Day 300: Saving Dog Lives

300 days left and we have a new president I just found out. I didn't get to watch much coverage because I had school, so it was kind of weird to be having an unexciting time on night where the entire country is on the edge of their seat. However in spite of all this political excitment, I was happy today when I was able to block a ladies dog from running into traffic. I was alking around Capitol Park and I was walking towards a woman with a dog on a leash, when the dog spoted a squirrel and suddenly darted at the squirel, which made the woman get the leash ripped out of her hand. The squirrel ran across the street and so would have the dog if I didn't step in front of him. Just as I did, a lot of cars went flying by. The woman was really grateful, but I think I was more grateful that I didn't have to see a dog get hit by a car on my lunch break.

Day 301: Records to be smashed

The day before a presidential election and it feels like the entire country is on edge. A major change is about to happen. I am happy to see how much the entire country really cares about this election. They are predicting record turnouts for voting, including over one million more than California's previous voter turnout record. Pretty awesome, pretty historical.

Day 302: The Incredible Vent

I caught up on a lot of sleep today. But right as it got dark I figured that I should get out of the house at least for an hour. So I hopped on my bike and did another Sunday night ride. My roommate got home right as I was about to leave and wanted to watch a movie.  I told him I would be back in an hour and we could watch a movie then. I rode all around, but there was nothing going on and I kind of got bored, so I headed back home. Before we sat down to watch The Incredible Hulk, we started talking about our own various issues in life at the moment. I was really happy to have some one to honestly vent to. It's been a while since I could get everything off my chest to someone. It was good. The movie: not so much.

Day 303: All your Dreams are at Hotel Marshall

The scariest place I've ever seen in Sacramento is a slum of hotel called Hotel Marshall. Nothing but slime live and hang out there. I have always wanted to get a peek inside to see what it looks like. Today, I was happy when I got to go behind it and see a bit more into Hotel Marshall. I was helping a friend pick up a couch at Macy's and the pickup are just happens to be behind the hotel. All the doors were open and I got to see inside a bit. It gave me the chills, but now I REALLY want to see inside.

Day 304: Ridin' in the Rain

Happy Halloween! It was the first rainy day in a long time but I was happy to ride my bike to work in the rain. It may sound weird but it was awesome because it wasn't so cold, it was just right. The rain even helped cool me as I rode. Even better, we haven't had a rain all summer long, so Sacramento needs rain bad. 

Day 305: Wrong Job

Another post about my friend Kyle. Two years ago Kyle started a job as a guard at a prison. I tried to talk him out of it, because he's a nice guy and I didn't think he should have a job that could possibly change him into an angry prison guard. Today I am happy because today was Kyle's last day in corrections and he starts his new job as a tour guide at the Capitol building on Monday. 

Day 306: House of Moore

I was happy when I got to go see by buddy Kyle's new house he just bought. He seems pretty excited and it's a fairly decent house in a decent neighborhood. Definitely needs some fixing up, but he's up to the challenge. Good luck and congratulations Kyle!

Day 307: New Job Jitters Be Gone

My new job as an Analyst for the newly developed Special Projects Team really started today. I've been a bit nervous about what they expect of me. But today I was happy today when I got my first project and I was able to get it done with no sweat. All I had to do was compile a spreadsheet and make some graphs in Excel. Pretty simple and right up my alley.

Day 308: On Time (for once)

I'm a procrastinator, big time. I was happy to get all my homework done for the week WAY ahead of schedule. The best part is that I'm sure I'll be happy about this later in the week too!

Day 309: Capitol Rally

I was feeling pretty tired and sore from the tree planting yesterday, that I ended up laying around the house and sleeping most of the day away. But at about 9 tonight I was feeling pretty restless to get out of the house. I decided to take a bike ride to deposit a check at the ATM near the Capitol building. After doing that I decided to ride around Sacramento for a bit. Sunday nights are the best for riding around downtown, because there is almost no one on the streets. I was happy when I saw one group of people though, conducting a volleyball rally circle on the south steps of the capitol building. I thought it was really cool that they all gathered there after the sun went down to just have fun. I totally thought about asking to join in, but I thought that might be a bit weird, coming from a random guy riding around on his bike at night.

