What made you smile today?

Nimh

I love your observations, descriptions.
You are indeed a joy!

If you think those ideas were expensive, just wait 'til you start buying actual furniture!

Nimh, as usual, made me smile with his multicultural stories. Will you please write a book? I'd be the first buyer.

Of course, Soz made me smile with the story of the altruistic Sozlet.

Yes, Eva, those ideas keep running up the credit card balance. I can hardly wait to get to Albuqerque to go shopping for decorative pieces--lots of good pottery, art, sculpture and weaving.

Smiling at Dys telling the history of the Ottoman Empire to a woman who was looking at ottomans. She didn't quite know how to say she was too busy to stay and listen and finally crept away to make her purchase. I kept getting this urge to say, "Say goodnight, Gracie."

:-)

Yes, please write a book, nimh. You've got it.

Altruistic Sozlet update -- the day after she got me the necklace, we were ready to go out and she looked at me sternly and said, "But you forgot your necklace!" Far be it from me to go against a small girl with hands on her hips AND the Goddess of Love. So on it went, a long rope of fairly realistic-looking pearls with my tank top and cargo capris. (I think I wore that outfit in 1983 or so.)

The day after that, she wore them.

Since then, she's been wearing them. (Went to the grocery store with the pearls triple-looped, a denim short skirt, a net tutu thing under the denim skirt, and an embroidered denim jacket -- very Madonna.) We share the pearls, she says. Fine with me.

I'd buy a book by nimh. I'd buy one by Sofia too. Hmmm... is there a new thread in this?

<applause! applause!>

My smile today came from someone with no voice, thinning hair ,arms that are wrinkled and soft, with blue, heart piercing eyes. My smile came from someone who...by societies standard...is horribly overweight , and yet has a perfect body. My smile came from someone who is incapable of moving themselves , but has the power to stop an entire room. My smile came from someone who makes me cry and shutter at the possibilities that lay ahead with this person. My smile came from the next ______!? My smile came from someone who can move my heart like a mountain and yet has no control over her hands. My smile came from me. My smile today was from my 3 month old daughter... as I walked her outside to our favorite tree in the yard to listen to the humming of the bees in the top of the tree. We walked around the tree trunk and found a feather of a blue-jay. In our religion, the bluejay is a bird of joy. There is another smile for me. I walked my daughter twords the house and Daddy walked outside. My daughter squealed with laughter and my smile made me cry. My smile today was the best I have had in my lifetime.

That post made me smile! Just think...you have so many more of those smiles ahead!

I went to a wedding today.
I smiled, but I'm not sure if it was the most wonderful or one of the saddest weddings I've been to.

One of my colleagues emigrated to Canada from Ukraine just under 2 years ago. After an additional year and a half of visa fussing, her boyfriend arrived at Christmas. He is originally from India, did his MBA in the U.S., worked in Britain and several countries in Africa before going to work in Kiev. They met there nearly 8 years ago.

Last Friday his sister called from India to say she'd done their charts and there were two auspicious dates to marry in 2004 (marriage has been on the agenda for some time, but the immigration mess delayed things), today and August 27. The next good day is in 2005. My friend's beau called her dad in Kiev on Sunday night to ask for her hand in marriage - that all went well. They realized that they would not be able to go to Kiev to be married (the immigration thing again) this year, so decided to just go for it today. Went to city hall on Monday - got a license and booked an appointment. Tuesday she got a dress, Wednesday they booked a honeymoon, last night she and another friend made her bouquet and his boutoniere. Today at 12:30 she got married. A handful of us from the office ran over to be there with her/them. She was beautiful, he is handsome, they were very happy to be getting married.

But there was a sadness. No family, very few friends (about 5 people they knew from Kiev, who had already emigrated here). I wish we could have made it more like a family wedding for her.

They are very much in love, their story is romantic, there was much smiling in the wedding chambers. I am so very happy they are married, but I have a little bit of a sad feeling with my smile.

I am going to India !!! Havent stopped smiling since I woke up today morning !!

Brilliant, Gautam! When are you going, Gautam; have you booked your flight? How long are you staying? Make sure that you keep us informed.

