Hello people,
a) Today I'll sound like I'm in a bad mood although I'm not but it's sometimes fun to pretend.
b) Tomorrow, if I'm feeling up to it, I'll contemplate the fairly romantic idea of giving relationships second chances or what.

But now, the bad mood bit; I'd like to title it

colgate monkeys

1. I’m not a smiler. When I do smile, it’s not a dazzling display of orthodontics. I have the right number of teeth and they’re in a somewhat straight line, although my mother was too much of a hippie to get me braces; but teeth I do have. Teeth have nothing to do with the fact that I’ not a smiler.

2. As a result, I’m often told that I look sad. Does it have to be one or the other? I used to be fascinated by the chilling paradox that was my boss’ right smile and cold eyes.

3. Nothing – ok, few things- irritate me more than strangers telling me to smile. Why should I? Because I’ve just passed you on the street and you think you’re so irresistible I should beam at you? ‘Smile, luv!’ they say; all they’ll get from me is a glare. What a stuck up bitch.

4. the quote bit: One key element of "niceness" is smiling at others during social interactions--a response that is more common in girls and women than in their male counterparts. Women have also been found to commonly display "inappropriate smiling," for example, while asking a question or making a serious point. Smiling conveys a reassuring message of accommodation to others; it is the facial equivalent of speaking softly and tentatively in order to appear pliant. Animal ethnography has raised the startling possibility that frequent smiling may actually serve as a stereotyped gesture of subordination. Studies of rhesus monkeys found that when nondominant monkeys worry about an attack by a dominant animal, they convey their nonthreatening, subordinate status by lowering their bodies to appear shorter and smiling--an expression known as the "fear grin."*

5. c’mon girls, smile for the nice construction workers!

*Anna Fel's Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women's Changing Lives