Day 310: Tree Talk

I skipped class today to attend a tree planting and a picnic for completing the LEAF Steward course with the Sacramento Tree Foundation. I was happy when my class got to sit around and socialize like we really had not been able to before. It was really cool to really hear about everyone's interests and especially there passion and commitment to improve our tree situation in Sacramento.

Day 311: Hole in the wall

We had a potluck at our office today so I wasn't very hungry during lunch time, so I decided to walk around downtown for an hour. I walked all across town to Ceasar Chavez Park. It's funny but I really only know nighttime downtown. During the day its like a whole other world. Today I noticed and was happy to see how many business', especially diners, exist in daytime downtown. I was really impressed by the amount of things I've never really noticed before. There is practically a diner on every corner. I making a new goal to try out a bunch of these hole in the wall diners.

Day 312: Get out of school free card

I hung out in Capitol Park a little today at lunch. While I was there I saw a bunch of grammar school kids on a field. I was happy when I remembered how howm uch fun it was to take field trips. Every kid I saw looked really excited. Those special days when you didn't have to sit in the boring classroom and go run around. I miss having that.

Day 313: A quarter is the difference between clean and dirty

Wednesday nights have been my one night of the week where I can sit at home and relax. Tonight I decided to do laundry, make dinner and do some laundry. I put a load of laundry into the washer and then went back later to move it to the dryer when I realized that I was one quarter short. I ran back to my apartment and searched everywhere with no avail. The nI remembered. I was happy that I had planned in advance to put some emergency quarters in my wallet just incase I was every a quarter short. Seriuosly, I planend for this situation well in advance and totally forgot. It was awesome when I remembered.

Day 314: I Can Only See Green

I'm starting to discover that the hardest days to find a happy moment, are the ones where I'm not in a bad mood and not much is going on. I think it's because when I'm in a bad mood it's a lot easier to pick out something that was good in the day against the dank backdrop of a gloomy 24 hours. Today was no exception, not much going on, nothing bad happening, just living. After work, I decided to focus on something that me me happy on the bike ride home. I watched everyone I rode past on the street to see if they were up to anything uplifting. Nada. I looked for signs, unusual events, anything. Nothing at all. I got home fairly quickly and felt a little disappointment, when I realized what had just happened. I was happy when I had the perfect ride home. Everyday I ride my bike home for work it's inevitable that I get cut off by some driver who's not paying attention. Also, I (usually due to being cut off) miss the lights and hit the intersection right when it turns red. But today, every driver was courteous and was watching out for me and I hit every light and didn't have to stop once. Pretty awesome. It's the small things!

Day 315: Root for me, I'm a Graduate

For the past 7 weeks I've given up every Monday night to attend training sessions at the Sacramento Tree Foundation to become one of their LEAF Stewards. A LEAF Steward is a community leader in regards to trees, endorsed be the Tree Foundation. Well, tonight was my last class and as I am happy to get my Monday nights back, I'm more happy to have been dedicated enough to attend all the classes and go above and beyond to play an important part in the retention of the urban forest in Sacramento. Now I have a big tree community project to plan... :-)

Day 316: Before I Fall..

I'm sick today and I have not left the house. I have a headache that wants me dead. But don't worry, I'm still looking for happy things. I've been scouring the internet and TV to find something that puts a smile on my face, but the only thing putting a smile on my face is the thought of my bed. So, I am so happy to know that i can go to sleep and when I wake up I'll feel 100% better. Goodnight.

Day 317: Early Morning Motivation

I woke up this morning and I did not want to move. Unfortunately, I had my Speech class at 9am and I did not write my speech. I laid in bed and came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be so bad if I missed one class. But, my conscious kicked in and I started to feel really bad about not going, because a) I totally told a girl in my class all about my speech I was going to write and in fact had given her an idea for her own speech and I didn't want to ditch out on her & b) Meredith was kind enough to get me materials from the Sacramento Tree Foundation to use for my speech and I would have horrible if I would have let her time go to waste. In the end, I was happy when I motivated myself to not ditch class. Everyone was pretty impressed with my speech (that I wrote in about 20 minutes before class), and they all said the learned a lot of new things about our dying urban forest.

