She Makes Me Smile

A smile is a valuable thing. The ability to produce one, be it for either yourself or for another, is a remarkable gift.

And you who is reading this, if I have ever read any of your blog, or you have left a comment here, or I've spoken to you online, or e-mailed you, then you have made me smile :)

I did think about trying to name some of my readers, some of my friends, some of the people I know, who make me smile, and their reasons for having done so, but I realised there were so many I would be afraid to miss someone :)

There are times when it is easy to produce a smile in someone. Ten seconds after they've just been giggling about something is a good one ;)

And there are different types of smiles. Happy smiles, tired smiles, smiles when someone does something silly, smiles because you feel like smiling, smiles because for no real reason you suddenly feel better about something, smiles when all someone does is listen and you feel better... All sorts of smiles.

And sometimes, to produce a smile, people don't even have to do anything. They simply have to be themselves.

Like, if an exciting new bit of computer chippery came out, I'd be like, "Oh wow! It's made on a 65 nanometer process with silicon-on-insulator technology and it's got four cores! And a whole megabyte of on-chip level 2 cache per core! Do you know how many million transistors that is? Millions and millions! How do they fit millions of somethings into a thing that small!?!?"
So, basically, pretty geeky and enthusiastic about something terribly, terribly dull ;) And yet, yawn-inducing though that may be, I guess it is probably one of the very things my wife will miss, as it was very simply me being me, and it would probably have made her smile.

This last year has certainly had its ups and its downs, and I have been so lucky to have my friends, both real and virtual, around to make me smile through both those occasions.

But, y'know, when I think about this everything that's happened in this last year, I have to admit that when I think of people who made me smile, there is one who sticks out above the crowd. She made me smile when I was sad, and she helped me to smile more when I was glad, and she made me smile most simply by being herself. Even when she was being a complete and total pain in the arse ;) Even when? Or especially when? I'm not sure, you best get back to me on that ;)

And today, it's a year since she first commented on my blog. Oh man, was I ever sunk from that point on ;)

Too bad she's hardly been around for six months of that year ;)

Thank you, Hanni, thank you for being yourself and for making me smile :) Even when you're a pain in the arse and leave me banging my head on my desk ;)

Well... Probably thanks for that, I'm not so sure, come to think of it... ;)

I hope you've been kicking some serious butt in your exams, and in life in general :)

:)