hoicks

And suddenly, there was a fine mess of dust in the air.
The tiniest grains of sand, dancing about on the breeze, creating the gentlest haze that reduced visibility by a fair amount.
A sandstorm? I pondered. I wasn't sure what to expect. Co-workers told stories of massive uproars of wind and sand accompanied by rumbling thunder and all sorts of calamity.
Yet what I saw before me was akin to my hometown's usual bout of fog in the early morning.

I spend a good amount of time looking at the night sky. My mind tries to recall all those kooky constellations and their locations.
Nine times out of ten, I always see Orion (I think everyone does). He helps me sort out just what direction I'm looking in. Then, I try and piece together who else I see.
Big Dipper.
Little Dipper.
Cassiopeia.
Perseus.
But I always forget where Cetus and Andromeda and Pegasus are. I remember the story involving them all from an astronomy class I took in college. That was probably my favorite part of the class-- the stories of the stars in the sky.
After we got into eclipses and penumbras and whatnot, I dropped it. Started getting too math-y.

Lately, I've become aware of how pessimistic people have become. At least, my co-workers seem to be. Whenever the smallest bit of work comes up, their default response is "Well, that sucks."
Does it? Isn't that why we're here? To work?
And in that same vein, when there isn't work and everyone's sitting around, bored, again, they say "...this sucks."
The negativity is just silly to me. Things really aren't that bad. Plus, in my mind, if you think that something is bad or unfortunate right off the bat, you automatically cancel out any chance of it being enjoyable in the slightest degree, no?
Along with that, apparently I have some kind of less-than-sunny disposition (which isn't the case. I'm just in a constant dont-give-a-fuck mode). But because I don't smile often and I'm not energetic or gregarious and playful, something's wrong or I'm sad (perhaps it's my attraction to sad things that has made me appear to be unhappy?)
My joke to myself is that I should probably invest in Botox and plaster a big, fake, smile on my face.
Then, when they ask why that's the only emotion I'm capable of expressing and I tell them, they'll respond:
"Oh, that sucks."