Small Bursts of Happiness

I woke up early to go to the grocery store. It was 25 degrees outside, but I didn't notice because I was covered in a thick coat and hat. I felt like listening to Death Cab for Cutie and turned my Ipod up.

There was something familiar about where I was walking. I swear to God I heard Ryan, Jake, and I laughing in the background. It made me so happy I thought I could cry.

The alleyway I was in melted away and immediately I was in the woods behind Grandma's house. All three of us were soldiering through vines and thorns trying to find the end to the seemingly infinite forest ruining our nice clothes with reckless abandon.

We threw rocks and branches at a frozen little pond, testing the thickness. Soon we were skating back and forth until Ryan felt in. Without thinking Jake and I were to his rescue pulling him out. That's how it was, we always had each other's back.

The immediate threat of frostbite wasn't nearly as scary as the thought of showing his parents his mud covered Dockers. We did our best to wipe him off with leaves and such, but there was no denying that our adventure went too far. We took a mental picture of that pond and decided that next year we would venture further.

That next year came and a few more houses had pushed their way into the infinite woods. We no longer entered our own Narnia when we went into the woods. We entered the latest development. Frozen, treeless mud mocked our childhood.
When I came back to the world I felt more aware. I yearned to be back in those woods, but I'm happy that forever I will have that memory.

I felt like fixing the world after this memory was done.

I wanted to give money to the bell ringer as a small but charitable step in saving the world, but only had cards. So my charitable ecstasy instead was spent on a guy trying to get a giant gate open for his car lot, but having issues keeping it on its track. I dropped the groceries and hopped on the scene like a super hero. His cheap cologne burning my nose. We got the gate open and the man with the mustache looked surprised to see someone stop and said, "Hey, thanks buddy."