Day 318: The Long Drive Home

Ben, Lance and I left Fullerton at about 10am to go home to Sacramento, so I had to find my happy thing for the day from inside a moving vechicle. It was a pretty good drive other than the fact that I had to pee every 5 miles and some how I developed the bladder of a 8 year old girl. But, my happy thing didn't happen until I got to Sacramento. I was happy when I saw the big water tower at the edge of Sacramento that says, "Welcome To Sacramento." I have always had aslight obsession with the first site of home after a long trip, whether it be the city skyline when coming east on I-80 or the water tower coming north on I-5. Its the symbol that says to me, "Welcome back to your comfort zone."

Day 319: The Pits

We had a whole day to kill in LA before the Far show, so we decided to go check out the La Brea Tar Pits. I was actually really happy to spend a few hours at the Tar Pits with my friend. I thought it was going to be kind of lame, but it turned out to be pretty fun. Did you know there was an American Lion which was bigger than the African Lion?

Oh yeah, and I got to see Far again at the Troubadour in Hollywood. It was a lot of fun to have more Sacramento people out to support our band. Seriously, so good!

Day 320: The Band Far

Ok, today was the day. My friends and I left Sacramento today around noon and drove down to L.A. to see a band that means a lot to us: Far. Ten years ago Far decided to call it quits and for years we have heard rumors of on again, off again reunions. But tonight was for real. When the stated playing, the fact that I was in a club I've never been in, in a city I've never been in (Pomona) all disappeared and it felt like I was back in high school at Bo Jangles again. The best part was that there was not one person in that room who wasn't screaming along to every word. To make matters even better, I got to hang out with the band backstage after the show. I've been around each member of Far before, separately. But here they were together again. Seriously, one of the most amazing nights of my life, and I get to see them again tomorrow. I was happy when I got to see my favorite band play again.

Day 321: Pens a Pen

The only day I work this week was today. My Monday and Friday all wrapped up into one nice little package. I was happy when I found a full box of my favorite pens at work. Yeah, it may seem stupid to you, but try writing with those horrible Papermate pens that are just long tubes of ink. Seriously, I hate those pens.

Day 322: Another Climb Up The Hill

A great day to begin with because I had the day off from work, paid! Thanks Columbus for running into an ENORMOUS chunk of land! Anyway, I took the opportunity of using a state holiday where no one in the real world gets it off, to go visit my ex-coworkers in El Dorado Hills. I was happy to see my friends again and have lunch with them. A pretty self-explanatory happy time; haven't seen people in a while, get to see them again.

Day 323: Out with the old, In with the nothing

Today I decided to raid my closet and dresser and get rid of a large amount of my clothes. I'm kind of feeling the need to grow up and want my wardrobe to reflect that. So I bagged up all my clothes and took them to Crossroads clothes exchange to try and sell them. Unfortunately, I only sold one jacket and made $10. But, I was happy when I spent no money and didn't buy anything. This is a big deal because I saw some clothes I liked there, but none where fitting my "grow up" look, so I stuck to my guns and left empty handed.

Day 324: Alley to the Past

Second Saturday in Sacramento has turned into an enormous event. Thousands of people line the streets of downtown/midtown and I happen to live in the middle of it. My buddy Jeff and I walked over to check out an art show he was showing in. On the walk back home, I noticed a light in an alley way that seemed pretty deserted. All we could see was a couple paintings and thought, "oh cool, some weird alley way at show, let's go check it out." When we got down the alley way we noticed that there quite a few people in a parking lot that was hidden from street view. I was happy and really excited when we realized that a real ska band  was playing and I began to think about how much fun I use to have at ska shows when I was in high school. I really loved going to shows back then, and I found out that I really miss the ska bands. They were a lot of fun. I'm kind of hoping that this is the start of a new ska movement.

Day 325: Studying, Who would of thought?

I have a midterm in my speech class tomorrow and I did not feel very prepared, that is until, my new friend Mindy from my class studied with me and helped me learn everything I needed to know. I really feel confident about my test now and I'm grateful that someone who's smarter than me was willing to share what they know with me.

