The Good Things That Happened Today

I was reading about positive psychology while surfing around the internets today. I ignore the things that sound New Age-y or otherwise hokey and pay attention to the things that make sense to me.

One thing several articles talked about was recording the good things that had happened during the day. It's so easy to gripe about all the things that went wrong during the day, but that's a crappy way to experience life. If I can choose to focus my attention (and later, memories) on the positive things and let the negative things slip by — rather than the other way around, which seems easier to do — then I would expect to be happier overall.

So here's the list of good things I can recall happening today:

• I woke up pleased that my (lack of) wisdom teeth weren't as sore as yesterday.
• Despite snoozing through my alarm later than intended, I still got in to work before Chuck-the-manager, who was coming in late today.
• I have always thought that I didn't like chili. But when my coworkers were going to the sandwich deli across the street for lunch today, I wanted their company and I tagged along. The no-chewing-required foods available were clam chowder and chili. I realized that I couldn't really remember having chili, so maybe I would like it after all. I ordered a bowl of chili and was very pleasantly surprised by how yummy and not–bean-heavy it was. Maybe I'll order chili again! (I remain suspicious of canned chili, however.)
• For a brief period of time, it looked like Forrest would be able to find a reasonably-priced plane ticket to come see me this weekend. That would have been awesome, and I was really looking forward to seeing him. (Then the price disappeared from the website and he couldn't come after all. But I remember the feeling of being excited to see him. Maybe I can focus just on that aspect of the memory?)
• I made Jiffy corn muffins last weekend, then brought the leftovers to work for my coworkers after my oral surgery made eating solid things impossible. There were still a couple left today. They reheated great, were still soft and tasty, and I was able to eat them without a problem! (The little things, right? :))
• I chatted with Olya online today; we haven't talked for a month or so, so it was great to catch up again. I love how we remain close, even though we have such chats very infrequently.
• I wrote up this list, which actually has put me in a better mood. I started writing the list specifically because I was feeling down beforehand, so it's great that such a simple, easy thing really did affect my mood so quickly.