we speak

March has finally come to an end. March is in fact my least favorite of the months because we are all so sick of winter yet it keeps droning on. April brings a new hope. I spent the final day of March at school for 13 hours. I went to school then I stayed after until 6 for Cirque auditions, then I stayed longer to help out with the National Foreign Language Honors Society Induction ceremony. It' a rather big fanfare. We have some really great orchestra students play during it, and everyone gets all dolled up to receive their certificate, badge, and carnation flower (?). Anyways, then we had to help clean up and such, and here I am. By the way, if you open a soda bottle for the first time, you better run away right after you open it because sometimes they spontaneously spurt soda all over the place, including on your pants and your sweater. And then no one helps you clean up. It's wicked fun. I also downloaded a new app, probably a surprise to you, and it's called "Show of Hands". It has a bunch of different polls on different subjects and you answer them and it breaks it down for you. So one of them was "Are you happy?" Naturally I am inclined to click on it. The answers are based on state. Each state has a general vote, based on majority. The whole country voted for happy. Everyone was happy. Broken down more, 80% reported happiness. More specifically, Republicans were happier than Democrats and Independents, males slightly happier than females. People over 40 were happier than the 21-40 age range, who were happier than the youngsters under 21. And yes, those who were richer were more happy. It's the way we often work. The happiest state, with 100% of the votes saying they were happy, is Vermont! Go New England! It's followed by the unprecedented North Dakota at 92% (who knew?) and the lowest rating of 62%, still a majority, is South Dakota. Ironic. I just found that really interesting. Our whole country is very happy. That warms my heart. Which is why we have to give back. We were given happiness and opportunities, so that is why we must give those opportunities to others. That is why I created a campaign through the United States branch of WFP (World Food Programme - part of the UN). It took a couple emails and a few phone calls, but it's finally up and running, ready for your donations! I know all we ever here is "could you please donate some money to this?" or "can you just donate some canned food?" But really, a dollar goes a long way in fighting world hunger. I urge you to visit the campaign by clicking here. It's also set up right here on this blog. Also, since it's the last day of March, I am going to go through the month's posts. But I won't go into detail, I'll just tell you their names if you want to flush out your negative thoughts and come into my world of wisdom: home sweet home ~ the very first family game night ~ you better consult your gelotologist about that ~ #prayforjapan ~ an endless hope ~ conformity and mother teresa ~ the guide(s) to happiness [parts 1 and 2] ~ laugh a little Those are the good ones with really intellectual thoughts. Some of the other ones are just fluff. Let's have a great April!