Day 326: I'll be your tour guide

Often it makes me bummed out when my friends are miserable. But, today I was happy when my buddy Kyle told me he got a new job as a tour guide at the State Capitol building. I'm really excited for him because he was really unhappy at his last job at a youth correctional facility. Besides, now he'll work a couple blocks from me and we could have lunch together now.

Day 327: Giving leads to Giving

For dinner tonight I went out to eat chicken teriyaki with a friend. After dinner she was carrying the leftovers when a homeless women came up to her and said she was hungry. I was happy when my friend, without thinking, gave her the food. It was a really nice gesture and the best part was that kind deed directly influenced me into giving a dollar to a really nice homeless man later in the evening.

Day 328:Living in a Star Trek World

I know I post a lot about my Sign Language class, but today something made me happy during my Sign class. We had a big test today, but my teacher was unable to make copies of the test at school, so he only had enough time to print 20 copies of the test on his personal printer. Unfortunately, there were 23 people in class. Two people had laptops, so he emailed them the test and they took it on there laptop. It suddenly dawned on me that I could look at Word files on my Iphone. So he emailed me the file and I took the test with my Iphone. I was happy that we have technology that allows us to solve problems on the fly. I started to think about what it would have been like even 10 or 15 years ago, I (or someone else) would have been out of luck. It really does excite me what it will be like in 10 or 15 more years.

Day 329: Hey Jared!

I am often running around my building picking up and delivering mail, so I often see a lot of people throughout the day. Today I was happy when it seemed like everywhere I went in the building people kept saying, "Hi, Jared!" It really made me think that I know belong and am in with everyone at work, and I've only been there 4 months. I felt like Norm walking in to Cheers.

Day 330: Remember Where You Are

A few of us Mid-Towners took a trip up to Granite Bay (just east of Sacramento) to watch the 49er's game. It's about a thrity minute drive. On the drive up there I began to think about all the different palces I've lived and I was happy to realize that I've never been happier living somewhere than I am right now. I thought about every house and apartment that I ever called home and it seemed that everyone I lived in, there was something wrong. Usually it was location. But living in Midtown Sacramento this past year has been perfect. Everything I need is within biking distance if not walking distance. It felt really good to know that I am truly content with my home.

Day 331: Horrible Sounds Are A Gateway Drug

Today I went to the UC Davis Arboretum. It was really awesome how big it was and how many plants are living there. And it was fun to chase the ducks like a three year old. After our long walk we went back into David and stopped for ice cream and smoothies. In the quad of the shopping center there was really bad elevator jazz band. I sat in one of the seats and drank my smoothie. I was happy when I was transported to my own little world in my mind. That may not make sense to some, but sometimes when I sit and not think about anything, I tend to totally forget about the world around me. Seriously, a bomb could go off next to me and I probably wouldn't flinch. Anyway, these very rare moments that this happens to me are the most stress-free, care-free moments I have in my life. It was cool that this awful band could help me go there.

Day 332: New Start

I was happy when I got a promotion! There I said it. So of the two interviews I just had, I got the one that I really wanted. The day started kind of weird because I got turned down for the fist job, but about 20 minutes later I got offered the other job. Pretty awesome day!

Day 333: Half Bad

Oh 333 days left. 333 is the number my buddy Cory would always say was half way to bad. But today was all good. I was happy when I weighed myself this morning and found out that I've lost 15 pounds in the last 3 months. I know, a lot of people will be saying that I don't need to lose any weight, but trust me, there are areas where I need to. I'm pretty stoked!

Day 334: Eat this burrito and call me in the morning

Today I had another interview for another position. I did not feel it went as well as the previous interview, so in turn I did not start my day on the best foot. And so my day dragged on and on. By the end of the work day I was developing a headche. It was definately one those "blah" days that I've been dreading. But when I got home, I was happy to have the best 20 minute nap ever! Seriously, no more headache, forgot about the interview, it was if the day had started all over again. And to top it off I had a burrito at Chipotle. Everyday should start like that.

