thankful Thursday

I don't believe I've ever done a Thankful Thursday, perhaps rarely, but there are two things for which I am massively grateful. With regards to my last post, though, you don't have to "get it," don't worry. Just take the moral of the story to heart, y'all. It is a very bad thing to get a word tattooed on the back of your neck (or, really, anywhere on your body) without first knowing what that word means. Dig?

So for the past several months, I've been wanting to quit my homeowner's association board. I have been the secretary for almost two years, and took over our treasurer's duties when she was sent to DC with the Army for a year. She is supposed to be back next month. When I joined the board, it had basically been dead in the water for a year. The vice president and the treasurer were the only active members; the president had quit, the secretary had moved away, and there were no neighborhood representative board members at all. I basically created a board from scratch.

I've done a pretty good job, but I've always taken it personally when I've failed to get people involved. The old ladies in the neighborhood will bend your ear for 20 minutes telling you about her neighbor who hasn't cut his grass in two weeks and heaven forbid he fart too loud, but will they come to a meeting or join the board or any committees or even call their board members if there's a problem? Nah. I scheduled a neighborhood watch meeting once. Like 20 people called me the day after the notices hit the mailboxes, but were any of them at the meeting? Nah.

Anyway, I've pretty much been over it for a while. I was hoping that I would just get elected out, but knew that wouldn't happen. Then I said I would just quit after the next meeting. When I sat down for supper last night, I thought about the many things I'd have to do before the next meeting. Plan the meeting, write and distribute the newsletter, field calls about newsletter content, argue with fools over dues, type up an agenda, set up the meeting the day of, collect dues, deposit dues, update the checkbook, pay more bills... And some more stuff. When I sat down, I told Drew, "I'm just gonna resign tonight. No way can I do meeting, election, dues, housework, Ace work, and my program."

We had a board meeting at my house last night. So, at the beginning of the meeting, I resigned from both my official and unofficial posts. I did all the things I was supposed to do for the meeting, then handed over my notebook and the checkbook and the PO Box key. Y'all, I thought I'd feel guilty, but not even a little bit. I felt free, and even talking about it today makes me feel lighter and free. Ahhhh.

Speaking of being lighter, I've dropped about 9 pounds. That's kinda nice. My pants have threatened all day to fall off. I'm just gonna keep working at it!