Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Meet the new boy in my life

Mauricio. No, he's not a plant. Nor some other inanimate object I've named. And he doesn't have a tail. Geez, am I so known?

No, Mauricio's a (real) person. Shy, but I got a few comments out of him, a smile or two.

True, a mini comic of a superhero worm saving his fellow worms from a scary swooping bird sure helped things along.

But I managed to note he's a fan of mini Oreos and Cheetos, and he did politely ask if he could wash his hands after getting a good orange cheese(ish) coating on his fingers.

We've got a start.

Hey, I've been on far, far worse first dates. I get a weekly lunch date with him, so I figure I can work on gradual conversing; he didn't much seem up for it today. But apparently he went running after me because he forgot to say goodbye (I said bye to him, but he was distracted by the return of fellow students).

Like I said, I've been on far, far, far worse first dates. I think we've got a shot!

Note: Boy creatures, whatever their age, sure are tricky.

And, it's now snowing a litte itty-bitty bit. This makes me happy.

Speaking of happy, tonight I heard Gretchen Rubin speak about her new book, The Happiness Project and blog/web site by the same name. She undertook a year-long project to look at happiness, see if she could increase her own. The large-scale reaction she's getting says a lot about the resonance there. Brookline Booksmith, the awesome indie bookstore that hosted -- and I just spilled minty tea on myself -- will that help me smell minty fresh? -- anyway, bookstore that hosted wasn't so very big and it was packed, like, people standing up the stairs, myself one of them.

Impressions? She did seem happy, not in a bubbly or gushy way; she was funny and had some interesting insights. Like, the effects of clutter on inner calm and happiness ... hmmmmm. Most of her insights she shared tonight focused how she on got to know/accept herself (her first happiness commandment: Be Gretchen) and on making concrete steps for happiness changes out of abstract concepts.

p.s. And I scored a used copy of Henry Rollins' Black Coffee Blues AND a cool postcard of a Burma Buddha's hand. Happiness indeed.

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