Day 335: Old Man Aspirations

Today on my lunch break I went to a cafateria across the street from my building. I purchased my food and sat outside on the patio. I noticed an old man eating at the table next to me. One of the buildings janitors came around the corner and saw him and her face lit up as if her day had just been made. She began to him about her kids and how her life was going. It was at that moment that another woman, wearing business attire, came around the corner, saw him and had the same reaction as the janitor. I was happy when one be one a steady stream of almost ten people had the same experience with this older man. I just sat and watched during my entire lunch break and hope that one day I could bring this much to joy to others.

Day 336: With my head held high

I had an interview for a new position at work today, and although I'm fairly positive I will not get the position, I was happy when I walked out of the interview and did not have a single regret. I did the best I could and thats all I could have hoped for.

Day 337: De-Stress

I'm not particularly stressed or anything, but I was happy to hang out with a friend, watch new episodes of some of my favorite shows, eat popcorn and generally not have a worry in the world. It might sound lame, but not thinking about anything today (i.e. School, Work, Bills, etc.) is exactly what I needed.

Day 338: Stop And Smell The Trees

Yet another day of going to the capitol building. Maybe its a signal to myself thats saying "Hey, your happy place is the capitol building!" But, today  I was happy when I got to take a tree tour of capitol park. I didn't fully understand everything that was being said to me, but it was really cool to stop and take a look at a place I ride by everyday. My tour guide was the superintendent of the arboretum at UC Davis. He should us and told us all kinds of interesting things like a bunch of trees that were shipped here as seedlings from civil war battle fields a year after the civil war ended! There are trees from all over the world here and there so much more that he didn't show us. I'm thinking of going again this weekend to check it out myself.

Day 339: The Center of the World

Today I went to the capital building to attend a rally for the deaf on the south steps. When I go there I was happy to find rallies on three sides of the building. This made me happy because when I walk around the capital building I realize that I live in the processing center for California. California is such an important place on not just an international scale but an international scale. And when I see rallies and demonstration happening here, I feel like I might just be inside history. I like that feeling.

South Steps: Deaf Rally

North Steps:

West Steps:

Day 340: Gas Happy

I use to fill up my car's gas tank every four days. That equalled a few hundered dollars every month, let alone meant that I was in my car a lot. Today, I was happy when I dorve my car and realized that I have not put gas in my car for over a month and a half and still have over a quarter tank left. It is so awesome to be living a life where gas is not draining my wallet dry. I wish this upon everyone.

Day 341: Twofer Wednesday (that has absolutley no ring to it)

Happy times two today! That's some good alliteration if you ask me! I decided that since I never said I couldn't do two things in one day that I'm going to bust out the twofer today.

First: I was happy when I bought saveoururbanforest.org. Through many emails with Meredith, we built a really great foundation for what we hope will be a movement in the downtown Sacramento area. I'm warning you know, I'm positive I will be writing a lot about this as we get deeper in the year. Besides it was really cool because I've never bought a .org domain name before.

Second: My rule is to keep everyday unique, so today I'm using up an easy one (even if it's in my twofer day). When I started my job 3 months ago, I met someone who I became friends with almost instantly. She one of those people who, for some reason, can connect to my craziness and I to hers. Last night I realized that I am really happy I met her and she is now in my life. I feel very lucky for the friends I have, because all the friends I have are lifetime friends and not just friends for now. That's something special.

Day 342: Accomplished: Finally.

I have had my job for about 3 months now and so far its a fairly low priority, low maintenance, low thinking job. At first that was great, but I really am the kind of person who needs some kind of challenge to help make it through the day. I was happy when I had a lot of work to do and left work feeling accomplished. I know this should happen everyday, but it has not happened yet at my job, so that's why it is significant. I had to work on different projects that were above the normal remedial tasks I normally do. It really makes me excited for tomorrow.

Day 343: Help from a stranger

My bike broke on the way home from work today. The spring from the seat fell off. I was standing up on my bike, so I didn't really notice. I was happy when I stranger flagged me down and gave me the broken piece after she had picked it up for me. She didn't have to, I might not have. I'm so glad that good people still exist.

