A Few of My Favorite Things

One of the ideas I heard at the writing project this summer involved students writing lists of things that made them happy - 100, to be exact.  I thought that seemed like a high number, but I wanted to see if it could be done.  I did place some restrictions on myself - no 'good fortune' items - health insurance, employment, shelter, etc.  Not that I'm not grateful for those things, because I am, but it would be too easy to just start listing them.  I also decided it would be too easy to start listing specific books, music, and movies. I could do lists of 100 of each of those probably.  Or at least 50.  No inventions that make my life easier - sorry Internet, dishwasher, and car.  I also wanted to keep the list items short - no time wasted on lengthy explanations of why something made me happy.  Those restrictions did make things a little more complicated.  I was going strong for the first 40, then took a break to think, and completed the list in increments of 20.  Of course as soon as I was done, I kept thinking of other things, but I went with my first instinct.  Also, my own restrictions make it look like I'm really addicted to beauty products, which is only partially true.  I'm only sort of vain.  Here it is, in alphabetical order:

100 Things that make me happy:

(Besides raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens)

1.     A clean house

2.     A new haircut

3.     Accessories

4.     Alliteration

5.     Amazon.com

6.     Autumn leaves

7.     Babies and children that aren’t mine

8.     Baking

9.     Barbecues

10. Birthdays

11. Bookstores

12. Brunch

13. Candles

14. Cardigans

15. Celebrating New Year in late August

16. Christmas shopping

17. Comfortable and cute shoes

18. Crossword puzzles

19. Cute planners

20. Diet Dr. Pepper

21. Dogs (especially mine)

22. Doing something well

23. Epic music while driving

24. Family

25. Farmer’s markets

26. Finding a good deal

27. Football

28. Friends

29. Giving cards that are hilariously (I think) inappropriate

30. Good talks

31. Guilty pleasure magazines

32. Hand written letters, mostly from my grandma

33. Historical fiction

34. Hot Chocolate

35. Hugs

36.  Ice cream

37. Kindergarten food – chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese

38. Kindred spirits

39. Laughing

40. Learning

41. Lemon trees

42. Libraries

43. Lingering dinners out

44. London

45. Looking for home furnishings

46. Lush brand body products

47. Make-up, even if I’m not wearing it

48. March Madness, when I’m doing well

49. Marching bands

50. Matt

51. Memoirs

52. Mizzou

53. Movie marathons

54. Museums

55. Music

56. My bed

57. Netflix

58. New school supplies

59. No line at the photo copier

60. Obscure sports

61. Old movies

62. Old photographs

63. Organizing closets

64. Our new house

65. Pedicures

66. Peonies, roses, sweet peas, and tulips (pink)

67. Perfume

68. Planning future travel

69. Playing games

70. Puns

71. Reading

72. Reminiscing

73. Ridiculous YouTube videos

74. Road trips, except for most of the driving

75. Sagas – film or literary

76. Seeing live shows

77. Seeing movies in the theater

78. Shakespeare in the Park

79. Sitting on the deck

80. Sleeping in

81. Snow days

82. Snuggles with Puggle

83. Solving a mystery in a novel before the character

84. Sporcle

85. Sprawling

86. Starry skies

87. Successful new recipes

88. Sunroofs

89. Swimming

90. Swinging in a hammock

91. Target

92. Teaching

93. The beach

94. The holidays

95. The Olympics

96. Visiting Columbia

97. Weddings

98. When summer turns into fall

99. When winter turns into spring

100.  Writing

Please leave a comment and tell me something that makes you happy!

The End of an Era

Irony - I've spent the last few weeks at a writing project, writing several pages everyday, none of which made it onto my blog.  I absolutely loved the experience, and if anyone is in the mood for some writing, I have some prompts ready to go for you.  It's also been a very busy few weeks - a new job for me, a promotion for Matt, and a new house that is my little house of dreams.  But in thinking about all this adulthood, today becomes even more cheesily poignant. 

I'm 26 years old.  That means that Harry Potter has been a part of just about half of my life.  Tonight I will see the last movie at midnight, and it feels like the end of something very grand.  I have years of memories wrapped around the books and movies, spanning from middle to high school to college.  Now, I talk about the books with my students who are reading them for the first time - who weren't even born when the madness started!  I've been to midnight movie premieres and midnight book launches.  I'm only a little ashamed to admit that for some of them I've been in costume, and I'm happier to say that I've always gone with good friends. I reread the books, I rewatch the movies, and that's something I share with a lot of my generation. 

I remember the agitation as I waited for the books, especially 7, and the heated discussions with friends - was Dumbledore really dead?  Was Snape good or evil?  Who is the Half-Blood Prince?  Who all is going to live and die?  We made our predictions, we were  shocked and surprised, and everything ended so much better than I thought it could.  I think J.K. Rowling is an amazing author.  The best part for me about reading the books is seeing how brilliantly she connected all the pieces.

When the last book came out, I had just graduated from college, the end of another era.  Matt and I each bought a copy at the midnight launch, and then went back to the apartment I shared with Katie.  We spent all day reading in three separate rooms, pausing only briefly to scarf a granola bar or something else that only required one hand to eat.  Towards the end, I had to put it down and step away for a moment because I was too emotionally involved.  I was the first one to finish, and I honest to God hugged the book.  The only time I've ever even come close to hugging a book is when I read Northanger Abbey knowing it would be the last time I read a Jane Austen book for the first time.  I don't know if I'll ever be that involved in a series again.

And now the movie tonight - I have something of a love/hate relationship with the movies, because there's so much that just doesn't make it onto the screen.  I'm a purist.  But there's still a lot more love than hate, and I'm incredibly excited for the last one.  I have a heart of steel, and only 2 movies to date have wrung tears from my flinty soul:  Eight Below and Marley and Me.  Tonight could be number 3.

In reading this over, I sound like a pretty silly fan girl.  I'm not to the level of some - I don't write fan fiction, my future children will not be Harry and Ron, and I don't have any plans for a Deathly Hallows tattoo.  But tonight at 11:00, I'm going to draw an eyeliner scar on Matt's forehead, fill my purse with snacks, and sit in a theater with hundreds of other fans.  And if you judge me for that, maybe you're just a Muggle.