The Cure for a case of the Mondays

Isn't it strange (and kind of awesome) how a half-second interaction with a complete stranger can make or break your day?

I've been having a major case of the Mondays today. (Which hardly seems fair - I mean, come on, it's Friday!) Forgot my lunch at home, which I realized about a block from the office. Which is also about the time I realized the belt of my jacket (very un-June-like weather we're having...) had deserted me at some point during the commute. That, fortunately, I found, three blocks back. Then, late to work after the belt hunt, I found myself locked out of our suite for five minutes as I fought with a key that refused to open its lock and called every extension in the office until I hit the one person who was already in.

Still slightly cranky at lunchtime, I headed out to find something to eat, and looked twice at a woman passing me on the street who looked something like a former boss of mine. It wasn't her, but the woman made eye contact and smiled at me as she passed. Something about her smile was empathetic - maybe my crankiness was evident in my face, since I've been told I'm ridiculously easy to read - and I found myself smiling back, genuinely.

It's the kind of moment that regularly reminds me that I like people, that life and people in general are good, and that I'm happy to be who I am, doing what I am, where I am. I walked back to the office with a much more cheerful spring in my step, smiling at tourists and the janitor who opened the door for me.

I've always believed that your reality is at least somewhat impacted by your attitude. If you see the glass as half empty, you're likely to continue putting yourself in negative situations - or interpreting situations you find yourself in negatively. Negative and positive are opposites, after all, so how can you expect something positive to fall into your lap when you're radiating negativity? And, being something of an eternal optimist, I tend to look for the upside to everything. But sometimes I get in a funk and need a little nudge back in the right direction - that woman's smile was today's.

Of course, now I'm sitting in the hallway in front of my office, writing this post and looking longingly through the glass doors at the keys I can't quite see but know very well are sitting right on top of my desk. Nobody ever locks the front door at lunch, but there are only four of us in the office today, two were already out to lunch when I left and apparently the third left shortly after I did and, being a conscientious employee, locked the door.

So I'm sitting here laughing at myself (only in my head, I wouldn't want to scare the other offices up here who are already a little weirded out by me sitting on the floor in front of the elevators) and perfecting my grape toss-and-catch technique. Because of a stranger's smile, I've decided that, sometimes, general ridiculousness and a lot of laughter is the best way to exorcise a case of the Mondays, whatever the day of the week.