Today seemed like the world was trying to upset me. I woke up late, almost late for work, I thought I lost my cellphone, my shoe would not stay tied, my bike broke and a million other little things. But you know what, not one of those things even effected my mood. It was a good day. I think this project is having an effect.

Day 344: Ghost Town

I stayed in the house all today and watched football. So when the night came around I decided it was time to get out of the house and walk around midtown. I met up with a friend and we walked down to the Capitol building. I was happy when we were the only ones walking around downtown at night. Now I'm sure that others were around somewhere, but I couldn't see him. There is something just awesome about walking around a place all alone, when it is typically a place that is packed with people. It helps you how realize how really beautiful the world can be.

Day 345: Starting the Day Off Right

A lot of good things happened to me today. But I think the first thing  in the day that made me happy, was that I did not cry when I gave my speech. I came close, but I held it back. Some other things that made me happy were: I got to talk to a girl I've been wanting to talk to for a while, I watched two new episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I got to take a really long nap and my friend Rosemary came and hung out with me all night and was actually nice to me. ;-) (I'm just kidding Rosemary).

Overall, it was a terrific day and I couldn't asked for any more!

Happy Birthday to my brother Brad! I haven't seen my family much lately , because I suck and have been busy. But I owe you b-day present Brad, I bought you a brand new sweet Barbie because I know you've always wanted a cool doll.

One more thing, My blog has been kind of picture-less lately, my goal for tomorrow is to get something visual up, because the blandness is starting to piss me off, too. :-)

Day 346: My drive to happiness

Tonight I had to write a speech for my speech class that I take on Saturday mornings. This week topic was: Inspiration. I've decided to give my speech on how much my late grandmother inspired me to try and become the man I want to be. But, in doing so I was so happy to relive her memory and realize how lucky I was (and still am) to have had such an amazing woman in my life. She was the perfect grandmother. I will post the speech I'm going to give on my other blog ( thecowtongue.blogspot.com ). I really hope I don't cry during class, but I kind of think I'm going to.

On another note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to my brother Mark. He's only 22, but he's more mature and more on track with life than me. Hey, someone's got to act like the big brother, and I'm certainly not doing it!

Day 347: Hatching a Plan

Down to the wire for my happiest moment of the day. Meredith, Mel and I went walking with the dogs around midtown tonight. We sat at an outside table and began to talk about Midtown Sacramento's dying urban forest and what we could do about it. I was happy and excited when we hatched a plan to bring community awareness about saving our urban forest to our neighbors. I love it when an idea is born and the reality and feasibility of it becomes apparent. I won't go too deep into what we're planning, I'm sure I'll be writing a lot more about it in the coming months, but it's going to be awesome! I am really excited!

Day 348: Roomate vs. Cupid

Often the happiness of others can rub off on us. A fine example of this was when my roomate came home from work and I was happy when he told me he had been rear ended (he's fine) by a cute girl, (his car and her car are fine) and got her number. He came in and said, "Jared, cupid exists in Sacramento!" Later in the evening he texted her and got a date out of it. Of course I made fun of him, but really I think its really awesome.

Day 349: A New World

Not much happened today. The same old routine of wake up, work, then school. So today's happy thing is one of those things that makes me happy all the time. I was happy when I was riding through downtown during the day. I love being downtown during the day. Its SO different then the night time. Different people, different attitudes, it seriously is a new world created after 6 or 7pm. The day time downtown is still unfamiliar to me, so I feel like a bit of a stranger, which may be why I love it so much.

Day 350: Deodorant Free

Everyday when I ride by bike home for lunch I end up riding back to work really fast to make it back before my hour is up. Today I was happy when I left earlier, rode nice and easy and didn't sweat and stink when I got back to the office. This is a miniscule triumph, but it really pleased me not to be worried about stinking up the office for once.

Day 351: A Dog's Life

What a weird weekend. I've had to go through some situations that I haven't been through in a long time. I won't go into detail about anything, but with the help of my friends I realized some things about confidence. Honestly, today I had a lot on my mind, but when I went to the dog park, I was at my happiest. Watching the dogs live so simply, really put me at ease with my mental worries. I know this post might be a bit confusing, but believe me, I was really happy at the dog park.

