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Good Morning! Good Afternoon! Goodnight!
Did you remember to say these things to the people around you today? You should try it sometime; it can really make a difference! Just a small greeting, a small moment of your own time can turn another person’s day around. Just two simple words can show someone that you’re thinking of them. You really should try it!
Lately, I’ve had so many things to write about, because everyone's really great with sending me tips and suggestions. Our world really is the best! But instead of using any of those stories today, I’d like to share something that happened to me. I was sitting in the park last week, trying to write my piece for today, when I saw the cutest thing; a little girl had found a dollar on the sidewalk! Has that ever happened to you? I have terrible luck; I don’t think I’ve found spare change on the side of the road since I was little. But isn’t it a great feeling, finding something unexpected like that? Small surprises happen more often in life than people think; take them as opportunities to feel a little bit brighter! Back to the park. I’ll admit that I might have been feeding the ducks a little bit more than working on my column (don’t tell my editor!), so I was a bit distracted. Do you know what happened next? That little girl walked over to me and gave me the dollar she had found! It was such a surprising thing, because haven’t we all grown up with ‘finders keepers’? But maybe we should rethink that old saying. Because for all the bubble gum or cool trinkets that little girl could have bought with the lucky dollar she'd found, she looked even happier to share it with me. And then she told me about a homeless shelter a few blocks away… Maybe I should clean up a little more before I go outside…? That’s it for this week’s cheer-up charm! Like always, if you have an inspiring story to share, a topic you’d like me to address next week, or any other suggestions, just send an email directly to me at [email protected]! I love hearing from everybody! And remember:
Have a wonderful day! |
The gala was for… the gala was for… something? Some foundation? Or maybe it was just for one of the papers that ran his column. Yes. Maybe that was it. Antonio Fernandez had been grilled by multiple people before the party had started, about what the gala was for and why he was there and what his speech was going to be about… Oh that was right. His speech. He was supposed to be giving a speech at the gala. That was probably why he was standing to the corner of a stage, letting a smiling man in a tux a little bit sharper than his own introduce him to the crowd. Antonio could see his editor out there, leaning against one of the ballroom’s pillars. He looked very smug, probably because he had gotten Antonio up to the stage and had even gotten him to stay there.
Antonio would be the first to admit that he had the tendency to wander off sometimes. There was always something exciting happening in the world; if he wasn’t around it, he couldn’t write about it. And Antonio had made a business writing about exciting and wonderful things.
That was probably why the announcer was looking at him expectantly now. If he was done with his introduction, that meant that it was someone else’s job to talk, right? Oh wait. Antonio was giving a speech. He was the one who was supposed to be talking. Oh.
“Mr. Fernandez? Mr. Fernandez? Don’t be shy now…” the announcer sounded kind of nervous. Antonio thought that was a little overkill. He’d just needed a moment to gather his thoughts, that was all.
Antonio Fernandez walked over to the podium at the very front and center of the stage, and tapped on the top of the microphone. “Ah, is this working? It is? Okay. Sorry,” he turned towards the announcer, who hadn’t quite made it off the stage yet. “I wasn’t afraid, I was just thinking!” That garnered some laughs from the audience. But Antonio didn’t see why it was all that funny. People didn’t think enough these days. Thinking was an activity that should be prized above everything else, but most people looked at him like he was crazy when he actually took the time to do it. Especially when he was in the middle of a crosswalk, or paying his bill at a restaurant or in the check-out line of the grocery store. Or when he was standing on a stage, about to give a speech to a room full of his peers.
Everybody lived too fast in Antonio’s opinion. They’d really benefit from taking a few more minutes out of every day to just think.
“Thank you for letting me speak to you tonight. It really is an honor. As you’ve heard, my name is Antonio Fernandez Carriedo,” that last bit technically wasn’t part of his name, not legally, but Antonio loved his mother much too much not to acknowledge her in his name. He liked the tradition. He loved his mother; out of all of his relatives, she was the only one who still stayed in touch. “My column, the Weekly Cheer-Up Charm, has been in syndication since 2007…”
“Good job, Antonio. I was afraid for a moment that you’d fallen asleep up there.” His editor had waited for almost an hour before approaching Antonio, after his speech. And in that time, Antonio had had to endure endless chit-chat and questions about his column and where he got his inspiration and who was that boy that he wrote about sometimes and he was single wasn’t he and...
