Little things that are awesome

I was going to write a blog post about the phrase “The Devil’s Advocate”, and I still may, but I find I’m not quite ready for a dissection of a linguistic idiom.  Instead, I feel like sharing stuff like this:

These are the fleurs that arrived on my desk on Friday.

See, it was my birthday on Sunday.  Flowers around one’s birthday isn’t unusual.  So you might think they were from my parents, or sibling, or even a boyfriend that I’ve kept hidden from you all (I wish!!).  But no, it’s more awesome that that.  They were from colleagues at a local radio station.  Seriously, is that not the nicest thing you’ve heard of in a while?  I don’t know what made them decide to do it, but I am still enjoying them and will hold that sweet gesture in my heart for a long time.

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I took this photo of my dog yesterday.

It seemed to strike a chord when I shared it on facebook.  See, Sadie is a recently certified therapy dog, which means that I can eventually take her into hospitals and nursing homes and other places where there are people who need some good cheer.  There seemed to be a lot of people in my office yesterday who needed the aforementioned cheer, and sometimes, a photo is the best we can do.  Digital dog therapy.  I mean, come on, how can you not smile even a little at that face?

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My parents came to visit this past weekend.  This is us at my theater enjoying some circus flavored dance/acrobatics:

For my birthday, my dad offered to take me out to the nicest restaurant I could think of.  Weirdly, I decided I didn’t really want “nice” and we instead went to the famous Catfish Hole, a local favorite that fries pretty much every protein except tofu.  It was a riot.  The following night, we had an Easter dinner of peach-ginger glazed ham, fresh green beans and homemade potato salad.

I tell you all of this because one of the bonuses of a parental visit is inevitably the leftovers.  My mom made me a sandwich with the ham for yesterday’s lunch, and typically, it was a really good sandwich, solely because my mom had made it.   Then today, I got home and realized that I didn’t have enough of any one leftover to make a full meal.  So I had a bit of ham, some green beans, two spoonfuls of potato salad, and piece of leftover catfish for dinner.  It was awesome.

All around me, things are grey.  The weather is grey, faces and moods are grey and grumpy.  We all long for sun, playing outside and the joy of spring.  I get that, but it’s our job to fight it. Because, let’s face it, compare us to either Korea and we’ve got it pretty good these days.

I’m not sure how we’re supposed to fight it.  I find myself clinging to these little moments of awesome, hoping they will shed a little light.  Sometimes they do.  And maybe if we all share enough of them, April in Arkansas will start to behave like it should.  We can hope.