Fake It Til You Make It*

I wasn't in a great mood as I left work tonight. It's so damn cold, and I am so over winter, and it is so not done. Being in the depths of the cold-and-gray season erodes my ability to tolerate even small problems. There's another storm coming in this week, and I am, I need not say, most emphatically NOT excited for the prospect of more "Potential for significant snow accumulation." Although I am looking forward to being able to work from home on Thursday. Sweatpants, not being chilly despite three layers and a heater, cats, possibly throwing in a load of laundry and checking the Olympics now and then (hockey!). The snow clouds do have a silver lining now that I have a laptop from work. But that wasn't cheering me up tonight.

So I was talking to myself, as I often do, in this case about being unhappy, and how I've read that pretending to be happy actually does make you happier, but it seems so unlikely, doesn't it? And how do you start? Meanwhile, I was flipping through radio stations to find a song to listen to, and what came along but one of my recent favorites, Happy, by Pharrell Williams. It's from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, and I love the little dance that Gru does when it plays:



It really does just make me happy to hear it (though, no, I don't know what "clap along if you feel like a room without a roof" has to do with happiness). Here's the full video, if you're interested.



Now, it didn't turn my mood around on a dime tonight, though the serendipity did make me laugh at myself. I stopped in at the store for a few things, then drove home deeply unhappy with the weather (I was almost home before my hands and feet warmed up all the way). After a little quiet time and a little kitty time, I set about making a batch of chili, to take to a friend's for dinner tomorrow. I decided to play some music to bop around the kitchen to, and after a few songs, remembered Happy and how I'd been meaning to buy it. I went online, and found that I could buy the song for 99 cents or the whole soundtrack for $8.99, and since I liked the other music too, I went for that option (Christmas money, thank you!).

I started playing it, and found to my delight that the version of the minions singing I Swear, from the end of the movie, was there too. That song made me cry with laughter when I first saw the movie; that may not be the result for everyone, but even though I wasn't a particular All-4-One fan, the song is firmly on my radar, and the minion cover reliably cracks me up.

So I started a little playlist called "elevators" for when my mood needs a lift. In addition to these two, I added Andy Grammer's Keep Your Head Up, and Bad Day, by Daniel Powter. There are plenty of other "radio songs" that I've liked enough to buy but that don't fit into this category; I'll have to think about what else belongs there.

*From the West Wing, of course. Remember?