Gift of music

Why, on a Not So Swell Kind Of Day, the tears in my eyes are from hard laughter

Okay, fine. I'll admit it. It's not a good day. Not a good day at all.1 Which is why, when I got my sister's email a few minutes ago, I was just sitting down to do something that will hopefully make someone else's day a little better. Which I'll tell you about in another my next blog post, coming very soon.

But when I read her email, in which she admits she's now so sick that she's headed to the doctor, I started feeling sad again. (In that, not only is my car making a noise so scary I'm not sure it's going to be safe to even drive to the place where they'll tell me why it's making that sound then take every spare dime I own, but now I'm also a bad sister because I didn't even realize how sick she was and I should have offered to take her son for a while so she can get some rest, kind of way.) I tried to hide it, and just rambled on about my lackluster day, trying to add little perks here and there. Perks like telling her that although the "h" key that popped off my laptop when I spilled the entire cup of water into it a month ago refuses to pop back on, Ron Lazenby has ordered me a new keyboard and as soon as I can carve out the time, I can go have him put it on because he emailed to say it's here! Which is good news, right? (Then I added a little PS you'd only ever say to someone you're really close to, that if it's all the same to her, she has to start varying the subject lines in her emails which invariably read "Hey!" thereby rendering me unable to quickly pull up something I might want to reread, in future, with ease. Which I'm only telling you now because otherwise you won't get why I found her subject line as funny as her email was.)

Her response provided the proof that I need to do a better job of illuminating the positive and perhaps skipping right over all the other stuff, altogether:

Subject: My brilliant response you your sad email

Hey!
 
Your email made me want to slit my wrists.  It included 1) laundry done in a laundromat. 2) a broken car.  3) kitty litter. 4) garbage. 5.) a broken computer.  I think that may be (short of death and divorce and the like) the 5 most depressing things in the world.  When I read it, I also pictured rain -- perhaps because it is raining today, though your email did not reference it.  I'll be leaving for the Drs shortly, so I hope that when I call, you do have some happy things to tell me.
 
Cheers (I guess?)
Joy

1Then again, as soon as I declared that it's not at all a good day, the following things also occurred to me:

• I am healthy.
• I am loved.
• I have running water and flushing toilets and electricity and while it's old and currently sounds scary, I actually have a car and it is paid for.
• I am literate. As in, I can read. Which is such a simple, simple thing, isn't it? Only, to some people it's not. There are people who do not take for granted the mere ability to sit down and obtain knowledge on any given subject, at any time they want. And then do it again. And again...
• My job is actually fun. And I have really superb clients.
• I'm making good progress on my novel and having a blast at the same time.
• Music. Exists.
• And etc. So, so many times over...

Which tells me that it is, in fact, a pretty good day, after all. Since sometimes all it takes is a list that's centered around gratitude to put things in perspective. Fancy that!

Update on Thursday, 19 November, 2009 at 5:29 PM by Melody

For anyone who read to the end and may wish to know: my car no longer sounds like it has its own blender. And I still have a few dimes left!

Pic of the day - Saw these guys in Seattle's Pike Place Market

Just found this photo and thought you'd get a kick out of it, too.

Although I never did know the name of their band, and I only heard them for about 5-8 minutes, these guys tend to come to mind when I remember my visit to Seattle. We spent hours in the historic Pike Place Market, and on our way out to meet a friend nearby for coffee, ran into them. What an entertaining group of musicians!

Wonder if they're still playing in the market?