The Happiness Thread

Apparently, we’re getting $15,000 from Wal-Mart since my mother used to work there for so long ('98-'06).

 

It's my birthday and I'm no longer homeless- my parents have a nice house to look forward to. Yay.

 

Happy Birthday @Nidhogg

 

I'm very happy today.

Back in 2002 through 2004, my roomie and I (who run a business together) made quite a bit of money. We estimated our taxes wrong, so when our tax accountant finally checked us, he said we owe a LOT of cash to the IRS. We couldn't pay it, mostly because my roomie ran into some health problems that made it impossible for him to work.

The IRS slapped a lien on our house as a result.

Somewhere along the road we got a new tax accountant, and he informed us that there's a ten-year limit on tax debts. He had us declared "uncollectable" due to my roomie's health, so the IRS pretty much left us alone for several years.

Today, with no prompting, we received a notice from the IRS saying that we'd satisfied the tax conditions and that they had formally lifted the lien on our house. Free and clear at last! Woohoo! Happy happy joy joy!

Big happiness around here now. I'm heading out to the liquor store to get a VERY nice bottle of champagne.

 

Had a very successful day at my job yesterday. Myself and the other workers managed to complete a project we feared we couldn't do by the end of the day.

I'm also finally figuring out what works best for me when I write: write a few scenes, then edit them a bit, continue. Rinse and repeat. I even had a brilliant idea for my fantasy that I think could work. Will have to write a prologue and experiment on it a bit.

And for gaming related happiness: I thought I'd never say it but...I'm actually growing to like Lara Croft and the rebooted Tomb Raider series. Tried playing the original games and it turned me away from it; thought I'd hate it. But this new series? I actually care about Lara Croft, she's hell of a lot more relatable and I actually like her personality. Suffice to say, I'm now a Tomb Raider fan. Woo! Go, Lara Croft!!

 

I 'karate chopped' my other half while saying "karate chop aiyaaa!" while I was half asleep.... It startled me awake and then I lmao'd. No he was not hurt by my innate goofiness.

 

That is really good news, @minstrel. Totally champagne.

I feel happy for the wrong reasons today. Or rather, grateful for all the right reasons. I just had another close friend have a very debilitating accident on Friday. (That makes four close friends this year so far, if you count debilitating conditions as well as accidents.) She broke her ankle and had to have metal plates put in. She will be in a cast for at least 8 weeks, and total recovery probably won't ever happen. She lives alone, so will need to move in with her son.

So why does this make me happy? It doesn't. Not only am I totally upset on her behalf, but this kind of thing scares the shit out of me. But it also makes me totally grateful that so far, knock wood, I'm healthy and still able to 'do' for myself and my husband. We're getting up in years ...I'm 67 and he's nearly 71 and partly disabled now. This is that age where frailties start to appear, and can be devastating because they are often the start of a downward spiral. So I am very lucky, at least at the moment, and can appreciate it.

I think it's important to stop every now and again and say 'whew.' I've escaped thus far. If that's 'happy,' well I'm happy. Ish.

 

^ Hope you two live a long, happy life now.

My Happiness of the Day:
I'm enjoying my fantasy-mystery more than I ever did. More so because for the longest time I was afraid I had completely ruined my protagonist, changing her from a badass disabled snarker to a stereotypical (and offensive) “pwease pity meeeh!!!” because of her disabilities.

After a year and a half of trying to figure it out, trying different ways to make her that badass character I liked so much again, I've succeeded. I think I found the right balance between acknowledging her difficulties while still making her a strong character.

I thought I couldn't do this, thought I had completely destroyed her character and wanted to walk away from it but I guess I proved myself wrong.

 

One of the short stories I wrote is going to be a short film on youtube! x

 

The response of the people in Dallas, Texas regarding the shootings have more or less given me hope for humanity. As the (black, if you want to know) reporter said: "This isn't a case of white vs. black. It's a case of right vs. wrong." And here I was expecting the next Ferguson to happen in Dallas. Congrats, you've soften up my cynicism.

Never stop being awesome, humans.

Never stop being awesome, people of Dallas, Texas.

God bless.

 

I've just watched a vid online. I can't link it so I'll have to try and describe. Last night was bonfire night here in Northern Ireland. It used to be a fraught time but it's chilled in the past few years. Didn't hear one overhead helicopter, for the first time... ever. The firemen were kept busy though... wish they didn't build the damn things so high and next to houses.

Anyhoo... the vid. It started off by showing a crowd of people round a bonfire, having fun, while kids watched the flames lick round the wooden pallets with something akin to awe. Enter, stage left, three guys (I presume) in combat fatigues, and wearing balaclavas. My finger twitched on my mouse. They were going to do The Show of Force. For those not in the know, the paramilitaries here used to publically show themselves at this point, very often in front of the media, and fired a volley of shots. Why? To show their defiance to opposition, the law and government, to show they had existing caches of weapons readily available, and let's not forget what might be the most sickening aspect, to give those young eyes watching something to aspire to. I wish I was kidding. I'm not.

