Smile!

Yesterday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Work was frustrating more than once -- mostly through my own follies, and in general, I just felt like an idiot. As I was leaving work, I called a friend who I thought would cheer me up, but there was no answer on the other end of the line. So I called someone else. And someone else. Each time was unsuccessful.

I wanted to talk to someone on my commute home, but instead had to settle for my book on CD, The Count of Monte Cristo, which is, to be sure, a wonderful book, but I was on a difficult chapter. Intently focusing on political discussions of the Bonapartists was not the best antidote for my frustrated spirits, but I thought I needed to occupy my mind with something other than the day's events, so I made myself concentrate as much as possible.

As a result of the frustrated, concentrated, and probably depressed expression on my face, the strangest thing happened while I was stopped at a traffic light. There was a white van to my left and slightly ahead of me. The driver honked. I looked at him to make sure he was honking at me, and he was. He motioned at me to roll down my window, which I did -- I assumed he wanted to ask for directions. (See Call Me Google.) He looked young -- I guessed he was in college -- and he was with a group of other young people. It was a mix of guys and girls, and I assumed that perhaps they were in Atlanta from out of town, or maybe they were just too young to be driving to and through Atlanta on a regular basis.

At any rate, he didn't ask me for directions. He did something completely unexpected. He looked straight at me after I rolled down my window -- the others were looking at me, too -- and he said, "Smile!" I suddenly realized I was probably wearing a scowl on my face and sort of smile-laughed in spite of myself. At my reaction to his command, the van of undergrads laughed kindly.

And that was that. Traffic picked up, and I continued on my way and they continued on theirs. I couldn't quite shake the bad mood I was in, but it did help to know that a van of random strangers noticed I was blue and tried to make life better for me. It made me feel good, at least, to know that there were people driving around this world thinking about other people's happiness.


Thing I'm thankful for: my roommate's veggie soup. It is good and good for you!