I'm a Llama!

Normally I don't go too public with my woes, but amid my woes I cracked myself up. I have worked for the same company for six years and while it's been a good job, there are many things I wish were there in my career that aren't. One would be a raise! I've not seen one in over three years and I'm not expecting one just because of the way the economy is. I've had to go from bitterly dragging myself out of bed to telling myself "I'm just happy I have a job." I know this to be a truth and really happy I do have a job and have to cut my employer slack for not canning everyone or forcing wage cuts. I'll keep my mouth shut on all the other little things that I dislike about my current employment because quite frankly, they are little things I've allowed to grow into big things in a world where I've been quite frankly, richly blessed.

In a self pity moment, I was stressing about being summoned for jury duty. I've lived in Arizona for over ten years and I don't think I was registered to vote for all of those years. (yes, I was a slacker) I've been summoned now a total of four times. I was excused from the first three summons. I've never wanted to be a part of a courtroom drama. I like it on TV, but don't feel the real life draw to it. I however will not put off my civic duty if I must. My biggest worry was sacrificing my income for the duration of a trial. I know they day the average trial is only a day, but the off chance it could be a big one that would require me to use up all my vacation time for a trial instead of a vacation really had my goat! I was stressed and getting depressed at this situation. Yesterday I was allowed to call the court at 4:30 to find out if my group had to report today for duty. I listened intently and was relieved to find out that I was released from duty. I didn't have to appear this time. I was actually happy to have my work duties that would result in a paycheck. As I was feeling the relief, the Disney movie Emperors New Groove came to mind. In this movie, a greedy young emperor is cursed to become a llama and must rely on a lowly peasant he'd once been mean to, in order to find his human form again. In one scene, the emperor is chugging down different potions trying to find the human potion. He's transformed form animal to animal and suddenly is a llama again and finds he's gleefully happy to be something familiar before it sinks in that it's not his true destiny. I sort of felt that way as I gleefully celebrated coming to work which pays vs. jury duty in which I would have to use my vacation time in order to keep my paycheck as such so I could pay my bills. I then realized that my true destiny hopefully is beyond this role of "llama" someday! For now I'm just going to be happy with being a llama because I know it could be much worse!