it's Singles Awareness Day! Have you been tested?

I kid, I kid.

After being alive for some time, and seeing the best and worst of people - and seeing it in myself, I think I can say, with some conviction, that a good reason to wake up every day, is love. Big and small loves - your family, your friends, the feeling of a job well done (and the money that pays for your lighting, your cable, your daughter's ballet lessons, your thermal socks - whatever), the first slice of key lime pie, a furry friend to come home to, or who howls at you enthusiastically from a car window. It's all love, and hope, and things will be better, that people are better than we give them credit for, and that's something you can't wrap up in lace and a big pouffy bow.

There are days when there isn't love, or it's just hard to believe, and hopeful just seems like a shot in the very large dark - these days are a part of the world too. It sucks, but it just emphasizes how much better when it's the other kind of day.

So on today, one of the most commercial of all days, I'd just like to say - hey. From the creaky corners of my black heart, I love you. Some of you I don't know, or have drifted away from, and some of you I could just about manage a hearty handshake because, perfect strangers, but I like and love you and I hope today is a great day.