Through the Plastic Pink Sunglasses of the little girl at the pool.

There once was a very real girl named Cambria.

Her blog is quite entertaining, and gives a hilarious and honest view on being a teenage girl.

I followed her blog for some time before I actually started my own.

Click here to look at her most recent blog post.

She makes a good point. When we blog we are all culprits of painting our lives to be the best they possibly could. Too often they are a mere reflection of only the beautiful, the wonderful, the "lovely." It is true that we happily skip over the bleak, the bitter taste of disappointment, and the hurt.

I met a little girl once.
I was in Mesa, Arizona. 

It was one of those suffocating heat, soft blue blanket sky, palm trees waving overhead days that only Arizona enjoys year round.
I floated back and forth in the pool that day sulking.
Silly, I know.
Sitting in a beautiful place, surrounded by family and friends, and I specifically remember having my own pity party. I can't even remember what it was about. Probably some boy, knowing myself.

This little girl came up next to me and laid her barbie towel not two inches from mine.(I had never met her before in my life.)
Her dad looked over from his newspaper, considered giving her the "personal space" lesson he had obviously given one too many times, looked at me, and after a moment considered me harmless and avoided the situation all together, returning to his paper.
This is how my dad dealt with me growing up too, (I would know.)

She didn't even talk to me for about five minutes. She was much too busy.
She dragged a beach bag over and began unloading her goggles, her sunscreen, her flip flops, her squished peanut butter and jelly sandwich, her cup of milk.

Finally, when I thought her bag had literally turned into the Mary Poppins bag,

she pulled out her pink rimmed sunglasses,  put them on, and laid down crossing her legs.

I jumped in the pool

She followed suit.

Followed me back and forth, back and forth,

I floated on my back 

She was on hers

Finally, I looked at her, and yawned. She yawned too.

I smiled, she smiled. 

"Hailey." she said.

H-A-I-L-E-Y. 

from New York.

She held up three fingers, "I'm four."

She is here in Arizona to see her Dad.

She likes him, she whispered: "I think he is lonely, I make him happy."

She smiled, pleased with herself for taking care of her dad. 

I looked over at him, He does look lonely. I thought to myself. 

She loves her dad, even though he only bought her one toy for Christmas.

She loves her mom, and misses her. 

I went back to my towel, and she returned to hers.

She put on her pink sunglasses again over her bright blue eyes

and told me I was her new best friend. 

I decided, from that day forth, I would always look at life through plastic pink sunglasses.

Okay, lets be honest, have I always?

yeah, no.

But I'm trying.

Hailey was far away from home, everything she knew to be familiar, living with her dad Larry. 

And still very happy.
Everybody says happiness is a choice.
Everybody is right.
It is.
My life isn't perfect, and I do not claim it to be.

I could tell you about a boy I really thought I loved, who truly became my best friend, who knew everything about me,who I slowly fell for, and honestly believed that he was the one.

And then he changed. And now he is gone. And I am left two years of memories to either deal with or erase.

I could tell you about my little brother with Autism. 

Who knows, maybe someday I will.
Maybe I will share with the blogging world probably more than it needs to know,
and that will be okay.

But for now, I prefer to look through plastic pink sunglasses, and i will just share the beautiful, the wonderful, and the lovely until I really feel like I should share something very personal.

We will see.