I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about happiness.

My immediate goal despite the low grade Agent Orange fever that I have had for almost one year since the dumpster took the oath of office, is to wake up every single damn day with a smile on my face, happiness in my heart and not to let the turkeys get me down.

Trite…right, but an excellent stress and high blood pressure reliever.

And, honestly, nearly impossible to pull off, but who amongst us does not relish a challenge?!

I have experienced a dumpster packed full of problems in 2017, but my family is alive and relatively well, I still have a few dollars in the bank and health insurance coverage.

My mother has become a full time job and I am happy to provide full time assistance, but it isn’t a walk in the park.

Right now, beyond the responsibility for her daily activities, her aides, paying her bills, keeping her healthy, I am renovating my family home in Connecticut and emptying the contents so that I can hopefully rent it and generate some revenue for Queen E.

I did not want to sell the house and make it such a final act so we are working together on next steps.

Which brings me to yesterday.

I woke up at 1:30am and could not get back to sleep because life looms large.

I wrote, read, cleaned and then it was 6:30am and time to walk and feed the girls.

I was upbeat because I love my dogs so much and am so happy to have them close by for moral support.

I made my husband breakfast and then spent the next 90 minutes talking with the moronic outsourced representatives from my mom’s Connecticut cable company, Optimum, which is optimally the worse example of greedy, inane corporate America.

Things are still fluid, but I did not let them get to me…I kept smiling.

I jumped off the phone and on the spin bike at Flywheel.

Emily provided a dedicated stress reliever class and I worked my butt off (one can only hope).

I headed home in 20 degree weather and was confronted by my doorman with 2 weeks worth of mail.

I detest going through the mail because it’s always bills and unwelcome news.

Today, I handled it surprisingly well despite the thousands of dollars in medical bills from my surgery.

I went to Trader Joe’s and there were literally 138 people (who’s counting?!) in line ahead of me, but I kicked my basket forward and persevered.

I then enjoyed a fabulous chirashi bowl lunch special at Sushi Yasaka on 72nd Street after patiently waited 45 minutes for a table.

I made it.

I endured lines, morons, bills, frizzy hair, no sleep, a dentist appointment and banging pipes that sound as if Def Leppard is residing inside the standing radiators in our landmark building and let us not forget the 14 calls from the workmen in Connecticut.

Positivity…I feel mentally refreshed, but I could use a drink!

It was a great day…just happy to get through it without a major catastrophe.

Life is loaded with annoying crap so I must remember to employ my Lamaze technique and breathe deeply and then let it go.

Yesterday, was the first day of my 365 step program.

I can’t fix stupid, but I can work on being happy and glad to be alive.

One down, 364 more days to go until I can measure my very own personal success.

 Lip graphic: cliparting.com