So, I’ve been doing weekly smiles for a while now. Overall, I am fairly happy with the result. I came to this project with two goals in mind: first, I wanted to practice learning to be happy. Second, I wanted to establish a writing habit. The first goal has shown me something. I don’t have to be doing something crazy all the time to smile. Sometimes you learn to be happy about the simple things, and that is what will sustain you throughout day-to-day living. That said, adventuring is always fun (for me). Most of this week was quiet, but Wednesday was a huge exception on multiple counts. You know the drill. Read on my friends!
Monday, April 22, 2019
- Remember how I said dinner was mostly good on Easter? Well, I added that qualifier because we all got food poisoning about 40 minutes later. Anyway, the smile in all of this is that it could have been much, much worse. I was over it in less than 24 hours, which as sicknesses go is quite minor. My stomach was unstable today, but it didn’t get any worse. In retrospect, there is a bit of a comical lesson to be learned here: a nice ambience does not necessarily equal a clean kitchen. Maybe I just have a twisted sense of humor, but I find it deeply ironic that food poisoning could strike in such an upscale restaurant.
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
- I have the unexpected pleasure of running into an old friend and fellow ham radio hobbyist on my way to work today. We didn’t have much time to swap more than a casual hello, but I smiled because I love these moments in life. To my friend: I don’t want Dox you by mentioning your name, but if you are reading this, it was really nice running into you sir.
- Ever since my desk partner left (see last week’s post about the volunteer luncheon), the reception desk I work at has been fairly quiet. I would often go to lunch with this coworker in my building’s cafeteria. But as I was preparing to sit alone today during lunch, a group of my fellow coworkers invited me to join them. That made me smile.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
- Today was hugely exciting! I returned to my alma mater (Loyola Marymount University) to attend a talk on human rights in North Korea. Not only was the lecture fascinating, I also got a chance to catch up with one of my former professors, ever so briefly. I genuinely miss being at my university, and there are more things that make me smile there than I can possibly count.
- Getting home from said extracurricular activity turned out to be a comedy of errors. First off, I made the decision to have dinner on campus. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that I stayed slightly after sunset. After dinner, I discovered that the plastic sheath holding my bus pass to a lanyard that I wear around my neck had ripped, meaning that I spent the next half hour frantically searching for my all-important transit pass. Fortunately, it turned out to have simply fallen into a crevice in my chair. To make matters worse, the motor attached to my wheelchair died. As if that wasn’t bad enough, my cell phone also chose that moment to die (permanently). I made it home at 9:45 PM. I was exhausted, but I spared myself the smile because at least I made it home in one piece. And boy was it one heck of a story.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
- After such an exhausting Wednesday, it was nice having a quiet day. This alone is worthy of a smile
- Upon hearing about my broken lanyard, one of my coworkers found a couple of replacement sheaths I can use for my bus pass. It sounds like a small thing, but receiving that tiny piece of plastic made my day.
- A customer thanked me for personally escorting them to the right office and complemented my awesome customer service skills. I love being useful!
- I called my phone service provider today and discovered that they were willing to ship me a new phone for only the cost of shipping. Having helpful customer service is a very refreshing change that deserves a smile.
Friday, April 26, 2019
- We saw “A Private War” today. The subject matter of the film was quite serious, but the quiet heroism of a real-life journalist placing her life on the line made me smile.
- A funny YouTube commercial about Capterra made me laugh out loud today
Saturday, April 27, 2019
- We saw an episode from the sequel series to “Planet Earth” last night, called “Our Planet ”. Unsurprisingly for a Planet Earth series, the cinematography was utterly spectacular. Okay, this wasn’t a smile, it was a gasp.
Sunday, April 28, 2019
- I finally got off my a rear long enough to put away laundry (or at least some of it). Having some of that done makes me smile.
