May 8, 2008 was a good day.

Angry conversations did me in. Conversations about city violence, a bum stealing the wallet of a man having a seisure, and annoying encounters with people in general made it quite simple to bask in misery for 8 hours of my life today.

It didn't help that the sun stayed home.

You have to embrace your misery so you can easily move on. and if you do it right, surely you'll find humor in it. But after spending the most part of your day being almost completely miserable, you can only hope that the Universe will do its thang to cheer you up.

I call them "my people." They're my cheer up troop. My bringers of joy. My smile enthusiasts. They're plopped in my path with the sole purpose of putting a smile on my face.

that's how important I am.

It usually doesn't take much to turn a shitty day into a happy ending- and it's pretty easy to ruin a perfectly good day. But for the most part, I'm easily cheered up. For example, watching a homeless man give another homeless man a hair cut in Love Park humbled my irritability. Or dogs sniffing each other's butts. That can always cheer me up. the irony of birds fighting over a chicken wing on the street is a hoot too.

But today, "my people" were out in full force today. I would've settled with the trash can drum man- he's enough to turn my day around. but the little screaming asian kids running the way only little screaming asian kids can run and still look cute? i thought that was the icing on the cake.

but it didn't stop there.

imagine walking down the street and seeing what seems to be a random act of silliness. people in robes with purple kite things smiling and waving at anyone that makes eye contact. You can't help but smile. And everyone does- EVERYONE.

my favorite homeless guy- the guy that never asks for money and smiles with his eyes- he smiled with his face at the sight of the kite people. He also has a relatively new pair of New Balances which gave me great joy to see.

It turns out these kite people weren't random. They were promoting Circ de Sollie (however you spell it). i wish i didn't know this, but seeing the faces of people passing by- the smiles and the camera phone pictures being taken- was enough to make that thing called my heart burst.

like i said, it's easy. easy to make me feel like the world is okay. easy to make my face leak water from my seeing holes. and if it's at all possible, I encourage you to make it easy for you too. there's not a lot of time on this earth so it's good to soak in all you can. you'll thank me, i promise.

with love,
sappy nerdalie.