Today’s Challenge: Be happy with who you are even if you’re a little crazy at times.

My garbage can disappeared but my neighbor’s garbage can was still sitting by the road as if it were mine to bring in. Is it possible he took my garbage can and put it in his garage? What’s the big deal? It’s a big deal to me because I might be a slight freak. First of all, my house number is on my garbage can in big black permanent marker to avoid this very thing from happening. I am somewhat anal, maybe OCDish about certain things and my garbage can in one of them. I do not throw lose garbage in my garbage can. All garbage must be bagged before it is disposed of, so my trash can is clean and doesn’t have odor. My neighbor, on the other hand, who apparently went out of town, throws food and garbage loosely into his garbage can, and because of that, it is covered with gunk that smells and paper and things stuck in the bottom. If he had accidentally (or purposely) taken my can, I had the option of cleaning out his garbage can or leaving it nasty before bringing it into my garage. Neither was appealing. I also feared my can would be disgusting by the time I got it back. Because I wasn’t even 100% sure he had my can, I called the city and had them deliver a new can to me and I left his in front of his garage. A couple days later another neighbor came over to talk to me and he brought along the nasty garbage can explaining that my neighbor was out of town and he had somebody watching his house. “They must have brought in the wrong can.” he said. I felt like an idiot, making such a big deal about a garbage can. I tried to explain that I have issues and I like to keep my garbage can clean and I just didn’t want somebody else’s garbage can. He took a good look at the messy can, agreed with me then pushed in back in front of my neighbor’s garage. I walked back into my house feeling like such a jerk. For the next few days, I beat myself up because of the way I handled the situation and wondered why I would be so upset about the cleanliness of a garbage can. On the next garbage day, while I was taking my new can to the road, I saw that my two other neighbors had already taken their cans to the road and I was surprised to see that both had written their address on their garbage can with black magic marker. Suddenly I didn’t feel so bad, I actually felt understood and I realized that I may be a little crazy at times but luckily, I’m not the only one. 🙂