Maybe It's Not All Bad

The other day, true to his style, my dad and I were out for a bit of last minute Christmas Eve shopping. We were about 5 minutes from the mall, stopped at a red light, discussing the pros and cons to the 1970's wood-paneled family station wagon with rear facing seats a few cars ahead of us when all of a sudden we witnessed an act of kindness which reminded me that perhaps humans are generally good after all:

While stopped a the red light of a busy intersection with all lanes filled with cars back to the previous intersection, a lady in teal scrubs hopped out of her slate colored Camry. Leaving her driver door open, she popped her trunk and began rifling through a bag in her trunk. My personal attitude toward this was, "seriously, lady?! You just had to have whatever it is you're searching for, right this very second? You better hope to God the light doesn't turn green or there are going to be some seriously pissed people honking their brains out!" Well didn't I feel like a horse's patoot when I saw what she did next.

She pulled out of her overflowing trunk a toy stuffed animal christmas tree with a little light-up face and ran over to that 1970's wood-paneled family station wagon with rear facing seats and handed that toy to the little girl sitting in the back seat next to her grandma. The little girl was so happy for this random act of kindness her cheers were audible through our rolled up windows. The grandmother, with a certain level of shocked confusion in her voice, thanked the stranger and the little girl began dancing with tree. The kind lady hopped back in her Camry, gave a smile and a wave to the station wagon and with the changing of the light, the two parted ways forever.

What an awesome thing to do. Thanks Scrubs Lady for reminding me of the potential for people's kindness to one another.

Today I Feel Like Writing

Perhaps it's the gray, drizzly weather, perhaps it's that I have a lot to do at work, or perhaps it's that I just painted my nails and I like what my decorated fingers look like as they strike each key. For whatever reason, I sit here at my computer waiting for an idea to strike. My last several entries have been about relatively stream-of-conscious thoughts so I'd like for this one to be more structured. Give me a moment.

Hmm, have you ever noticed that when you feel like writing and want to write and can write, you pause to think of an idea and then it's like there's this great sea of emptiness. "Think of something" you say to yourself, "come on, anything will do" but still, the gray sea only gets larger. "What the hell" now you start to get angry with yourself. "Really?! You're in the mood, there's no right or wrong answer here." You sit with a puzzled look on your face staring around the room glancing at objects hoping for an epiphany but still the gray sea is all that's in sight.

I don't know how many times a day I say to myself, "oh! You've gotta write about that. That's gonna be a great entry. But no, it fails me when I sit down to my computer. Hence I end up with every other entry following a stream of consciousness. This shall be the last.

Feel Like Smiling?

Hi Internet. Why is the word Internet capitalized? I guess cause it's the title of a place; it's not really a place though, more like a space. Do we capitalize spaces? Anyway, I digress.

Today I want to share a video that, even after having watched it for about a month and a half now, continues to make me smile and feel happy. Perhaps you've heard of it too, or have even seen it, but just in case, it's called Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Jenny Slate, formerly of SNL, and her director/editor friend Dean Fleischer-Camp, are the two behind this great video.

Check out the video (if you haven't seen it already) and then read Jenny's interview with USA Today to see what inspired it. Even the inspiration is simple and smile-inducing. Enjoy!

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Video

Interview with Jenny Slate