Irrational Happiness

Princess our lively 5-year old boxer runt thinks she's human. We don't help matters in the way we treat her, and that's all I'll confess to. But she is quite bright if we say so. When we take her somewhere, we use the words "let's go" and she jumps at our heels all the way to the car. When we don't take her with us we ask for "sugars and kisses," and she promptly gives us a peck then jumps on the big blue chair, her chin resting on her front paws and eyebrows furrowed in sadness.

Today I gave the correct code word, "let's go," but then I said, "sugars and kisses to daddy," and she usually complies. But today she was so overjoyed that she couldn't control her little body. She flopped on the tile running up to John but not quite making the kissing connection. We tried a few more times then gave up because I thought she'd hurt herself. I diagnosed her as being irrationally happy.

I can remember my own bouts with irrational happiness and being injured in the process.

There was the time when I was about 5 years old. I was playing with my neighbor, which was a rarity. I was so caught up in the moment having a friend over that when it was my turn to chase Linda, I ignored the door she was closing behind her and ran smack into the square door knob leaving a pronounced L-shape in my delicate forehead. I thought I'd at least get stitches to brag about, but instead I got a patch of invisible fake skin tape. It was very anti-climactic to show my friends the patch of wrinkled skin with the L-shape scab showing through. Stitches would have validated my brave attempt to run through the door or at least a band-aid would have covered up the minor event. But there it was, the naked L-shaped tribute to irrational happiness which cost me dear collateral in the world of stitches-comparison with my friends.

Many moons later as a mature 10-year old, I got a new pekinese puppy and in silly celebration of this most unusual event in my life, for it was my first puppy ever, I decided to twirl and jump around barefoot in the lush green grass. The only problem was that I kicked a pile of dirt in the crecendo part of my homemade musical tribute to the new puppy, and the next thing I remember was pain, lot's of pain. The good news is that irrational happiness can bring with it redeeming qualities like wisdom, for it was then that I learned that fire ants lived in those neat cone-shaped piles of dirt that crop up unannounced from one day to the next.

Oh, there have been so many life-lessons learned from irrational happiness and I'm proud to say I'm still in school.

Recently I made reservations to fly to Boston for work. I was looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new co-workers. I was precise in all my calculations in making air fare and car rental reservations. It took a few phone calls to finalize the dates, but I was all set. The day before boarding I anxiously awaited my e-boarding pass. I got online to see why it hadn't been sent, and to my horror the flight had been booked exactly 4 weeks earlier. So I went to the folder where I saved all my confirmations and reminders and got a second shock, I overlooked the date on the first confirmation, and then when I got the e-boarding e-mail 4 weeks earlier, instead of reading it in detail I thought to myself, "no wonder I like this airline, they're always figuring out ways to keep my business." Well, they got my cake and ate it too as I lost the airfare due to not responding according to their cancellation rules. My bank account screamed "Ouch"! Luckily I had air miles and the trip was back on again. The good news is I saved 5 times that amount last year in coupons and realized that some stuff is just going to happen and it's better to move on and have a laugh than to stew over it.

Irrational happiness is a gift to the courageously un-cool; while we may suffer an injury in the process, it never fails to amuse when enough time passes.