What are you fed up with?

Without hesitation, one word comes to mind: negativity. I'm feeling good about myself and my life lately and I have little patience for the "doubting Thomas" personalities who always seem to add their negative two cents worth whether asked or not.

Oh, there's plenty of pessimism around me these days. My job is a hotbed of negativity. As the state-of-the-art football stadium goes up and we suffer through layoffs, budget cuts, and hiring freezes, it's hard to keep a positive state of mind. I'm thankful that I have the ability to leave it all behind me when I shut the door and head home each day. Last night I received a complaining text message from one of my co-workers and I just wanted to scream, "Enough already! I'm on my time now!"

My husband has his moments of pessimism as well. "That will never work" and "That's not going to happen" are two of his often-used catch phrases. He gets mad at me when I point out that he's being negative. The other day I started telling him about how Obamacare will now let us add our uninsured and pregnant daughter back on to our medical insurance policy. Before I could finish the statement, he was cutting me off saying, "They'll never let us do that because she's married now." I squashed my feelings of irritation and simply stated, "That's funny, because I called today and put her back on the policy." There was complete silence.

My mother, bless her heart, has always been a pessimist and something of a killjoy. I'll always remember the time I called my parents from college, thrilled to pieces because I had just gotten a letter of acceptance for working in Glacier National Park over the summer. My heart quickly sank upon hearing my mother's immediate reaction: "Oh, I don't think that's a good idea at all." It took lots of persuasion on my part and backup from my dad to change her opinion. Just recently I remarked to her that I had written a letter to the man whose dog caused my bike accident, detailing my out-of-pocket expenses from the accident and asking for his help in paying them. Her remark upon hearing this was, "Well, you'll never hear back from him." Once again, I reined in my frustration and replied, "Probably not, but I figured it was worth a try. Without even trying, I'd never know."

So to all the nay-sayers in my life as of late, I have just one thing to say, "Quit raining on my parade!"