Looking at today a little differently ...

Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad.
-- Norm Papernick

I always like to attribute the quotes I find to the person who said them by giving a little information about who that person is. I had to do a little digging to find out that Norm Papernick is a genius (literally), a software engineer at the Robotics Institute, part of Carnegie Mellon University. This guy has written (as in, invented) computer languages. And, his personal webpage has the lyrics to "They're Coming to Take Me Away" on it. I like the way dude thinks.

Spook Day. Yes, it's Halloween. Yes, there will be trick-or-treaters at my house tonight. No one believes me when I say this, but we'll probably have anywhere from 200 to 300 of the little buggers ring our bell (if it doesn't rain, which is predicted). Our subdivision is a pretty popular place to beg for candy in our little town. It's a "safe" neighborhood, because there's only one entrance. One way in, the same way out - no back streets or cut-offs or throughways. You come in off the main road, you leave on the main road. We moved into this house three years ago, right before Halloween, and quickly discovered that we were ill-prepared for the onslaught of ghouls, ghosts and fairies that we were subjected to. It was later that night that one of the long-time locals told us, "You can't afford to live there if you can't afford the Halloween candy."

Lesson learned. Since the WGH works for a GROCERY store, we stockpile every year now.

But I'm looking at today a little differently. It's Tuesday, which means I have to work, and it's Halloween, which means I need to get my work finished in time for trick-or-treat, but it's also the day before ... November 1st.

November 1st has become an important day in my life. The day NaNoWriMo begins. I bought a new dry-erase calendar/memo board so I could keep track of the things I have to do - deadlines and such - and I put it up next to my desk Sunday night. It already has four things written on it that I have to do that involve writing in some shape, form or fashion. Make that five. And tomorrow I start writing - fresh, new things, polish and edits (which technically isn't what NaNo is about, but I'm invoking the Zokutou Clause).

But tomorrow is also the day we have to have some of The Tall One's college applications in. The beginning of the next chapter of her life - and ours. And it's still seven months until graduation, which I refuse to think about right now.

So, enjoy your day today, and tomorrow, think of me - holed up in the study in my standard writing attire, pecking away furiously and consuming large quantities of caffeine, all the while thinking, "Am I insane, or have I found the true meaning of happiness?"

In the meantime, check out my buddy PC's list of happy little things. And read a book!

=) JB