Everyday optimism

The word of optimism I have to spread today consists of two pieces of happiness. Small things in my everyday surrounding, that one still should not hesitate to notice, and be happy about.


1. The first thing that made me happy is a product made by Coop.
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It often happens when I go away, that I get my period. I have rather irregular periods due to my method of birth-control, so it's not that I just happen to go away every 4th week, and that I have been slow enough not to notice and be prepared for the bleedings. It annoys me a bit when it happens when I'm away. First of all, since I feel a bit tense and pained in my tummy, which is not pleasant when YOU yourself want to be pleasant around others. But especially, I always have to buy a new box of tampons, which is quite expensive, and I never finish them, so I have a billion half-full boxes of tampons at home, just sitting there.

So this weekend, when going to Kalmar to visit my in-laws, again it happened. So I had to go to the closest store to pick up some tampons. The store was Coop, and I took their own brand tampons, since they were cheapest. When I got home and was about to peel the plastic cover of the individual tampon, there was not a little plastic string to pull. Usually I find that there is a little plastic thing to pull around the waist of the tampon, which allows you to unpack it. When you've pulled the string, you have two caps of plastic that covered the two ends of the tampon. Apart from these two caps, you have a small piece of plastic that once sat around the waist of the tampon. This plastic waist thingy is now either attached to one of the plastic caps, or not attached to either of the plastic caps. However, it is always - thanks to the miracle of static electricity - attached to your fingers. And you just can't seem to be able to get rid of it. Which adds to the annoyment you already feel due to the bleedings and tension in the stomach area.

But this time, events unfolded in a new and unexpected way. It seems Coop has improved the individual packing of the tampons, so they are now opened and peeled, by just twisting the two caps in opposite directions. This makes the plastic break along the waistline of the tampon, and just gives you two caps of plastic - not so prone to succumb to static electricity. It made me smile. It was different, not like all the other 1 million tampons I've opened over the past 10 years of my fertile life. It was better than before. And interesting, that a company actually take time out of their lives to improve not the tampon in itself, but its individual packaging.

I'm surprised, impressed, and it makes me smile.


2. The second piece of optimism has to do with bird feces.
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I have been hit by bird poop twice in the past two years. Never before (what I can remember) and - so far - not since. The one time was when I rode my bike to the central station in Lund to go to a lab-event on the Island of Ven for the day. That's when a stupid bird struck, and hit my head and shoulder. Luckily a guy offered some tissue paper, and I had another sweater in my bag. The next time was on the beach in St Kilda in Melbourne this february. It hit me straight on my face. Bastard.

Since these events, my luck seems to have turned. As reported before, I had ice-cream on Stortorget in Lund a few months ago, and the guy sitting next to me was struck by bird feces. Not me.

And then, a week ago. I was walking from the supermarket to my apartment, I take one (of many) steps with my right foot. And the second I put it down - a splash of bird feces lands 2 inches in front of my shoe. Not on it! And not on me.

You really have to remind yourself to be happy about all the time you DON'T get hit by things - whatever it might be. Otherwise you can easily and wrongfully tell yourself that you're an unlucky person, always getting hit by cars, bikes, bird feces, or whatever it might be.

You are lucky - most of the days you're not hit by anything!