FYI

You know what? In general, people are really pretty nice.

Don't try to hide it, I see your "WHA-?!?" face.

No, it's true.

Just a few days ago the scary-grumpy-looking lady I avoided making eye contact with on the street walked past and very pleasantly made a point of letting me know the bus was close, since I had my earphones in and might not have heard it. (She didn't seem particularly grumpy after that. Huh.)

Nearly everyone here thanks the bus driver when they get off, and the bus driver nearly always responds (cheerfully).

The college-age kid coming down the stairs who normally would have walked by and pretended like no one else was around smiled today and indicated I should go first.

Smile and direct even a slightly friendly comment to a taxi driver, and they'll happily talk your ear off. (Every one.)

The guy who works at the reception desk in the theatre building who scares the dickens out of the undergrads is actually a big, perpetually scowling, black-clothes wearing, spiky-black-hair gelling teddy bear who will wink at you and call you 'love' when he sees you if you suck up just a tiny bit. (He smiles, too! It's a little scary, but he does!)

Everyone I've joked with in recent memory (grocery checkout, queueing up for something, at church, on the bus, etc...) has been perfectly willing to joke along.

In a lecture recently someone was telling us about a study in which the majority (80%+) of the unsuspecting public that were observed behaved in a way that was 'good' or 'honest', even though when people are asked they tend to assume others will be 'good/honest' only about half the time. People are usually better than we think they are. And I've found lately that they're definitely nicer than I've thought they'd be.

Except, of course, for those kids - I'm still planning to yell at them to get off my lawn every chance I get.

Cheers!