“I can’t fall asleep when I’m standing up, that’s just silly.” But then again… “I can fall asleep with my eyes open, but that’s really more of a skill than anything."
His editor looked as though he wanted to clap Antonio on the back, but a waiter passed the two men by before he could. So instead he took the opportunity to snag two champagne flutes for himself and his very best writer. “You certainly are a character, Fernandez. You know, I was also afraid that you’d forgotten what this whole evening was about.”
Antonio laughed it off. “Why would I do something like that… ah ha ha…” He dearly hoped that his editor would give him some sort of clue as to what the gala was for, because he didn’t have a single one at the moment. Was it something for a charity? He knew he should already know, but the answer was just out of his reach.
“It’s not every day that you get a book deal, now is it? Never going to have to worry about money, that’s for sure. With the way your column sells the papers, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could snag a contract for another book tonight. Just work a little of your cheer-up magic onto one of those men over there,” he pointed off into another crowd, “and you’ll never have to worry about anything again.”
Oh. So the party was for him. That sort of made sense; Antonio remembered the book deal, now, was surprised that he’d even forgotten. Well, maybe not that surprised. He’d had a lot on his mind lately. In fact… he just wanted to go home. The gala wasn’t as fun as the big work parties usually were for him. Talking to the sharply dressed people around him felt like a chore.
His own suit was constricting, even though she had helped him pick it out, and had even stood close to straighten his bow tie after he'd put it on. Apparently he was “completely pathetic, how did you manage to knot it this badly, you moron.” She’d even stopped him at the door and reminded him to switch his glasses for the newer pair that his editor had made him buy once newspapers had started asking to have his picture to put next to his column (Antonio didn't think his old frames were so bad; they'd worked since high school!),
She was probably asleep right now. He’d bet they both were.
“Hello? Earth to Antonio? Have you been listening to me?”
Antonio would rather be at home with Lovi and Roma than here at the sparkling gala with champagne and his editor and his own thoughts and no one else’s. He’d had that feeling a lot lately, although he couldn’t explain it well.
“C’mon Fernandez, I know you’re a great thinker, but now is not the time to go all philosophical on me. Head out of the clouds, man, this is your livelihood at stake."
His editor was really over-dramatic sometimes. Antonio didn’t get it. He already had one book, a weekly column syndicated in newspapers across the country and a lifetime’s inheritance, given by guilty, absent parents. Money was something that Antonio Fernandez Carriedo rarely bothered himself to think about.
He hoped Lovi hadn’t fallen asleep at the table again. She’d looked really tense for the past few days, like she hadn't been sleeping well. But she hadn’t told him what was wrong, which was really like her, come to think. He should have just asked. She might have told him her problems if he’d asked. Maybe.
“Toni! Are you alright?!” His editor was shouting now.
Antonio looked away from the spot of tile he had apparently been scrutinizing, contemplated his champagne, thought about the drive home, pushed the flute into his editor’s free hand and walked away. “I’m going home now. I hope the rest of your evening is nice!” He meant that, and his editor would know that he wasn’t being sarcastic or mean. Even if Antonio didn’t want to be there anymore, that didn’t mean that he didn’t want the other guests to enjoy themselves. Far from it.
He loosened his bow tie as he skipped out of the building, past some less-than-fashionably latecomers and some couples that had had a bit more than their share of the complementary champagne. But that was okay. They wouldn’t miss him, not with the night still so young (1:30 already? Wow, where did the time go?), and the party still in full swing. Antonio found his car in the parking lot and fished his keys out of his pocket.
Thirty more minutes and he would be home. Maybe twenty if he went a little faster than he was supposed to… although Lovi would kill him if he got into an accident. She was like that too, threatening to kill him even if he was already dead.
Antonio smiled and decided not to turn the radio on.
His thoughts were enough to keep him company for now.