Sunshine, Lollipops, and Puppy Snuggles Part Deux

I am the first to admit that I am often a Debbie Downer, Negative Nelly, and an Unpleasant Ursula. And having a crazy stressful job working with a community of close to one-thousand of LA's most wealthy and eccentric residents only accentuates my dramatic tendencies. But today rocked. Not unlike this day last year when I just felt the need to spread happiness and good cheer. Also like last year, I feel the need to make a list of the reasons why life is just grand, despite my incessant venting and frequent exclamations of "You're killin' me, Smalls!" Because making lists makes me even happier.

"You're killin' me, Smalls!" -Me on any other given day.

1. I woke up in a fabulous mood. It might have been the margaritas and True Blood the night before that gave me sweet dreams, (Oh Alcide...Why must you be a fictional character who also happens to be a werewolf with a savior complex? Otherwise it would totally work between us. He needs a special mention on this list too).

Mr. RamblingHutch

2. I got to listen to my customized Pandora station chock full of classic 70s rock, 80s hair bands, 90s grunge, and some random newer stuff mixed in. This lead to...

3. "Footloose" dance party with the maintenance guys. Can they cut a rug, or what?

4. Speaking of maintenance, my buddy Edi made us all killer orange julius type smoothies with fresh squeezed orange juice just for the hell of it.

5. No one yelled, tattled, or whined at me like a well-dressed, overgrown kindergartner. This is a big deal.

6. There were no crises of any kind, whether they involved Canadian and/or Mexican mafia, unstable porn producers, the wretched hellbeast I have unaffectionately nicknamed Big Mama, or flaming tacquito shrapnel.

An artist's rendering of "Big Mama,"

the Mother of all Muthereffers

7. We got to watch the end of Superbad and the beginning of Forgetting Sarah Marshall at lunch while eating McDonald's and making an unofficial, off-the-record list of hot, foreign male residents who may be interested in a sham wedding for green card purposes. Simple pleasures indeed.

8. And for the grand finale, my Costa Rican co-worker and I hijacked the golf cart and went on a joyride to 7-11 for a popsicle and candy run! Just because we could. It was terrifying since there is no buffer between you and certain death from the distracted driver of a mondo SUV. Plus, my co-worker insisted on pushing the little cart to top speeds of 25mph (It feels a lot faster when you're out in the open like that. Not to mention, I'm still terrified to drive the damn thing, even after all this time.) I kept expecting to get pulled over by the police who followed us into the store because of my unwarranted guilty conscience. But we were big damn heroes when we came back with supplies of cookies, chocolate, and ice cream for the troops.

I kept expecting this to happen, but all was well.

9. This may be anti-climactic, but I was also able to go home at 7pm on the dot. It's amazing that it was slow enough I could get all my work done on time and be out the door when scheduled. We're just so used to being bombarded by interruptions that we often can't even start our actual work until the doors are locked and phones are off the hook.

Who knows what tomorrow holds in store, but I'm not sure we could top today. Especially since I'm a lot more productive and content when I have popsicles in my system. Food for thought.

PS!!! Oh oh, I forgot one of the other awesome parts of the day! I got to give a tour to some USC grad students who want to film on the property. They brought when them a retired location scout who is old school Hollywood. He just talked my ear off with all kinds of stories about who's good to work for, who's terrible, and other great anecdotes about famous people. He wished me good luck with my career. It was nice to chat with fellow film people and hear all the juicy gossip!