August Happiness Challenge -- Day 21

Today's happiness -- The kindness of strangers. The unemployed construction worker who has taken over Randi and Caleb's corner seems like a nice, albeit sad, man. I've learned some things about him --

•  He has a daughter. When he visits with her, they meet at his aunt's house.

•  He has a generous heart. He ran into another homeless man who pimped a tortoise shell kitten for donations, didn't trust the level of care she was getting, and so he "adopted" her. The first thing he did was go to Target and buy a collar and harness so she couldn't wander off into traffic. I like that about him. He is trying to convince his aunt to take the kitten before winter arrives.

Today, when I got to his corner, neither he nor the kitten were there. I saw his box of belongings, but not him. My guess is he slipped into Starbucks (with the kitten hidden under his shirt) to use the bathroom.

My moment of happiness was the 20-something woman standing there, looking up and down the street, gift card in hand. It was obvious she wanted to help him out. Her willingness to pitch in, that obvious connection she felt with him, cheered me up.

Each day in August you are to post about something that makes *you* happy. Pretty simple. And, it doesn't even have to be every day if you don't want it to be. It's a great way to remind ourselves that there are positive things going on in our lives, our communities, and the world.

WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

1. What are you currently reading? Little Gloria ... Happy at Last by Barbara Goldsmith. I wear Gloria Vanderbilt jeans. I watch Anderson Cooper. So I'm not unfamiliar with Gloria. But I admit I know little about the 1930s custody case that once captured the nation's imagination.

It's fascinating, filled with intrigue and legal shenanigans and sex and rumors about sex. And at the heart of it all is a diffident little girl. I can't tell who wants Little Gloria for herself, and who wants her for control of her trust fund.

This book is well written, but it's filled with a lot of people -- lawyers and secretaries and  maids and aunts and cousins, etc. I find myself stopping and thinking: "So Gloria's mother didn't trust Tom ... Who is Tom again?" So this 600+ page tome is going to be slow going. Thank goodness Goldsmith did such a good job of recreating the time and place, so it holds my interest.

2. What did you recently finish reading? The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. This is a silly book. Now that's not necessarily a knock -- I grew up on I Love Lucy and screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby, so I'm very capable of being entertained by zany antics. But I want you to know just what to expect if you pick up this book.

Samantha is a workaholic lawyer who loses her job suddenly and in a most public and humiliating way. Through a series of misunderstandings, finds herself hired as a housekeeper in a big, beautiful house on the English countryside. She doesn't know how to cook, sew or clean, so she's not exactly a natural for this line of work. Lots of hijinks ensue. Some are very funny. None bear any resemblance to anything that could happen on Planet Earth.

I'm not sorry I read it. I enjoyed it. But I know I won't recall a thing about it a year from now.

3.  What will you read next? Michelle Obama's autobiography. Unless I change my mind.