A Spoonful of Sugar

So we all go through difficult times in life, right? Times where the shit just piles up on top of itself, log after log of steaming, chunky crap, clogging up the cogs that run the machinations of quotidian life so that NOTHING WORKS and you're left worse off than Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times.

But wait! You don't have to join the communist party just yet.

The cure, in four easy steps:

1. Get away from your computer. It won't miss you; I promise.
   
2. Buy No one belongs here except youby Miranda July
3. Put on The Underdog from the new Spoon album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.
   
4. Alternate dancing and snorting out loud.
   

Repeat as necessary with other awesome books and songs. Short, funny stories and blaring horns are the key here, as is a patch of sunshine so bright it burns your eyes. Simon and Garfunkel's Keep the Customer Satisfied works well, as does Lorrie Moore.