Four years ago, I saw a hip-hop group perform all of these positive songs at the start of a football game. I hear hip-hop all the time and I don't always stop to watch everybody perform, but what caught my attention was the look of all of the guys was much edgier than the lyrics they were speaking. I ended up interviewing them because I wanted to know what made them go the route in music that they did when it seems like negative (read: ignorant as hell) music seems to pay more. All of them had some dark tales to tell, but one guy said he never got the love he's getting now until he started rapping about more positive topics. Now grandmothers can walk up and hug him and not just his guys. I liked that idea. But I did notice a pattern with all of them. Although the music was happier, they all looked aggressive. Like if a fight broke out, they'd be ready to tear some s**t up. Did that make me scared to interview them? Not at all. It's not the smartest decision to be the only woman in a basement studio full of guys, but similar to them, I've observed so much as a kid that it takes a little bit more to actually scare me. I'm easily disappointed and still haven't quite mastered my quick temper (I'm far better as a 30-year-old than I was as a teen and definitely in my early 20s). But scared? There are only two things that scare me, and neither of them are human. One of the two does breathe but neither is human.

Anyway, one question that I asked them at the end of the interview was very impromptu, and the reason I asked was because the guys looked so serious. I asked, "What makes you happy?" and then I smiled. And when I smiled, every last one of them smiled, too. And I don't mean polite tight smiles. I mean teeth-showing smiles right before they went into memories of what makes them genuinely happy. It was a great way to end an interview and before I left, a couple of them stopped me and said, "Wait a minute. We didn't hear what makes you smile?" A genuine smile is contagious. A good laugh is even better. I like to hear what makes people happy because we all have so much to complain about. I'm interested in what gets through the cracks and makes somebody laugh so hard her shoulders shake or what makes him laugh so hard that I can see where he had cavities.

When my maternal grandmother passed away in 1995 right before I graduated from elementary school, I took a sign from her doorway that said, "Keep smiling. It makes everyone wonder what you have been up to." She was always laughing about something, too.

I said I was done with "Five things I'm digging right now" blogs although that was fun to do in 2011. This time around though, I'm going to blog about five things that made me smile/laugh" and I'll call it "What are you smiling about?":

1. Red obsession: I started off calling my mother "Red" years ago because she's a red bone (meaning light skinned) and loves the color red. She has taken that to a whole other level. On Friday, I saw her and she was wearing red shoes, jeans with red thread lining, a red sweater, a red wrap cap covered by a red knit hat and a red winter coat. All I could do was laugh at her obsession with red. I'm not even this obsessed with maroon, but I think she looks really cute in red. I told her so, too. She was pretty when she was a baby (I have a baby photo of her on my desk and I don't even like babies like that) and killin' em as a teen and 20-something, but there's something warmer about her as she gets older. My opinion is biased, but I think she's more attractive now because of her outgoing personality and not just her face. She still has moments where she gets all dressed up and I have to yell out, "Gone head, Red. Look at you!" but it's her personality that impresses me more than her clothes, hairstyles or one of her million pairs of shoes. She's just pleasant to be around, somebody I'd want to be friends with even if we weren't related.

2. Ebony magazine "Red Tails" photo spread: I'd been counting down the days until I could see this movie and six-plus inches of snow was not going to stop me. And when I got the February 2012 edition of this magazine the day before the film released on Jan. 20, I was so excited to see it. There's a beautiful spread full of incredibly attractive chocolate men (the cast of the film) talking about working together. I liked the photographs so much that I bought two more copies of the magazine so I could keep both sides of each page and hang them up at work and home, and keep one copy altogether for the articles.

3. Kevin Hart doing the hula hoop: I still think "Seriously Funny" was a better comedy DVD than "Laugh at my Pain," but Kevin Hart doing the hula hoop dance and stomping on the second step imitating his father was hilarious. I rewound that part a few times just to watch him do it again.

4. Watching Meryl Streep and Steve Martin act high: I only know her as the "Devil Wears Prada" actress, and I've never seen her be silly. However, after not being at all interested in seeing "It's Complicated" in theaters and avoiding it in my Netflix queue, I finally decided to watch it, and I loved that movie. She was hilarious and stole the spotlight from Martin and Alec Baldwin. All of her scenes were good, but the weed scenes had me crying laughing. I don't usually get into "high" humor, but she was so surprisingly goofy and I loved it.

5. Looking at a packed house for "Red Tails": I knew how hard it was to get this film released so I didn't care that the snow was coming down like crazy or that I was going to have to march to the movie theater. I didn't even care that I was going to a movie after being at work for eight hours. I was elated that my mother followed through with seeing the film with me knowing she had to walk from her job to my job because the movie theater was in my direction. Six inches of snow. Flights canceled. Buses not going onto Lake Shore Drive to avoid being stuck there like last year's Snowmaggedon. And we still went. I thought people were going to stay home and not support the film through the bad weather, and there were only like 20 of us in the theater when I walked in. But when I stood up and turned around to leave, I saw people everywhere. I didn't even realize the audience grew because they apparently came in so quiet, but the entire theater was packed and everyone applauded at the end of the movie. I really hope that movie does the numbers it needs to in order to show Hollywood that we support good films, especially about our history. I was so happy to see so many people come out to support "Red Tails" and to be so well-behaved on opening night.