Pollyanna and the Glad Game

When I was a kid, I loved the Disney movie Pollyanna with Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, and Karl Malden as the crotchety old preacher. My favorite part of the movie was the Glad Game.

You see, Pollyanna was an orphan of missionary parents, and never a more upbeat, make lemon-aide out of lemons kind of character will you ever meet. Whenever something bad would happen, she would find something to be glad about it. While explaining the game to Karl Malden, she tells him about one year for Christmas, she asked for a doll, but when the missionary barrel came, there was a pair of crutches. Now for your normal, average person, this would be cause for whining and much boo-booing.

But not for Pollyanna; she and her father played the Glad Game and she decided that at least she could be glad that no one in their family needed the crutches.

I know, it sounds a little hokey, okay it sounds a lot hokey, but the Glad Game has got me through some pretty rough patches in my life.

Very soon, I’ll be coming to another Glad Game moment in my life. Instead of being all weepy and getting mad at fate for putting us in this situation, I am going to look at the bright side and find things to be Glad about.

So here is my list; Things To Be Glad About Dave Going Back To Iraq:

1. Finances – between hazardous duty pay, separation allowance, and his pay being non taxable every month that he is “in theater”, we clear a nice chunk of money and will be able to pay off some bills and be closer to being ready for retirement.
2. I will have lots of time to get caught up on my scrapbooking projects.
3. I don’t have to make up the bed every morning. Dave and I are definitely the Odd Couple with me being Oscar and him being Felix. If he’s not here, I can relax and don’t have to be so tidy.
4. I can wear socks to bed if my feet get cold. Dave has some kind of weird thing about wearing socks to bed? Don’t ask me, he’s been that way since the day we got married!
5. It’s easier to stick to my healthy eating plan when it’s just me. Mr. I Can Eat Anything I Want, high metabolism won’t be tempting me with pizza and carne asada burritos from Santana’s.
6. I can hog the television and watch all the crime shows that I have Tivo’ed that he doesn’t like, Law & Order SVU, CSI, and Without A Trace.
7. I can sleep in on my days off.
8. Less laundry.

Okay so that last one is stretching it a bit, but work with me here, the list of things that suck about Dave going back to Iraq is ten times as long.