No specific title because I can't think of one...

We celebrated Mountain Vistas Day today. What? You haven't heard of that specific holiday? In my neighborhood it's an annual event filled with activities such as a fun run, a children's parade, inflatable slides and bounce houses, a climbing wall, a dunking machine, various carnival games. The teenagers, not ones to be overly excited about bouncing in an inflatable with toddlers, had their own activities which consisted of a big volleyball game and then swimming. Then later families come back together again for a big BBQ and, this year anyway, a big family dance. (Can I just say, it was rather fun to watch everyone jam out to YMCA, Single Ladies and Thriller, specifically.)

But this afternoon it was hot. And I was tired. It's been a long-ish, somewhat hard week. Lots of bike riding. Lots of running errands here and there. I've been fighting some sort of bug that has given me a sore throat and made me feel slightly icky all week long. So between all that and other various things, I've been just off. Emotional. Really, really tired. Blah.

After the carnival games we had a couple of hours before the BBQ. I fell asleep. And woke up 45 minutes after the BBQ had already started. Oops. Bryan had sent the older kids over already so I decided to go, by myself, to Cafe Rio to get a salad for dinner. The line was really quite long. And I was still groggy. My exhaustion and crazy week must have shown on my face as I was zoning out...inching ever so slowly towards the front of the line. As I stood there I realized an older gentlemen was trying to get my attention. He said, "I have a task for you." "A task," I repeated? He replied, "I want you to to find one thing to be happy about." And then he smiled. So I thought for a moment. "Well, I left my 3 year old home which means I'm not having to worry about her wanting to run all over the place while I'm waiting in this long line!" And I smiled back at him. "Ah, there you go!" he said. And then suddenly it was my turn to order and I didn't see or talk to him again. But how nice was that? Because I found myself smiling the whole rest of the way through the order line and all the way back to my car and home again. And not because of the fact Lilian wasn't with me. It was the thought of this nice man who had seen someone looking down and went out of his way to do something about it that really made me smile.