Cute Michael tells us that he's going to make something a little dressier than sportswear, because he doesn't like sportswear. He points out that he's using sportswear fabric though. "That counts, doesn't it?" So, this is not feeling good to me. He wonders aloud in the workroom if maybe the judges will find his work too expensive, which gets a big laugh, especially from Valerie. She interviews that he is quick-witted, which is the kind of funny that she wishes she were. I love Valerie, not only because she just complimented my boy. She's always quick with a compliment and I feel like that's a good thing. I just read this book The Happiness Project (I swear I don't have a shelf of self-help books) and there's this comparison of how different people view the success of others. Some see it as a zero-sum proposition, where there's a limited amount of success to be had in the world and they're discouraged when people near them experience it, because that means there's less for them. There are others who feel that success happens in clusters, so being near success means that they are closer to being successful themselves. I think the latter philosophy is a much happier place to be and Valerie, with her nurturing, supportive spirit, seems to feel that way as well.

Still in the workroom, Cute Michael jokes that he's channeling the earliest Americans, the Puritans. He interviews that his skirt has some early American influences, reminiscent of The Crucible. He jokes that he's not sure where that's going, but he doesn't really care because he has lost his mind. And, that, folks, is the moment where I couldn't love him any more than I do right now. Not even if we met and started a jewelry line and got four babies and a dismantled then reconstructed barn that we transplanted from Pennsylvania to rural farmland Alabama then started a artisan cheese and honey and persimmons business. Not even then (unless, perhaps, the barn doubled as a summer stock theatre in the summer -- cause that would be completely revolutionary), because Cute Michael, having just sort of admitted to losing sight of the challenge and becoming consumed by the manifestation of his own vision rather than the competitive spirit, has never really seemed happier in the time that we've known him. And, that's pretty remarkable to me.