nice hat

I've had a great, productive week getting ready for the first festival of the season -

Catonsville Arts and Craft Festival;

Sunday Sept 8th;

i'll be next to Objects Found.

I mean, I love the pieces that I've made and am excited about new displays and am generally stoked about NikCo.

Last night the productivity train jumped its tracks when I realized that a nice couple that I had talked to for about 10-15 minutes yesterday at work had actually been playing me and stole some expensive merchandise.
Nothing makes you not want to be optimistic like watching security tape to find the moment where other human beings take advantage of your basic kind nature to their own nefarious ends.
No, that does not inspire optimism.
It inspires nausea and sleeplessness.
It inspires crying for hours because how can people BE like that?
It inspires free-floating anxiety and mistrust, as well as general malaise.
It inspires lethargy and depression.
It inspires self-loathing and disdain for the entire human race.
It inspires helplessness, hopelessness and an overwhelming need to run away to New Zealand and change my name to Gertie.

Sitting here trying to cobble together a Friday Randomness post I couldn't think of a single cheerful, silly, funny, interesting or odd thing to write. All I could think about is how it always seems like whenever I am happy and on-course something always happens to make me doubt myself, my choices and my entire world view.
Cheery, isn't it?
Aren't you glad you checked out The Nikiverse today?

Then I remembered the bookmark I used to have clipped to my file boxes at work:

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
- St. Francis of Assisi

Optimism is a choice.
It is a silly choice.
It flies in the face of all evidence.
It is ridiculous.
But it is still the best choice.