August Happiness Challenge -- Day 6

Look at my happy kitty

Everything about my movie group made me happy. Yesterday's highlight was a special Saturday night meeting of our classic movie meetup.

Usually we meet one Tuesday/month, and lately we've been concentrating on the films of director Preston Sturgess. But Will, our enthusiastic moderator, introduced another topic -- the films of 1939 -- and we're going through those one Saturday/month.

So yesterday I headed back into the city and into the South Loop. It was a beautiful late afternoon walk from the el stop to the community center where Will shows the films. Often when I take this walk I'm in a hurry -- it's too hot, or raining, or cold, or I'm late. Today I was able to stroll, and appreciate how different the neighborhood looks in summer.

South Loop is an interesting mix of commercial and residential. Apartments cosset the bars, restaurants, salons and daycare centers. I loved seeing all the colorful patio gardens overhead. Old buildings butt right up against newer construction, so it's cool to take in the architecture.

Joanna is traveling this week and was unable to make the Meetup, and in a way, that made me happy, too. I feel such a great affinity for her that when she's there, we tend to talk to each other rather exclusively. When she's not there, I talked more with Betty, Barbara and Barbara's best friend -- a woman who joins us occasionally but doesn't wear a nametag because she isn't a member of the group. 

She's right. He was a hottie.

 Mme. Nameless was my favorite to chat up because she isn't really a classic movie fan -- she just wants something cheap to do on a Saturday night. She exudes joie de vivre and kept raving about how handsome the movie's star, Tyrone Power, was. All of us movie geeks are already very familiar with Power, so it was fun to see him through new eyes. 

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.

If you want to play along, just come back here (meaning to this blog, not this individual post) each day in August, looking for the happy cat. Every day I will try to have a post with the headline: August Happiness Challenge: Day [X]. Leave a comment and then post your own daily happiness, with August Happiness Challenge in the title to make it easy to find.