Family Dinner

My family always has a lot of fun when we are together.  You can always find us laughing.  I love watching TV or movies with my family because we always add sarcastic commentary. But, I love it when my family decides to go out dinner.  It is filled with so much laughter.  We used to only go to Olive Garden as a family.  Over the past few years, we've explored other places, but they were always restaurants where we each order our own separate meal.  Then we discovered Korean BBQ.  I, especially, love it when go have Korean BBQ. We eat in harmony.  It is almost like dancing, the way we pass the food around.  We have been there enough times as a family that we no longer need to ask for someone to pass us a particular food item. No one fights over any part of the meal.  We eat and we laugh.  

  

Lunch time friends

Lunch time is my favorite time of the day.  Of course, for the obvious reason... FOOD! But the real reason I love lunch time has to do with the company I keep. They are an unusual cast of characters who bring me lots of laughter.  I have had some tough times in life, but they have always managed to get me to laugh and smile. It is kind of like group therapy. We complain, or share our problems with one another. Then we give each other serious solutions. Then we begin inventing ridiculous and funny solutions.  We spend a good amount of time scheming, dreaming of the future, and coming up with inventions that would make our lives teaching much easier.  Sometimes we talk about current events, or our hobbies.  But regardless of the topic, you will always find us sitting in our lawn chairs, in the shade of the tree laughing and smiling with any signs of a bad day melting away. 

I was reading the article "You Become What You Pretend To Be" on www.creativitypost.com.  It explained that if you want to change your mood, or who you are, you need to pretend to be what it is you want.  I believe there is a lot of truth in this article.  But surrounding yourself with people who have the characteristics you want to be like is important, too.  This is why I enjoy spending time with my friends at lunch, or any of my friends for that matter.  I am a happy and energetic person partly because I am surrounded by happy and energetic people. I found it interesting that Michelangelo was hired to paint the Sistine Chapel as a way to prove he wasn't that great of an artist.  As for pretending, currently I'm pretending to be an incredible children's book author and illustrator.  Not sure how long I'll have to keep "pretending."  It is a lot of work, but very fun.