Happy Thought

I've been feeling a bit stressed out this morning- though I can't seem to pin point why. It's probably my subconscious anger with Swiss Miss for changing their pudding recipe or something along those lines. So I've been trying to focus on happy thoughts to snap me out of my mood, which reminded me of the time during my sophomore year in college when my best friend Wendy and I drove up to Kansas with our friend Nathan to see his best friend, Jon.

The night we arrived, we had been out having glorious amounts of fun and soon found ourselves back at Jon's place. The boys wanted to go out to see a band, but we girls were tired and decided to just stay and go to sleep. Jon then led the way to his room, said we could use whatever blankets and pillows we wanted and could either sleep on the bed or the rug...whatever we felt like. We smiled. Thanked him. Waved goodbye as he and Nathan left and then looked around in horror at what I can safely say was the dirtiest room I had ever been in. Not only was it an absolute mess, but it was dirty. As in, old pizza boxes with pizza still in it from several weeks ago, dust on every possible surface, you literally couldn't see one inch of the floor because there was so much stuff on it. Gross, horrible stuff.

Wendy and I literally just stood in horror looking around at everything wondering how in the world were we ever going to sleep in this room. We carefully made our way to the bed (with no sheets, mind you) and found enough mysterious stains, some looking quite fresh, that we quickly and simultaneously decided the floor was a much better option. So we began sifting through the piles of random things, trying to get to the carpet. There was dirty (dirty) laundry, dried up food on dried up dishes, somewhat dried up food just on its own, tons and tons of trash, and my favorite...bugs. And not dead bugs. Alive bugs. I, on my own, found 8 creepy crawlies. I was so mortified that after the 1st one, I didn't even tell Wendy about the others, hoping that one of us could at least be spared this additional little treat.

We finally cleared enough stuff away, picked the cleanest looking blanket and curled up together on the floor and as the filth started to sink into our bodies, we thought about just getting in my jeep and driving the hour and a half to Topeka, where my mom lived or driving the 4 hours home, or even getting a motel Anything! But we stayed. And somehow survived the night. And for the next 3 years of our college careers, whenever one of us was having a bad day, or we found ourselves in a bad and awkward situation, all one of us would have to say was, Happy Thought! and we were instantly cheered up. (The happy thought being that hey, it could be worse, we could be back in Jon's room with all the bugs and food and stains.) It was our own little personal joke between us that saved us many a time. Many a time...

So here's to happy thoughts and happy mornings!