When Your Happy Bugs Somebody Else

I could turn down my happy, but I just don't wanna!

Hiya, Friends!  How are you this Tuesday?

Me?  I've been better, you know?  Not for any GOOD reason.  It's kind of a dumb one, but one that's buggin' me a little, just the same.  Lemme wanna tell ya about it.

If you've been followin' along very much, you'll know that I usedta have a friend named Pidgie McDougall that I used to work with over at The Company.  And before I had a friend named Pidgie McDougall, I had a frenemy named Pidgie McDougall, and even before that still, I had an enemy and a nemesis named Pidgie McDougall.

They're all the same Pidgie, beeteedubs.  That's important.

You see, Pidgie and I didn't like each other the first hundred or so times we met, but eventually, we got over that.  Pidgie said she liked how I could make her happy.  She really has to work at bein' happy. I kinda liked that once ya got over Pidgie's mean-girl presentation, she could be really kinda nice and thoughtful, so long as you didn't say something to make her mad, or stumble into a discussion with her upon which you fell on a different side of opinion. 

I kinda learnt to take Pidgie's bad moods and put 'em in my back pocket. 

Well, then I had a bad day at The Company, and I quit in spectacular fashion, and went to work at my pal Donut Dude's, in his World Corporate Headquarters.  I didn't know Donut Dude was such a big deal, but he is, and he put me in charge of developin' new donuts for his company.  This is kinda a big deal, but to me, it's just fun.  I do it because it makes me lotsa happy!  Not because it's one of those big deal jobs. 

Not long after I wasn't miserable at The Company anymore, Pidgie said she didn't wanna be my friend.  She said I was too happy.  And she started bein' mean to me again, just like before we were friends.  Whether I was right there, or not. 

I got to thinkin' that maybe I was the problem.  Maybe it's a thing to be TOO happy, even though the idea seems absurd to me, I'll admit.  But, hey.  I can see things only through my eyes, and maybe I AM annoying to people who are lookin' at me from other angles.  So I tried to turn down my happy around Pidgie, when I'd run into her.  I didn't wanna bother her with my bein' so happy!  But no matter how much I'd turn down my happy, I was still 'too happy' for Pidgie's likin'. 

It got to the point where I actually started feelin' less happy, instead of just actin' like I felt less happy, and not just around Pidgie.  And she still didn't wanna be my friend.

It just isn't worth it, Friends.  If your happy bugs somebody else, that's their problem.  It's their job to manage their own feelings.  It isn't any of our jobs to try to anticipate and manage someone else's reactions to the world around them.  It isn't worth it, turnin' yourself into a less sparkly version of you, just to make someone happy who maybe doesn't have the happy chip in their brains, or they just like to see how far outta shape they can bend someone. 

I don't mean to disparage Pidgie McDougall.  I'm just not gonna stop bein' me, just to be friends with her.  Real friends accept who you are, on your own terms, and they find a way to work around your quirks like bein' too happy or too sad or afraid of the Dyson Air Blade hand-dryers at the dang ol' Red Robin.  I guess if there's a good side to bein' dumped as a friend, it's learnin' things like that.

As a token of my deepest appreciation, I've taken the liberty of sending Pidgie McDougall a glitter-bomb to her office over at the dang ol' Company.  But you didn't hear that from me, mmmkay, Big People?!

I love ya lots.  I'll be seein' ya tomorrow!  Muah!