the more easy going one.  I still have a decent portion of the “I-hate-people” gene, but someone has to be damned annoying for me to hate them — if I hate you, you’ll know it and there are only a few people in this world I truly hate.  Do I worry?  Yes, I worry a lot, but only in bursts.  Unless a situation turns terribly bad, I am usually not worrying about it — the recent layoffs?  Yes, that was a burst of worry.  The whole Yahoo!-Microsoft thing?  I am not too worried.

When I sat around thinking about what my sis wrote, I figured that all that happy-go-luckiness and easy-goingness comes down to is me being:

• A bit stupid:  The saying, “ignorance is bliss”?  Very true.  Sometimes, when it comes to situations that people worry about, I don’t worry about it.  Why?  I am stupid.  I don’t think about the situation.  I put it out of my mind.  This is especially true for situations where my brain has determined that I cannot do anything about what is happening — Microsoft taking over Yahoo!?  I can’t do anything about it.  So, why worry?  That’s not to say that I am truly stupid and don’t think about things.  There’s a fine line between being ignorant and being happy.  I try to live on the happy side — figure out if the situation is worth the worry — and usually it is not — then go from there.  There are better things in life to think about — hey look!  A squirrel!
• A bit arrogant:  What do I care what other people think?  Sometimes, I think some people just worry because they worry about what others will think.  What will he think if I just stood in the back of the elevator and screamed my head off?  Who the hell cares?  What will family think if I got a Toyota instead of a Lexus?  Why do I care?  If I wear this beat up red shirt with these garish yellow shorts, will I look bad?  I don’t care, I am dressing for myself.  I try to be sensitive to what others are feeling and not hurt their feelings.  But, I don’t worry about what they think of me.  If they like me, fine.  If they don’t, fine.  Why should I care?
• A bit crazy:  I laugh.  I try to laugh a lot.  It might seem crazy to others, but laughing is good.  My co-worker, he comes to me for help and sometimes he messes up really bad.  Or he gets something that he can’t figure out and he broods.  I just laugh.  He asks me, “Why are you laughing?  I just messed up really bad.”  Why not?  What are you going to do?  Cry?  Get angry?  Pout?  Laugh.  Be crazy.  People nowadays have forgotten how to laugh:  That’s sad.  But, I won’t cry about it.

If you don’t know about the glass of water, it’s hard to care if it is half empty or half full!  And if you do see a glass of water that is half full, grab a pitcher and fill it up.

What kind of personality genes did you inherit?  And, If you could change one thing about your personality in an instant, what would it be?