Day 5, 100 Happy Days: Day's End

I'm beat, I've had it, I'm done. 

This day… This very long day is finally over, and for that I am happy. Very happy.  Now to curl up into a nice warm bed…

Day 4, 100 Happy Days: Lion in a Santa Hat

Don't ask me why, but I just love a lion in a Santa hat. I'm kind of crazy about lions anyway (Leo that I am), and I love looking at the lions that guard the homes in my neighborhood.

Now... put a Santa hat on one? You got a fierce yet festive cat. And this one made me happy on my walk today.

It kind of reminds me of the slightly bigger lion I was looking at a year ago on my trip to Chicago. That lion makes the first look like a tame little kitty cat!

Day 3, 100 Happy Days: No More Street Sweeping!

If you live in the city, street sweeping is just one of those things you have to deal with.

I live pretty close to the corner, and depending on which side of which street I choose (or am able to) park on, I could get a ticket on the first Tues, Wed or Thurs of the month. It's a real pain to remember, but it gets easier after you have to pay the city $50 for forgetting.

This being the first Wednesday of the month, I was all set to pay attention to the signs, when I realized that street sweeping only goes through November. Happy day!! It will pick back up in April, but at least we get a bit of a reprieve, which helps makes the cold weather a little more bearable.

Day 2, 100 Happy Days: Syncronicity

I love it when things line up perfectly in life. It makes me feel like all is well with the world... which of course it's not. It never is, but sometimes it's more glaringly obvious than others. Sometimes the bad stuff is a bit too close for comfort.
Which of course, is precisely why one needs to look for things to be happy about. And noticing the synchronicity in life is a good start. It's a reminder - to me at least - that things are indeed flowing. It's almost a nod from the universe that I'm on the right track.

Today I was driving along listening to a Neil Young song that I had never heard. I looked over at a gas station sign and read "B4 SNOW FLIES" just as Neil Young sang "If I get there before the snow flies".
Wowzers!! How random is THAT? Crazy.

As luck would have it, the light turned red just then, and I was able to snap a pic of the sign, and the screen that showed the song (I took that pic largely to remember the song).


And here is the song. It really is quite lovely.

100 Happy Days Again! Day One: Pet Sitting

I had such a good experience doing my Happiness Project at the beginning of this year, and I've been wanting to do it again. For some reason, it's not the easiest thing for me to start. It's not the looking for - and finding things that make me happy that I find difficult. It's the actual blogging about it - which is a very important part of the process for me. It's what keeps me on track.
So here I am.
December 1st seems the perfect time to start. I tend to get a bit gloomy around the holidays (although so far so good this year), and I figure if I start looking for things that make me happy now, perhaps I can skate through Christmas and New Years feeling better than usual.

Perk of pet-sitting: seeing the sun rise.

Day One: Pet Sitting
I've been pet/house sitting for the last several years. Not only am I paid to stay at people's lovely houses and take care of their wonderful pets, but it also allows me the opportunity to shake things up in my life.
Being self employed and a natural life-long night owl, I tend to run about four hours behind everyone else. While a lot of people get up at 5:00 or 6:00, I get up at 9:00 or 10:00. And I really like it that way! However, I think it's good to change things up every once in awhile.

When I pet sit, I'm pretty much on the animal's schedule. If the dog is up, I'm up. Right now I'm sitting a dog whose mom is an early bird, so the dog gets up with the sun. This means I'm up before the sun (if you can believe that), to get myself up and ready for the wild puppy energy.

The best thing about getting up so early? Yes, getting a jump on the day is nice but I'm loving those sunrises! Gorgeous. So, there I am at 6:30am, bundled up, throwing a ball to a dog, and letting that sunrise make me happy. Oh yeah, and this guy... this guy makes me happy too...

Yup... and this sweet girl....