Smile.

I am so glad for the weekend.

To say that this week has been challenging, wouldn't really be appropriate. Perhaps to say that it was a fight of mind over matter and a steep uphill clawing, would be more accurate.

Nothing huge happened, but the accumulation of the little things that really made it just overwhelming. For example, sitting for an hour, almost every night this week, waiting for a religion class that never showed up. Or listening to a woman drive my friends nuts with her bi-polar tendencies. Or being fed rice everyday until I thought I would die. Or the intensely cold air I get to breathe everyday that won't let me get over this stupid cough. Or the substitute teacher who I have a hard time dealing with, Or maybe it was that one kid in my junior class who tells me to go to hell everyday as I walk through the door. I am not sure which of these things really made the week long, but they certainly all contributed.

However, now that I have made it through, mostly unscathed, I feel fairly calm and positive about next week. Of course, that's easy to say on Friday, we'll see if the feeling makes it until Monday.

The silver lining of all this, is that I am off this weekend, which is always nice. I don't have to DO anything. I can just stay at home and relax, recover, soak my feet and find happy Michelle again. Weekends off are my happy place! The other silver lining, within the silver lining, is that I finished reading an incredible book today. I started it this summer on my hot, sweaty road trip to the Keys, reading it aloud as we flew down the highway with all the windows down, and then I forgot about it and left it half finished until this week. Then I remembered it was there and decided to read it. At first it was hard to read it silently and I almost started reading it out loud to myself. But I thought that would be silly, so I just kept reading and got so engrossed I didn't even notice that it was finished. I hate that. I think the most depressing thing on earth, after taking down the Christmas tree, is finishing a really good book.

I don't know about all of you but when I read, it becomes another world. I get so into it that time vanishes, food doesn't matter and I forget about real life. This has caused problems. Like, in school, when I would go to bed and just read a chapter and then suddenly realize I was halfway through and it was three o'clock in the morning. That happens all the time actually. Its a problem. A sickness really. But then, you get so involved with the characters, the words, whatever and you want to jump inside and just stay there forever and then it ends. And it leaves a hole. A beautiful, beautiful hole. I love it. People who don't read are really missing out. Seriously.

Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. The point is, even in the terrible, awful, no good, really bad week, I still can find something to be happy about and that is what I would like to pass onto you! Even though it seems like things are terrible... Not all of it was bad, come on. You are alive, probably not starving to death if you are able to read this, you have a house, and a computer, eh? So, suck it up. Get through the crap and then sit back and remember the good stuff. And smile. You must smile =)

That is all.

Michelle