I think that it is sad, too; although they are in love with each other and sound very much the lovely couple, it is sad to see that they have started their (hopefully) life-long marriage without their parents; and that their parents weren't their to see their children's new start.

I realize that the immigration messiness is there for a reason. But it's been affecting a lot of my friends lately, and yes, it's sad.

Have a great time in India, Gautam! (Like you need to be told.)

Jerry S was on Leno last night.
Heres what he said.

Hey whats the thing with the phone ? In my day everyone screamed I,ll get it...Now with call id no. 69, and don't ask me how they picked that number....Now everyone is ...don't touvh the phone. Who is it? Oh my god what if it's a terrorist or something? Didn't we listen to Micheal Moore....something is wrong with us and I think it's more than Phoney !

Gautam

India, eh! What a surprise!

Another holiday, business, or are you getting married, too?

Can I go, somehow" Somewhere over the rainbow, cows are free. Cause i know if I ever get there everyone will worship me. To walk around and be fed all day how astounding.To walk along a temple or two and notice sculpture of a cow or bull is astounding tooo. Somewhere over the rainbow, Cows are free....I know if I ever get there someone will take care of me.

li'l neighbourhood festival made me smile

punk band playing at the li'l neighbourhood festival made me smile

fact that the guys in the punk band (well, more like timewarp early-80s postpunk/new wave) were, like, 40, and all dressed in sharp suits made me smile

seeing how coupla people in the audience were kinda nodding along as if acatch of an already too long ago memory - yep, coupla women in their 40s that still looked the part like they usta be squatters, once upon a day - well, it is 25 years ago already! daamn ... <smiles, shakes head>

with that band playing, in the little field down the cute street close to where i usta live, and these long benches theyd put in the grass, people sitting there drinking a beer (people, as said, looking like they were in the 'scene' 20 years ago) - that could so have been kreuzberg or friedrichshain, berlin! <happy>

otherwise different, course - but cute. the unavoidable dutch-street-party 'we're gonna sell all our old stuff to each other' thing. and a childrens area (just behind the benches) where theyd set up the coolest combination of DIY fun games. random example: they'd sown together (or something) these big loops of cloth - four kids standing inside, standing on the cloth and also holding it up above their heads, and then trying to walk around the field, hehheh.

(i went there to check if it was worth to go hand out flyers there. we did for a while. people like the sunflower seeds.)

Back home, late afternoon, i saw that black cat outside. As soon as (s)he saw i was looking out, he turned my way, meowing, calling for attention. So i opened the window, he jumped inside, walked around for a while trying out all the nooks and corners -- and put his front paws up against the cupboard every time i even neared the fridge. He was lucky - i had some mackerell left ...

I'm allergic, really, so no petting, really - but he was just around like he lived here, me reading the paper at the table, he taking care of the rest of the house. Ffound his own way out again in the end too. Was cute ;-)

I was at Starbucks recently - grande sugarfree vanilla breve latte, I get one every day - and this guy was standing in the waiting zone, so I kindly informed him that the ordering line was to my left. He smiled broadly, and raised his palm in the air. "High five buddy!" he said, "Thanks!" "Uh..." I said, but gave him a meek high five, and continued waiting for my coffee.

After he ordered, he came up to me and said, "Okay, now pretty much just to make me feel better, tell me you haven't done all your Christmas shopping yet. I mean, come on!" I said that no, I hadn't, and that I tended to wait to the last minute (curiously, this being June.) His arm shot in the air. "High five buddy!" I hesitated. "You know," I said, "I don't really do high fives. I'm sorry." I forced out a halting, obligatory smile. And then I left. I actually felt kinda bad later, he being so nice and all, but IronLionZion doesn't do high fives. Ever.

" IronLionZion doesn't do high fives. Ever."

But - and this made ME smile - he did THIS:


"I forced out a halting, obligatory smile."

Man, we're GETTING to you!!!!!!!

Mom turned 95 and we had a party for her tonight. We had a little karaoke going on and Mom, my two sisters and I, and my late sister's daughter did a rendition of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling." Everybody was smiling.