If ever you need a pick-me-up, take a look in your local paper to see if any schools are showing musicals; I�m still on a high from last night�s �Little Shop of Horrors� production at Non�s Junior High. It was great fun because you could tell the performers were enjoying it as much as the audience. I can�t say that any one of the performers was an especially gifted actor or singer (especially the boys, who are in that awkward, Peter Brady, voice-breaking stage of puberty), but they were all so earnest! Since this is a private school, they included some elementary-age kids in the production as well. The plant (Audrey II), once it had grown, was played by a junior high-aged boy who had most of the speaking parts. The plant �leaves� were made up of about 15 first graders dressed in green sweat suits wearing little green foliage-like hats. They all had their little hand motions down pat, and try as I might, I couldn�t stifle a chuckle as I heard 15 tiny voices screaming, �Feed me, Seymour!� from their little, green, angelic faces.

Since we�ve had somewhere to be the last few evenings in a row, Non and I have scheduled tonight as an evening at home, complete with pork chops for dinner, a rented video in the vcr, and Non and I intertwined on the couch. Perhaps the best part of the evening is in knowing we don�t have to set an alarm for tomorrow. Sleeping in is such a luxury for me. I�ve been looking forward to it since my alarm jolted me awake this morning.

This morning one of my co-workers came up to me and told me she wanted to take my picture. Apparently, I�m looking cute � my hair in modified pigtails with some random daisies (from our wilting flower arrangement at home) stuck in there for fun. It�s casual Friday, after all. I bring it up because the comment put a smile on my face so permanent that my cheeks have begun to ache. Since then, I�ve been thinking about all the compliments I have for people that have remained unspoken -- everything from complimenting someone�s shade of lipstick to verbalizing my admiration for someone else�s sympathetic nature. Compliments pop into my head all the time; I want to make a habit of verbalizing them. I was reading blueasatick all the way through from the beginning today (she�s got less than 40 entries so far, and she�s well-worth the read), and in one of her early entries she was mentioning the same type of thing. She had randomly come across someone she knew in passing, and that person said he�d always meant to tell her she had pretty hair. Funny how a little comment like that can have such a big impact, but it�s so true. I�d venture to guess that we tend to remember those compliments more often that the bigger, more general, �you�re a great person� kind of compliments. The seemingly smaller, yet much more specific, compliments are the ones that tend to stand out to me, anyway, if only for the fact that they�re unique and unexpected.

And now? It�s almost the end of the day, and I�m still smiling.