free basin'

so i just read in the coast that a woman in dartmouth actually has a "smiley face museum"!! isn't that the cutest thing you've ever heard?!?

i've been obsessed with smiley faces for the longest time! i don't know what it is about them that i found so appealing; it could be their positive vibe, or the fact that i can't help but smile back when i see one, or it could be their strange similarity to s smiling sun (and since i'm a sunshine junkie i can't help but be affected!!).

did you know that the first happy face appeared back in the sixties (go figure!) when an insurance agent drew two dots and then a line under them in an effort to boost the morale at his firm?? that might be hearsay but it's an encouraging little tale, isn't it?

when i was a raver, (way back when), i had (and don't laugh too hard) a yellow, rubber, smiley-face back-pack that i used to carry around (on my back) filled with candy that i would distribute throughout the evening. leanne and i were a team actually, and we became so popular that during the night people would come looking for us, cause we always had the really GOOD candy!!! i'm serious, we used to RAID the dollar stores for candy...i'm lucky i didn't have many more cavities!!

i have every single happy face glass the dollar store ever sold!! one of the first ones i got was actually from the bartender at reflections. they were using it as a tip cup at one of the little booths upstairs, and i was so drunk and saw it and begged him for it!! little did i know that they sell them for a buck at every five an' dime in the province!! but all i knew at that point in time is that i had to have that cup!! and i've been collecting them ever since!

i even have a happy face 'piggy bank' that sits on top of my tv. i even once had a happy face calendar with a different style face for every month!! my supervisor at work is just as obsessed with them as i am, and while i was quitting smoking last year, she gave me a smiley face sticker for every day i was smoke free!! isn't that awesome!!!!

personally, i believe that in order to stop the war in iraq, all they had to do was bomb the land with little happy face lollipops!!!! that may sound a little naive, and maybe it's a stretch, but i tell ya, you can't help but be happy and smile when you see one!!

it's a proven fact that it takes less muscles in your face to smile, than it does to frown. and smiling/laughing can actually reduce stress levels in the body that cause heart attacks!!

so turn that frown upside down, save yourself, and try one on for size!! i betcha you could make someone's day, simply by shooting them a smile!!

Enjoy.

:)