You might be thinking: Hold up...have you lost your sense of direction? This is the Happy Thread. Don't worry, inbuilt GPS, I'm getting there.

I was just about to click off —I don't need to watch their pitiful powerplays— but something dayglo coloured caught my eye. In direct mockery of all that had gone before, the three lads struck a funky pose, got out their supersoakers, and pumped volleys of water into the air.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Made my day.

 

I read an amazing FB post today by a young man and his friends who are all into horses and show-jumping. I salute these kids who, despite getting bullied, continue doing something they love and keep spreading the message that you should let people enjoy their hobbies, whatever they are, whether you're a girl who's into ice hockey or a boy who's into equestrianism. I was bullied in junior high for my riding hobby (and I'm a girl) and now, in my adult life, I sometimes receive shit for being into martial arts and enjoying going to the shooting range. It never seems to end, but I'm happy this young man won't apologize and that his message to others is not to apologize either. Just do what you love.

 

But do you do judo kicks to get onto your horse and then shoot targets while riding around the horse arena?

 

I got my Amazon Fire Tablet today and just got done installing Kodi and the Exodus addon. It works great! I'd highly recommend it!

 

I just got a new lenovo lappy and I couldn't be happier! Next time I'll be getting myself a new phone since my current one is already too broken to function.

 

Met a headhunter guy for lunch, as he has a role he wants to put me forward for. He explained that they will give me a 1.5 hour writing test, then an interview, then a 4 hour writing test, then a second interview. He seemed perplexed that I was excited about 5.5 hours of writing tests.

 

I love my job, I love you all and this forum, I love where my life is right now. I couldn't ask for any better.

 

On Thursday my kitchen flooded, from what was, presumably, a leak coming from the flat above. It was streaming into a double wall socket... I made it safe, but basically, the kitchen was a no go area, aside from nipping in to change the buckets and blanket boxes that were catching the water. I had to set an hourly alarm to get up through the subsequent nights, to ensure I wasn't responsible for flooding the flat below me.

Unfortunately, the tenant of the flat upstairs was either on holiday, or pretending he was living there in order to claim more benefits. I tried rapping his door multiple times to no avail. Meanwhile, my kitchen was starting to resemble a swimming pool.

It took me to get a court order, so me and the plumber could legally break down his door to gain access. Silly frigger had taken away his washing machine and forgotten to properly close the cold water valve. Idiot!

Anyhoo, the plumber's just left. I've dried up as best I can, though it'll take a few days to dry completely. Best thing to come out of it all, is that the wallpaper above my tiles is falling off. I'm in the middle of redecorating the whole flat, and was dreading doing it, as it was several layers deep and wasn't making it easy for me.

Problem inadvertantly solved.

 

Life has taken a turn for the better these past few weeks. Hopefully it stays that way!

 

I think I'm finally learning to write. Not that I haven't done a few decent pieces before, but they were all painfully crafted, sentence by sentence, with days spent agonizing over whether to use a comma, or break the sentence into two, but now I'm finally getting the hang of the first draft, pound the keys thing.

And inadvertently becoming a planner rather than a pantser in the process, if you count ugly rough draft writing that you know the direction of, with the intent of going back for a rewrite (a real rewrite) later.

All that advice I've seen finally seems to be sinking in.

Coupled with a minor complaint against "Finding Forrester", where the first draft is always so good it can impress hardened English teachers, but this is the happy thread, so

Happy!

 

Yeah, bullying someone into karate and firearms seems like a winning strategy to me

 

Haha. Not so much bullied into as much as bullied because.

Although I know kids have picked up a martial art after getting beaten up every day at school so they'd learn to defend themselves. Now that's bullying someone into karate.

 

Ah, sorry, ambiguous phrasing on my part. Bullying someone (who is) into karate and firearms....

I suppose in a way I got bullied into the Marines. Found a new bully there, until I stood up for myself one day and found my fellow jarhead shaking my hand and saying "It's about time."

Sounds like an after-school special.

I think I'm going to go be sick now.

 

That makes more sense, I guess. Although you'll have to be a special kind of nutcase to take it out on your bullies with a gun, and only slightly less nutty to do it with fists. I've never been physically bullied, ever. Verbally, a little. As an adult, it's easier to ignore negative comments ranging from sexist to plain prejudiced (mostly from women, by the way). As a child, it was much more difficult to ignore the jeers, and I couldn't understand back then where all that hostility came from.

Well, it may be syrupy in your opinion, but it takes guts to stand up for yourself. I didn't, as a kid. I may have had no trouble flying over fences or galloping bareback in the woods, but I was cowardly in social situations throughout junior high.

 

My terrible 4th roommate moves out in two days, so I finally get the room that's meant to be mine! And the house will be cleaner!