Pay It Forward...

Or, How Sunny is Like A Solar Powered Daisy-Toy.

About a year ago, work was going through some pretty serious upheaval.

We were getting ready to move to a new office.

(Yeah. That was a year ago. I know... time flies.)

We were feeling pretty bedraggled as an office unit - We had lost just short of half of our workforce to layoffs and voluntary resignments due to salary freezes.

We were tired, we were beat down, and we wanted to hole up and eat cookies for the winter like fat little bears.

Which is why it became so important for me, at the Reception desk, to keep a smile planted firmly on my face.

I was more than a phone answerer (although my cohorts would never admit it). I was a custodian... a sticker-giver-outer... a therapist... and a positivity coach.

I was feeling pretty well used up.

At the same time this was happening, businesses were flocking through our doors with offers for services they could offer at the new building.

And sometimes they gave us presents.

(We called them presents, because then you can accept them. You can't keep them if they're bribes. It's in the handbook.)

One of these presents was a little solar powered plastic daisy toy.

The idea is simple - the little daisy in the little pot is run on perpetual motion generated by the sun.

(Okay... maybe it's not simple, and I just strung together words that I thought sounded intelligent enough to make it seem as though I knew what I was talking about.)

Anyway, when it's sunny outside and the little daisy can see the light, it dances.

And when it's dark, it peters out. It tries to keep wiggling for a little while, but eventually it runs out of energy and just can't keep going.

Recently, I dug my little plastic daisy toy out of the last box I had left to unpack from a drawer I had forgotten I stashed stuff in when we moved. As it was sitting in the drawer, it was wonky and pathetic. It listed sadly to the left and didn't move at all.

But as soon as I retrieved it and set it on my shelf...

It started to twitch.

And then it got a little wiggle.

And while it's got a hitch in its getalong now, it's still trying to dance for me.

It's a pretty inspirational little piece of machinery. So eager to please, if you only give it just a little attention and don't leave it forgotten in the bottom of a drawer next to a cup of fourteen-month-old Halloween candy.**1

And it made me think.

I don't take a whole lot of encouragement to be positive.

Just enough to make me feel as though my efforts aren't totally wasted.

So I got a little pep in my mosey today when one of the higher-ups here in the office sent me a note about how my positive attitude had helped her through a moment of accidental grouchiness.

And I bet I'm not the only one who feels this way. (How's that for self importance... My head's growing loftier by the minute.)

So let me share this moment with you, ReaderFriends:

When I'm feeling low...
Lower than the floor...
And I think that I don't have a chance...

(No. Not going there. There's no coming back from Vin Diesel doing the Panda Dance, and we cannot risk losing this pep-sharing moment.)

When I'm having a particularly dreary day, it always lifts my spirits to see that readers from around the world are enjoying the words I'm putting out there.

Even when I think it's just Boyfriend of Amazingness and my Mom who are doing the reading... I know it's not. Because neither of them are in Germany. Or in Brazil. Or anywhere else in the whole wide world that readers have pinged Dear EngineerFriend from.

Even when I don't have the time, the energy or the creative razzle-dazzle to pull together something new for you... You're still here. Checking in, seeing what there is to see and leaving your mark on my page.

And that brightens my day.

Thank you for being here, ReaderFriend. It's wonderful to have you around.

**1 Yes. I ate it. Don't judge.

List It

Ten Things Sunny is Thankful For This Holiday Season

1. The opportunity to share her daily trials, triumphs and trivialities with a caring hoarde such as yourselves.

2. The opportunity to shake my shiny groove thang in so many fabulous ways.

3. The love and support of an Amazing Boyfriend who chose me for who I am now, instead of who I was or who I can be.

4. The compassion and understanding of a family that knows I really was born this way.

5. A job that affords me enough luxury to keep me comfortable, but still humble.

6. Friends who make amazing food and patiently teach me how to share in their idea of fun.

7. Pretty stars to look at when I gaze upward at night.

8. Little children who remind me to always keep wondering.

9. Snuggles.

10. Pie.

Happy Thanksgiving, ReaderFriends! Safe travels to those who do, warm thoughts to those who don't, and a hepaing helping of Thank You to everyone... with a side of gravy.

Overcast

Conversational bon mot:

"Are you Sunshine today? Or are you partly cloudy?"

I hope it made you giggle as much as it did for me.

Have a Sunny weekend, ReaderFriends!

Random Act of Giggles

As the end of the year approaches,**1 I've been thinking about this year's New Year's Resolution. And how I really haven't seen it through.

I've had some serious cases of Stress Monkey over the past eleven months. That doesn't mean that the next month can't be a turning point... Or that the following twelve months will be an opportunity to slack off from this particular endeavor. It just means that I haven't gotten there yet.

As I was contemplating this fact today at my local soupery, a gaggle of teens in front of me were being just slightly obnoxious. First they weren't in line at all. Then they were all in line, in front of me. It was mayhem. And I was hungry. And they were between me and my soup.

But I tried to be positive.

I turned to the woman behind me and said "I think it's possible we may be stuck behind an amoeba."

She looked at me puzzlingly and said "What?"

I giggled. I explained the morphing-and-growing student body ahead of us, and how I really just wanted my soup.

She smiled and said "Do you want to hear a joke?"

Thinking that perhaps she needed someone just to listen, I obliged (albeit with a little confusion as to how we had arrived at that particular conversational point).

And she promptly made me giggle so hard that I dropped my purse.

To The Woman Who Stood Behind Me At The Soup Place Today:

Thank you for sharing your sparkle. You're an inspiration, and you totally brightened my day.

Thank you for your Random Act of Giggles.

With A Smile,
Sunny

**1 Seriously. It's coming.

Why do mermaids wear seashells?
Because B-shells are too small, and D-shells are too big.

Fun

Sunny: <while filing> So. Filing.
CoWorker: <also filing> Yeah. It blows.
Sunny: For sure.
CoWorker: Seriously. If I'm going to spend this much time on my knees, it should be a lot more fun.

True, that.