I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier. Years ago, I was in a wedding. I was a bride's

maid in a wedding with a bunch of other people and we were all staying at a big house,

somewhere in the northeast and we were all busy getting ready for the big day. We were hanging

out, we were chatting and people were arriving gradually throughout the day.

So one of our friends was delayed. She'd had to longive work, she'd had tough travels and so she

comes in. She's the last one to arrive. We're all gathered around her and frantically catching up

and having a lot of fun but she's clearly overtaxed. She's had a tough day, she's had a tough trip

and she's kind of at the end of her rope and she's unpacking while we're talking and she opens up

her toiletry bag and she bursts into tears because she realizes that her foundation,

which is sort of, you know, this powder that you wear on your face has exploded and it has coated

everything in her toiletry bag, you know, from her toothbrush to her deodorant to all of her makeup

in this fine film of foundation. It's a giant mess and she just loses it. This is the final straw.

So she sits down on the bed and we're all there commiserating and sympathizing and hearing about

everything that's going on and after some time I look around and I realize that one of my friends

has vanished. She's not there anymore and so I kind of get up to look around at you where she is

and it turns out that the entire conversation she has been standing in the bathroom and systematically

scrubbing off every single item in that toiletry bag. Everything was lying on the counter on a

washcloth, neat and clean and dried and she was now scrubbing out the toiletry bag itself and it

looked pristine so she was done and when I saw her doing that I realized it hadn't even occurred to me

to do anything about that toiletry bag and it hit me. Sometimes it's better to help than to sympathize.

I'm Gretchen Rubin and I hope this makes your week a little happier.