Ten Things that Make Me Happy

I finally lost – and I couldn’t be happier about it!

Since I joined the Twitter revolution in earnest this past January I have been patiently … well, patiently as in drumming fingers on my keyboard and tapping my toes in frustration(!!!) … waiting for someone to “tag me”  for one of those “reveal yourself” blog challenges. I think I can safely say it’s the first time in my life I’ve been so excited to lose a game of tag (well … except for when I was 10 and let Danny *blush, blush* tag me out during a game of hide-n-seek just because I had a pre-teen crush on him).

A robust online and social media presence is a great way to get to know like-minded individuals you might not otherwise have the chance to meet… especially for someone who works from a home office and spends her days buried in research and writing (two lonely but rewarding undertakings). So when I saw that Karin had tagged me on her blog It’s All Good If You Can Laugh I actually let out a “squeeee!” … which led Husband to jump up form couch demanding to know what the cat had dragged into the house THIS time! *snort*

I’m supposed to tell you all 10 things that make me happy and then tag ten other people to do the same for their readers.

So here it is, Ten Things That Make Me Happy …. (not necessarily in order of importance) …

  1. Taking a few moments to revel in the beauty of the natural world around us. I tend to maintain an insane work/life schedule that requires “mad” balancing skills I don’t always have even though I think I do. I make a conscious effort to stop at least once a day to marvel at the sun, the wind in the trees, or the pattern rain water makes on the car as it falls.
  2. The lizard, snake, mouse, cockroach hunters. Also known as …. My cats Frappy and Pookie. These two furry wonders have been a consistent form of comfort over the years, especially when the lows in life have hit. There is nothing quite like the unconditional love of an animal to calm the soul…. Though I really could use some help figuring out why 14-pound-zen-master-tastic Frappy suddenly decided to sleep ON my head starting a few weeks ago. The tail in the mouth thing is just sooooo much worse than the bringing snakes into the house thing.
  3. A book I simply cannot put down. Quite a few books fall into this category, probably more than is healthy. To name a few: Stephen King’s IT, The Stand and Salem’s Lot, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, Albert Camus’ The Plague, and James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small. Boy, I really had a good theme going until that last one! (and, yes, I do read those particular works repeatedly)
  4. Movie Theater Popcorn. It is my favorite no-no. Grotesquely unhealthy, but always has to be a large popcorn, butter in the middle AND on top, please. Love hanging with the Husband, watching a great flick and fighting for handfuls from the bucket between us. I can at least say that I refrain from going from making it worse and almost always drink water instead of soda pop.
  5. Things that Go Bump in the Night. Vampires, zombies, vengeful angels, demons, witches, wizards, mummies, ghosts, ghouls … you get the picture … But mostly vampires and zombies. These monsters (and animals) tend to make more sense to me than your average human. Strange, I know. *eyes crowd racing for the door*
  6. Trying to Make a Difference. My mom used to tell me our lifetime responsibility is to ultimately leave the world a better place than when we entered. Actions big or small – everything matters. So beyond my professional writing (which you, loyal readers, know) is all about human rights and other issues that affect us all, I have an (annoying?) tendency to collect house items and clothing for every cause imaginable, walk in things like the March for Babies, and, most recently, volunteered at the nearby seabird sanctuary hospital.
  7. Food. High brow, greasy spoon and everything in between. I am a lifelong lover of the “yummy factor.” Cheese is my weakness. Chocolate my addiction. Greek salad is my crutch. And I only manage to keep myself from being the size of a house by limiting my splurges to the weekend.
  8. Traveling. I’ve almost covered my childhood list of places I want to visit (which included England, Turkey, Spain, Italy and Mexico) and managed a few that weren’t on the original list (such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Thailand and the UAE). The one place I have always dreamed about going and have not yet made it to is …. Egypt.
  9. The quiet moments. Those fleeting specks in time when Husband and I can put aside everything in the world outside of us (the bills, the grass that needs to be cut, work stress, the loss of our son, etc, etc, etc … ) and just be.
  10. Roller Coasters. The higher, twistier, more tummy-rattling the better. The more people scream, the bigger I smile. Space Mountain is my all time favorite.

Ok, so now I get to tag 10 other people …. And either piss them off or make their day! Any one of these ladies will make you laugh your socks off!!! (and, yes, they’re all on twitter if you know where to look!)

If I’ve tagged you, it’s because I’d really like to know! (If you are annoyed, I apologize #notreally )

 1 – Aspiring Mama

2 – The Year of Blogging Dangerously

3 – Nucking Futs Mama

4 – GILTFREE

5 – Dating After 40, Okay Hoping to Date After 40

6 – TheDeeView

7 – Love That Max          

8 – Mentally Inked

9 – Adoption of Jane

10 – Where Ladybug’s Roar

One thought on “Ten Things that Make Me Happy”

  1. you suck. #okaynotreally. i do love you. and now i get to work on my first tag post ever on this blog. i’m bad and ignore them. but for you, i’ll make an exception.

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