Good Things Part 2 Posted by Sad Blogger , 3.9.09 at Thursday, September 03, 2009, in

So often, with seemingly everything in the world weighing down on us, we let it get the better of us and convince ourselves that everything is wrong. When that happens you have to remember the good things. You have to remember things that make your lips curl into a grin just thinking about it, things that make you giggle inside, things that make your chest feel warm.

In the first grade, some kids built a tree house in one of the trees surrounding the lot near our school. At recess I would follow the brave kids to the tree and watch them climb up to the top and hang out there 'til the teachers came and yelled at them to come down. One day I begged my mom to take me to the tree house and I spent 5 minutes working up the courage to climb up the old tree. When I finally got to the top, I was ecstatic! I felt like I was so high up! I don't remember too much from that time, actually. I remember taking trips to Calgary during the summer and seeing the Stampede parade. We'd also come to Calgary at Christmastime and sleep at my grandma's house. We managed to fit two beds into her little guest room and we'd all sleep in there. I liked sleeping with my whole family in one room. I could hear them all breathing and I felt like I was safe. Those trips to grandma's house were also my first experiences with real snow. Back in the day (haha!), the snow seemed so deep! Like it would come up to my eyes! I loved that snow so much. I still get that hint of a little kid feeling whenever it snows. Winter brings back all those memories...Christmas smells, Christmas tastes...I love it.

In October of 1999, my family took a trip to Disney World in Florida. That was an experience. I kept a scrapbook of that entire trip. I took a million photos, wrote whole pages of journal entries, and clipped information out of every guide and map I could get my hands on. That trip is probably in my top five happiest memories ever. Every moment was a good moment. Every long line was worth the gleeful few minutes that resulted. The exhaustion of 16-hour days didn't cause any problems either. The whole thing was amazing. I was too chicken to go on a lot of the bigger, faster rides. But even my family's mocking taunts couldn't ruin the experience for me. I was in child heaven. I'll never forget the magic of that trip.

You know me,

- The Sad Blogger