...

I had a nice lunch today with a friend who basically poured her heart out to me for about 45 minutes straight. Their house has been on the market forever with no buyers in sight, money is beyond tight, her husband has gone off his meds (due to side effects) and his depression/anxiety is really difficult on her, her daughter is 2.5 and is not even remotely interested in potty training, she is thankful for her job but is realizing how underpaid she is and really needs/wants to make more money. It wasn't a depressing lunch (as it probably sounds) by any means and I had purposely asked her out to lunch because I knew she has a lot going on and I figured she needed to vent...which I was right about.
I don't want to see her upset, but it is comforting in a way to see that we are all going through rough patches. Patrick's traveling is so sad/difficult/frustrating, I need to find a part-time job, what the freaking %$#^ will I do if I don't get into nursing school next semester, what can I do to help Patrick in his job search? Those are the shitballs that keep me up at night. I don't want everyone else to suffer, but I guess I feel sorta better that it's not just me. We all have our little battles to deal with.
Makes me think of this quote I read once:
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

I witnessed the WORST road rage episode the other night. I pulled behind a car that was trailing and honking at a car in front of them. When we came to a light the woman in the trailing/honking car got out of her car - in the middle of on-coming traffic - and starting banging and hitting the drivers side window of the car in front of her. "You fucking bitch, you almost ran me off the side of the road. Get out of your fucking car! You stupid bitch! Get out of your car!!" The light turned green and the car started to slowly pull away (so it wouldn't hit her) and the woman ran back to her car, got in, turned left and went about 90mph down a residential street. I was the first car directly behind the screaming lady and I sat there frozen in my car for about 30 seconds before I started to move. I was just in shock. My first thought was what could possibly be going on in that woman's life for her to be so upset and raged over a stranger who is a crappy driver? After I came to and got myself a clean pair of pants because I really thought I was gonna see a fight go down in the middle of freaking traffic and I had practically pooped in my pants, I just felt so sorry for the road rage lady.

Basically, I've been thinking today that we all have our little, and big, issues that we are dealing with and some sympathy and kindness can really go far.