Cuteness in the Oddest Places

I have a vague memory of being at a friend’s house when she first got her cockatiel, Cinnamon. The thing that stands out quite vividly is her poking fun at me because of how frequently I would go, “Awwww!”. It was annoyingly hilarious at the time.

I’m one of those types of people that sees the good in everyone, everything, what ever else. If there’s a convicted murderer crying during his trial, I’ll go, “Aww…” feeling sorry because of the tears while, at the same time, wishing his sentence was harsher than what he was getting. I’m weird that way, really.

When most people think of “cute”, they think of things like:

I think they’re adorable, too, but there are plenty of other odd things that I find cuteness in.

I hear “Aww, how cute” when there is an old couple walking down the street, holding hands and smiling. There’s the collective “That’s so cute!” when you see a proud daddy hugging his little baby girl after she presents him with a dandelion she just picked. Of course, of course. But I don’t normally hear a collective anything when I see an older man, possibly in his 40s, biking awkwardly down the road with a crooked red helmet strapped on. Why do I find that Awww-worthy?

Most everyone had that class in high school that was extremely out of hand. The behavior of the students was deplorable, the teacher was completely helpless, and objects were flying and voices were raised and…just pure chaos.

I had this certain teacher (who was actually forced, by the school, to retire and receive mental help…the students were really THAT bad year after year…) who had to endure years and years of every single one of his classes being this way. He did a lot of things to provoke certain behavior, but then again, it was very, very obvious that he wasn’t quite right in the head anymore. He had served in Vietnam, he did serious drugs when he was younger…he even had that “look” about him. The glasses, bald on the top of his head with wiry, out of control gray hair on the sides of his head, a glassy bug-eyed looked permanently plastered on his face. Among other things…

Anyway, during one class, a peer of mine had brought in poppers. You know, those little white things that sort of look like sperm…you throw them on the ground and they POP!, right? Well, a few of them were left on the floor while he was teaching. He stepped on one, it went off, and then he proceeded to scream, “VIETNAM! VIETNAM!” while covering his ears and running to cower behind his desk. After he collected himself, he called security because “he couldn’t teach with acts of terrorism going on in his class room.”

Everyone was hysterical, tears of laughter streaming down their faces. I was the ONLY sympathetic one, sitting with my friends going “Aww…poor guy. I feel so bad…” while my friends poked fun at my poor, soft little heart. I thought it was cute…although “cute” is an EXTREMELY bad word. It forced the “awww” out of me.

What else it cute aside from puppies, kittens, babies, old couples, children, and that girl you met at the library? In Amber’s world: my sleeping boyfriend, my step-sister when it comes to everything she does, a man riding a bicycle down the street, a fat man riding on a roller coaster, my dog when she yips in pain from being sore after a long, long hike, how my aloe plant leans in its pot, the wooden turtle with the frowning face, a fish, my boyfriend’s mother curled in a ball on the couch, my dad attempting to text, his actual message with the million spaces between each word, my dad’s fiance and her soap projects, people trying to decide between chocolate ice cream and vanilla… apparently, everywhere.

I find the good in everything, really. Even an aloe plant.

On a different and completely random note, I’ve officially lost count of how many scholarships I’ve applied for..my fingers are twitching in pain.

And my dog is adorable.