Today was an up and down day.  It's hard to complain too much when I work in an office where afternoons are marked with Nerf wars that culminate in the entire staff converging on our boss's office and littering the place with darts.  Are there many other offices that do that?  I don't think so.

But then something happened that turned any happiness I'd felt during the day and just completely erased it.  The all too familiar feeling of having the wind knocked out of me.  You would think that after a year I'd have built up an immunity, but unfortunately, that's not how it works.  So I sat at my desk, attempting to focus on the tax research in front of me for the last 30 minutes of my day, but failing miserably.  I went home and tried to push the negative thoughts out of my mind, once again failing miserably.  I went to the gym and spent four miles on a treadmill, pretending that I was chasing down whatever it was that made me feel so bad.  I left feeling marginally better and looking like a hot mess.

And then I came home, cleaned up, sat down, and opened up my computer to find a friend had left me a message.  And as quick as it took me to feel like I had had the wind violently knocked out of me, I felt the mouth curve into a smile.  Sometimes that's really all you need when you feel like everything's going wrong.  Not someone to tell you it's going to be all right when no one can be totally sure of that; not someone to help plot out how you're going to exact revenge.  Just a friend to say something nice and remind you that there are good people out there.  So to that friend, I just want to thank you.  I really, truly thank you.