i found this little tin i used to keep on my nightstand, with the word "happy" written on the top. i'd write thoughts or things or ideas or whatever that made me happy on little scraps of paper and then keep them in there and look at them whenever i got sad. it was kinda great, and now that i found it, i'm going to start keeping it near me again.

all of the things in there were silly, and sweet. things like, "the essay about bill evans in 1963 in reading jazz," or "i got offered a job in the kitchen at chez panisse," or "i got chosen to read with bob hass at lunch poems," or "a day in the city with tj." things that were all such a long time ago, so far away, yet still make me smile.