Day 352: Amongst the Beasts

Today was simple, I was happy when I went to the zoo. Nothing is better than the zoo, seriously. Here are some videos and pics:

Red Panda

Tortoise

Day 353: Elevators are awkward

I rode the elevator with a man whom I had helped (I work in the HR department) the other day. I didn't really know him but we started talking about working for the state. He thought it was awesome that I was in a Communications major and was interested in multimedia. He thought it would be awesome to change the perception of government work form a "slack job" stereotype to a "working for the people" thought. Without going into too much detail, I was happy when I made a new friend at work. We ended up walking and talking for quite a while during our lunch. He actually gave me his business card, so I could email him later to continue our conversation. I think I might.

Day 354: All Alone

Everyday I ride my bike to and from work. I also ride home and back for lunch. There are a set of railroad tracks in between my office and home. Today I  was happy when I barely beat the train across the tracks on the way home for lunch. This means that all the cars I was riding along side got stuck waiting for the train. Let me tell you, having a busy road to yourself while on a bike is heaven.

Day 355: Happiness I'll never understand

While searching around the internet today I stumbled upon this video:

It made me wonder how anyone could find any kind of joy in something they could never get to fully understand the end result as we understand it. The more I think about it, the happier I am that a state of happiness exist out there, that I could never understand. There is so much joy and love in the world that no one could ever be able to take it all in, which means that there is PLENTY to go around and no one should be without. Pretty amazing concept.

Day 356: Like an Elephant, Remembering all

I'll try not to post too often about my sing language class, but it definitely is one of those things in my life that can make me instantly happy. However, today in particular, we learned a lot of new signs and I was happy when I could remember all the new signs that were taught. I don't know if I'll use it in a profession (see last post), but it has certainly been a joy and extremely fun experience learning sign these first few weeks of school.

Day 357: Its a sign

With my new focus to pay attention to happiness around me, I was happy to meet Mark, who loves what he does for a living. Mark is our sign language interpreter at work who found out that I began taking sign this semester at school. So he came over to my office to introduce himself to me and tell me he would be more than happy to help me with any sign questions I might have. I am and have been, extremely jealous of people who have found their passion and love in life and use it for a living. So not only was he an extremely nice man, but you could feel his love of his work emanate from him. It felt good and I want to be able to do that to others.

Day 358: You might call it unlazy

Sometimes just finishing something you've been meaning to do is all it takes to feel good about the day. Today, I was happy when I finally cleaned my bedroom. I know, I know, cleaning your bedroom is just something you should be doing always, but I use my bedroom as an unloading station. When I get I unload everything I have in my bedroom and it starts to pile up. I finally unpiled everything and threw a lot of things out. What a good day.

Today, marks the official first week of my project and let me tell you: THIS IS HARD! I think what made it so difficult this week is the lack of activity on a daily basis. My goal for this week is to really focus hard on things around me. I might even make a list of activities that make me happy, I don't know I still feel like this is evolving. If you've been reading this past week, thanks! Let me know, comment, email me, tell me what makes you happy during the day, I'm always in need of some inspiration.

Day 359: Its raining men

Sometimes you just need to laugh to be happy and Saturday night I was happy when I saw a naked man watering the black top downtown. My friend Jeff and I decided to walk around downtown Sacramento to see what was happening, when we turned the corner by the convention center we witnessed a man fully undressed, spraying water out of a garden hose on to the parking lot. I laughed a lot. I mean its not funny that the man obviously was not all there but come on that's just a funny scene. Sorry kids, tonight's post was rated R for full frontal. (I actually brought my camera to take pictures of downtown happenings, but when I pulled it out I realized that I left the battery in the charger at home. So sad.)

Day 360: Back to Work

This might sound sick, but today I was happy when I got to go to my first meeting at work. I recently took a job with the state, but in order to do so, I left a higher profile job with a private company where I was very involved in the day to day operations. With the state, I basically just answer a phone. It gets kinda of boring. So today I got to go to meeting about redesigning our departments intranet and I get to be involved. Being happy about getting more work to do might sound ill, but trust me, after a bit of boring monotonous  days, you'd be happy too.

