Knowing A Need

I know a girl who needs friends and love. She invited us to dinner—she's made other invitations before that I haven't been able to accept—and initially I didn't know if I would be able to take her up on this one. I had been fed brunch, lunch, and dinner. This was second dinner. I was a stuffed pepo [noun: an indehiscent fleshy one-celled many-seeded berry (as a pumpkin, squash, melon, or cucumber) that has a hard rind and is the characteristic fruit of the gourd family]. More specifically a pumpkin. When we showed up, I knew it made a difference, and that's why I love today.

Simple Conversation

I loved yesterday.

While I loved that my home teacher offered to drive me to Giant to get my groceries, and I loved talking to lots of people at Feed the Need, and I loved getting phone calls from good friends, and I loved going to Opera in the Outfield, those experiences aren't what made me the happiest. I loved yesterday the most for this:

Me: "You know Justin?!" (Interrobang: noun: a punctuation mark ‽ designed for use especially at the end of an exclamatory rhetorical question.)

New Friend: "Yeah, I know Justin. He was the guy that they always used as an example. It sounds like he wasn't the most talented player on our team, but, man, he worked hard. They would say, 'you should all try to work as hard as Justin.' And 'remember how hard Justin worked.' Apparently he was incredible."

Is it funny that my heart swelled with pride? Justin is beautiful to me, and other people saw part of his beauty too. He taught me more about loving other people than anyone else in my life ever has. To hear that others recognized an aspect of his beauty tasted better to me than any inspiring piece of artwork ever could have.

The Simple Things

I love today.

One of our residents dropped off these treats for me from Japan. Can I tell you how much I love cultural things? I especially loved the mochi. Happiness in the form of glutinous rice [noun: the seeds of a short-grained cultivated rice (Oryza sativa glutinosa) that are plump and sticky when cooked].