Deb Brandon: Living in Radiant Color

Giddy

Sara laughed. “Don’t put it on your blog.”
It hadn’t occurred to me to post her photo. “Now, I have to.”
Today, I was giddy.
It was Thanksgiving week, which meant that I was done teaching for the week. As much as I love teaching, I also love my breaks from teaching. As anyone who has taught or has given a presentation knows—teaching is tiring, and for some of us, exhausting.
Yesterday evening after I got home, I danced around in the living room. This morning, I added song to my dance. “La la la la la la. I don’t have to go into work today.”
Joyce used to teach in and inner city high school. “Believe me, I get how happy you feel.”
I sang, “Happy me, happy, happy.”
I had a great day. I had a successful shopping trip. In general, I dislike going shopping. But in my current mood, I didn’t mind too much. It went smoothly, in and out, no agonizing over choices. I quickly found the perfect shoes. Usually, for me, shoes can look decent or even good; they can be comfortable or even very comfortable. They are never perfect.
Today, the shoes were perfect, even though the lining was lavender. I also bought tie-dye shoelaces to replace the lavender flecked shoelaces—I love tie-dye shoelaces. And to cap it all off, I found a pair of Spider Man socks.
The trip couldn’t have gone any better, despite the fact that I messed up my knee and was in pain part of the time.
When I got back home, I sang my way upstairs to prepare for my next outing—it was time to go to my yoga class.
Yoga, usually the highlight of my day, was even better than normal. Yes, I forgot my leggings and had to exercise in my camos. But they really didn’t get in the way much and I got a lot of compliments on them.
Sara had me do a sequence of tough exercises to open up my knees. Yes, they were painful, but they really helped. Through the pain, instead of focusing inward, as I was supposed to, I jabbered away at teachers and students.
I wondered whether my unusual bounciness had something to do with the fact that I’d increased my dosage of antidepressants a couple of days earlier. On the other hand, perhaps I was just having a very good day. I shrugged it off—it really didn’t matter.
Sara Sara
Towards the end of class, Sara also had a bit more of a bounce in her step than usual. Perhaps my giddiness was contagious. After she strapped my shoulders back, she had hers strapped as well, and then she started getting goofy, flailing her arms at me, laughing at herself as she awkwardly took photos of students.
Of course, I had to take a picture of her taking photos.
She squinted at me. “Okay you can post it.”