Day 361: Its been far too long

If you know me, you know music means a lot to me. Today I was happy when I found out my favorite band is having 2 reunion shows and I bought tickets to both shows. This show was an impossibility in the minds of myself and many other. Hot Little Pony is going to be far and away the best show ever by far.

Day 362: A ring and a smile is all I need

Another day of struggling. As if another day could be as uneventful as yesterday, today came along. After I got home from work today I met up with my roommate, and I told him that I couldn't think of anything that made me happy earlier in the day. He suggested that we just need to get out of the house and go look. So we hopped on our bikes and started to ride around. Not more than two blocks down we crossed paths with three girls also on bikes. Sure enough I was happy when these three girls rang their bells and said hi to us. This is not ordinary for me. People don't just say hi to me. And the best part is that when we got all the way across town, we ran into them again for a second helping of bells and hellos. Sure it doesn't seem much, but I realized that sometimes just having a stranger say hi to you is all you need to make your day that much better.

Day 363: Just like Superman, There when you need him

Three days in and I thought I was going to have one of those days already. Nothing bad happened and nothing good happened. I actually was beginning to stress out a little bit trying to think of what was making me happy today. I even started to make my own "happy" (which I still may have to do in the future, I'm not ruling it out, sometimes you gotta do whatcha gotta do), but stopped and left it into the hands of fate.

And to my pleasure, I learned today why I am going to love this project. I was in shock and awe when a man and woman made me happy by giving me not only their parking spot, but their parking pass at school this evening. I was running late and was in a hurry to get to class. I stopped at the parking ticket vending machine to get my parking pass for the night. I put a dollar in the machine, the machine wouldn't take it. I put four quarters in, one by one the quarters made a clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk sound as they all hit the coin return dish. When all of the sudden I heard a man say, "Hey, you can have our pass, we're leaving, hey, you could even have our spot!" 

I've noticed that in Sacramento particularly, we tend to mind our own business a lot. Meaning, we try not to talk and/or approach others whenever possible. So to be reminded that there are still people out there who are looking around them to help someone out, blows me away.

I thanked the man generously, took the ticket and waited for them to back up and took their spot. The man did not think much of it as I took the ticket, but he didn't know that he was doing me an extra favor by making me happy and saving my blog. I would have told him, but he might have thought I was weird and not given me his ticket. 

Day 364: Button Magic

Today I volunteered at the Sacramento Tree Foundation's (sactree.com) booth at the California State Fair. I helped kids make buttons about trees for them to wear around the fair. However, one particular girl was amazed about how the button maker worked, and I was happy that she was in complete awe. To be honest, I'm not really sure how the machine works either but it essentialy cinches down a front metal piece, a paper with your design and a clear plastic outer shell. Then you spin the bottom and it cinches the backing on. It really is pretty cool. The look on the little girls face was priceless. She couldn't even walk away from the booth with out staring at the machine the whole time. I wish I had taken a picture but I forgot and it was in the moment. But here's an example of the button maker.

Day 365: Going Greek

Being happy on your birthday should be easy and is. So today is a freebie (yes, I know it's kind of lame taking a freebie on my birthday) for me because I didn't have to think too hard. I decided to spend my birthday at the Greek Festival here in Sacramento and I was happy when I got to eat Greek Food. I got to eat Lamb, Tiropita, and Loukomades. Sooo good. It really is lame that I've posted twice about food making me happy, I really am a fat kid in a skinny body.

Rainbow Time Machine

On this first day of summer in the sweltering Sacramento 100 degree weather, I decided to cool down after work and get some cold, delicious ice cream. I was so happy when I saw that they had Rainbow Sherbet. It may seem trivial to most, that a flavor could make me so happy, but it brings back memories when I was roughly four or five years old, going to the ice cream parlor and getting my favorite flavor, yes, Rainbow Sherbet! And really, what could be more joyful than reliving your greatest childhood memories.
.
.
.

In the Beginning

Welcome to my experiment! I have approximately four months until I turn 29, so I hope to post a few trial run happy moments. I mean you wouldn’t expect an artist to paint his masterpiece without having drawn a few stick figures in the beginning, would you?