A Great Start

This weekend was of course the official start of my Happiness Project. I was surprised at how it actually went.

Friday was my birthday and the beginning of the project. I had made arrangements to go down to Long Beach Island the Friday before the show. I soon realized that while I may have made a promise to go down to the beach that I was actually going to be happier staying in the city and hanging out.

Because I didn't go down to the shore I got to participate in one of my most beloved birthday rituals of almost 6 years. I am not even sure how it started but my mom and I every year on my birthday will go to a museum in the city that has a fun exhibit. This year we ended up going to see Cleopatra at the Franklin Institute. It was awesome. I really enjoyed to be able to have that tradition with my mom intact. I forgot how happy it made me to spend the day alone with her and just talk and joke around. The fact that we also got to get manicure and pedicures after the museum helped but that is a side note.

At night I had an amazing dinner with a friend. We ended up going to Alma de Cuba, which I had never been to. It was awesome food and a lot of fun to not have the drama of a large party or big groups to deal with. All and all I was surprised how my impromptu birthday celebration was such a success.

I ended up driving down to LBI the next morning for a craft fair. Overall, it was not really anything fun. It was blazing hot all weekend and my booth was outside. We basically just sat there sweating all day and drinking large quantities of water. Well, the craft fair was exactly one block away from the beach. A few of my vendor friends ended up putting swim suits on and going for a dip. I was jealous. When they got back refreshed I was even more jealous. Then, as the second round of vendor friends were on their way to duck out and go swimming, I jumped up. "Wait guys! I am coming with you!" This is something I would never do. I always feel bad leaving for a minute to go and pee during shows let alone for a half hour block. I decided to just up and leave the booth filled with 1,000's of dollars of the jewelry I had crafted. I didn't even give leaving a second thought. The water was just beckoning me. Diving into the ocean felt absolutely amazing. We all just played in the waves like a pod of dolphins for a while before finally returning. While it was uncharacteristic of me it was one of the joys of the weekend.

It was just so nice to let go of what was expected of me and do what I wanted. I feel like that was something I have not done in ages. That is really what I marveled at this whole weekend. The shift in consciousness from not trying to rock the boat to doing what I wanted to do. I am not sure if it is the happiness project in general or just the conscious decision that I am in control of my life and I should lead it the way I want to. Which is still the root of why I decided to undertake this whole project anyway. Either way I can say my project is a raging success right now and I can't wait to see how it all goes.