Get Happy

How to get happy after a sh***y week.

I went to Weight Watchers this morning for the first time after two months. The scale didn't make me happy, but their new Summer campaign "Get Happy!" did. (Although the damage on the scale was limited to 2.5 lbs--so not too bad.) This Summer, we are to focus on what makes us happy. The idea behind this is that you need to be happy in order to lose weight. There's truth in that! Happiness helps you stay in control and makes you strong. I'm usually pretty happy and upbeat, but this week had me down. My younger child has been ill with Mono since March and is now being hit with depression. Everything together made it so that my child's participation in the high school exchange trip to Germany had to be canceled. This is something that I didn't want to accept, and so I grieve a little over this. Knowing full well that I'm spoiled and that this isn't the end of the world. Traveling, making new friends, celebrating graduation and broadening horizons has made way for months of medication and counseling to battle the blues and anxiety. I'm sure that this experience broadens one's horizons too. But it's all so different from what I had imagined for my child. So, I was ready for the Get Happy! message.

In the top 10 chart of things that make me happy, going to garage sales ranks in the top 3. So, off to garage sales we went, my older child and I. And man oh man was it ever my lucky day. People don't know what they have or they don't care: I scored a pepper mill by Peugeot (made in France) for the ridiculous sum of fifty cents. Look up the brand to see what a deal I got. And, if you're in the market for a pepper mill that will age with you and move with you to the assisted living: go with Peugeot. They make awesome cars AND pepper mills. Odd combination, but true.

Then my second FIND of the day must have been planted there just for me. As a big Bandaid or a big hug from the parenting Gods for my kid's not going to Germany and thus my not getting a handcrafted-in-Germany souvenir. A Rauchermannchen was waiting for me by his lonely self on day 3 of a giant moving sale. Looked over by many, treasured and taken home by 1: me.  (I could almost hear him whisper "Danke Schon.") He's never been used, and came with a box of Raucherkerzen (incense)! I paid the princely sum of fifty cents for this jewel that was made in the Erzgebirge of Germany.

Other happy-making scores were CD's for a quarter each: jazz, swing, and classical. All gems; all happy.  Six mugs that go with my dishes, a Vera scarf, rubber stamps and a stack of cloth napkins to be used at our church's no-trash picnic on July 5. A picture frame by Mary Engelbreit that affirms that I in fact AM the Queen of Everything-- this bubble got burst a little when it dropped on the drive way and chipped--oh well. Rubber stamps with perfectly happy images. A great movie and a Weight Watchers cookbook and a linen tea towel that came all the way from England.

Weight Watchers, the Happy Challenge is ON!