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Friday, March 4, 2011

The post in which I become somewhat shallow and summer-minded

When it rains it pours? Apparently so.There is a long and extremely justified rant that I'm sitting on, but in the interest of avoiding excessive drama, I shall begrudgingly don the muzzle. For now. Enough of that mess- this is where I start distracting myself  by imagining what I want to buy for the upcoming warm seasons!

I was walking around the neighborhood the other day and on a whim, I stopped by a store on 7th that caught my eye- Green Central Station. It's primarily a picnic store, but it has a little of everything, from vegan chocolate cake, to a free book exchange. You can also rent (and of course buy) picnic supplies, croquet/badminton sets, bikes, etc. So, it's pretty easy to say- this is my favorite new store in Birmingham. I went ahead and picked out the two things I want the most- which is very limiting, as there was a ton of stuff I literally had to be dragged away from.



Until my happiness is bought back through outdoorsy goodies, I have started a good news diary, just to give the Universe a hint.
 It's a last ditch attempt to not feel like I am doomed to be a Charlie Brown or a Milhouse Van Houten for the rest of my days, but I am going to start writing down all the good things that happen. Every day! Okay, knowing me, every couple of days. My theory is, all of this goodness is going to snowball into a series of life changing events where my life becomes even better than I could have imagined!
Is that a tall order? Is that a lot of pressure on one little cupcake diary from Michael's? Yes. Yes it is. But what can it hurt to try? At the very least, it should help give me a sunnier outlook on life.

There was an earlier version of this experiment called the Happiness Book. 



(Thank you, window's live movie maker. Although looking back, I should've used more star wipes. More, I tells ya.) 

Basically, one Christmas when my best friend and I were 15 and suffering all the glorious angst 15 year olds suffer, we decided to create Happiness Books for one another. Here's what makes it a cosmic event- we did this without telling one another, so imagine the shock and delight when we realized we had basically made each other the same gift. She had filled up 20 or so pages of mine with simple drawings of fun memories and of things we enjoyed. I carried that book and a pack of crayons around with me in my bag for the next four years, jotting down anything that tickled me and welcoming my friends to contribute. At some point I stopped doing this, and since then my 20's have been a grayish blur, with splashes of wonderful.
Have the past 7 years of my life been a wash because I stopped trying to remind myself I was happy? Well. We all know the answer is, "No, Jessica. For fuck's sake, you goofy headed goon, NO"- but regardless, it will make me feel better  to see, Documented!, that I am indeed happy and good things DO happen to me.
So now I just need one good thing to experiment started. Just one. good. thing...

3 comments:

Frau Schmidt said...

My beautiful never-used wedding gift picnic basket is sitting in Michael's parents' basement for yet another summer. So sad.

Jessica said...

Seriously- ask them to send it! You could have some beautiful family picnics this summer in England!!

JMSF said...

clark, i love you so hard. this made me laugh too much. vaginal muck and the part about you mom telling you that you could not want someone at fifteen (not so, the wicked) and mine moving over the christmas tree. i really appreciate this video and would also like to extend my gratitude to your windows video maker.

i remember how everything we did was singular and filled us with marvel.