Life is Beautiful, Dammit

Brought my dog to the vet. While he doesn't seem to actually have fleas, he may have been near fleas or "exposed to" fleas, and because his allergies are so bad it made him batshit itchy. $166 and three types of medication later, he should be feeling better very soon.

On the way back from the vet, I stopped at a few used bookstores to sell my applicable wares.
Last stop, I made my sales pitch. She's only interested in selling for trade, so I was only interested in selling the non-shmancy books. My nice architecture coffee table book that I almost didn't bring in she offered $8.
"That seems low," I said. I'd been hoping for $20 from Powells or something.
She went off on me for trying to haggle.
Those of you who know me well can guess how I responded.
We started debating. To her, the haggling culture is inherently aggressive.
"You wouldn't go to 7-11 and argue their prices."
I tried to explain that in the buying and selling of used goods market, it's expected. It's a cultural thing.
She said it's inherrently adviserial and bullshit and bad.
I said it doesn't have to be bad; it's a game. It may very well be bullshit, but you can laugh at bullshit. Bullshit doesn't have to be bad.
She didn't like that.
So, in my infinite wisdom, I kept pushing, tried to explain that the entire universe is only what you make of it and that all these things only have to be negative if you choose to see them as negative. I ended up talking about my migraines, about friendship, about life in general. At some point I started crying in frustration. This mostly just flummoxed her, softened her a bit. I couldn't stop the crying which was embarrassing and made me seem like just a crazy person.

In the end, I kept all my books and bought Tom Robbins Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas for $6.06 (including tax).

Life is full of things. This was a thing. Hopefully I didn't ruin her day. I wanted to get through and shine light where I saw bitterness and pain. I'm like those born-again evangelicals who want to smear happy over every bit of misery they encounter. I want misery to see that there's no reason to hate. Laugh at the hate. It's all just part of life and life is amazing and beautiful. The fight, the pain, the tears. All of it. Amazing and beautiful, dammit.