Happiness is...a good yarn!

The story kind, not the knitting kind.

After a rough week (not on my end this time, thank goodness) a few friends and I went out to dinner and then to see the new Jane Eyre movie (eh-nicely done until the end when it is abruptly over without enough closure...but moving on) and then out for dessert.  While trying to distract my roommate, 'M' from her miseries and get her to stop crying (though she had really good excuses), my friend 'P' and I began to tell a story each telling a sentence or so at a time. Funny enough, it did the trick.  While the rest of us had tears streaming down our faces, 'M' was dry eyed and shaking her head at us all.  Good times.

Care to hear the story? No? You're in luck. There's no way I could remember it all.  But here are the highlights.

Once upon a time...

Due to an unfortunate case of lactose intolerance, our nameless young heroine is unable to partake of poutine (a Quebec-ian french fry concoction covered in gravy and cheese) with her friends and instead finds herself being whisked off to 1873 (over the rainbow bridge, past the swirly twirly gumdrops) with a French waiter-turned-pilot named Captain who has a magical fake eye made of walrus tusk (which can see into the future but not to the left) and wears a poufy white shirt and bears an uncanny resemblance to Colin Firth.  After their jet crash lands and the heroine kung-fus her way out of the wreckage they meet the walrus  looking for his tusk and revenge.  Captain whips out his trusty magical matchbook which grants wishes to the person who wishes at the exact moment the match is struck.  The walrus, knowing the trick, wishes Captain dead.  The girl, stunned and standing over the dead body of her supposed beloved, then wishes that the walrus had never existed and eventually flies home with the Delta pilot who'd been on board the plane the whole time but knocked unconscious (and is also mysteriously named Captain.)

The end.

More or less.

Yep, our ending was about as abrupt and unsatisfying as the ending of Jane Eyre.  But the middle had a lot of good bits, eh?  Okay, so it was pretty terrible.  But I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time.

Who says you have to be drunk to enjoy yourself on a Saturday night?

P.S. My goal had been to try and post one of my photos with each entry but I really have nothing that could do this justice.  This will have to suffice...feel free to swoon!

(image courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk)

Hope the rest of your weekend is filled with a bit of silliness, some tear-inducing laughter and great friends.  Sweet dreams all!

Happiness is...a package in the mail!

There's something magical about the possibilities contained within a plain brown box or mailing envelope.

I love to speculate for just a moment or two before ripping into the thing about just what might be inside (yes, I do this even when I know what is inside, somehow most of the magic is still there!) It's akin to the excitement you feel coming across in the old song from The Music Man where they sing about the Wells Fargo Wagon.  It could be something as banal as a magazine, a bundle of letters, tickets to something or someone you've been longing to see, homemade goodies from a loved one, a semi-selfish splurge of something fancy yet frivolous, or (and this is my dream and I have this book to thank for it) even a penguin!

While I'm not looking for raisins from Fresno or a cannon for my courthouse square (though how cool would that be!?) "It could be something for someone who is no relation [packages for my roommates are almost as much fun] but it could be something special just for me!"**

Almost as exciting as getting a package however, is sending one off.  I love to put together fun little surprises to (hopefully) boost someone's day; cards, candy, silly toys and totally unnecessary items as well as little things I know the givee will love and appreciate.  I love the anticipation of waiting to hear back about how it was all received.

Just take a look at some of the goodies that came (and went) through my mail this past week...

Some I ordered for myself (James Roday, I'm looking at you!), some were sent to me and some I sent off to others.  But each one did their part to make my day a little bit brighter and add a tiny bit of excitement to my generally humdrum existence.

What's the most exciting thing you've ever gotten in the mail?  Are you expecting something soon?  Have you ever sent something absolutely wonderful to someone else?

With the art of letter writing a quickly dying art thanks to email and skype and all, packages are the best things to come to most people's mailboxes anymore.  (Hmmm, handwritten letters need a post of their own I think.  Love, love, love getting letters in the mail too!)  So, give your mail person a hug.  Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor...well, you know, and God bless our US Postal system!


**With a grateful nod to Meredith Wilson!

Happiness is...driving with the windows down!

When the world begins to look like this

and it's warm enough for my constantly icicle prone feet to be comfortably decked out like this

then it's officially time to drive with the windows down, the crisp spring breeze making a rat's nest out of my hair, while singing at the top of my lungs.

My current windows-down playlist:

1.  Last Train to Clarksville              The Monkees
2.  Baby Driver                                Simon and Garfunkle
3.  Going the Distance                      Cake
4.  Don't Rain on My Parade             Barbara Streisand
5.  It's My Life                                  Bon Jovi
6.  Joy to the World                          Three Dog Night
7.  Bad Romance                              Lady Gaga
8.  Happy Together                          The Turtles
9.  The Ascent of Stan                      Ben Folds
10.  Gives You Hell                            The All-American Rejects
11.  I'm Gonna Be                              The Proclaimers
12.  Somebody to Love                      Queen
13.  Everything                                   Michael Buble
14.  Pink Triangle                               Weezer
15.  I Think I Love You                      The Partridge Family
16.  Workin' At the Car Wash Blues    Jim Croce
17.  Mr. Brightside                              The Killers
18.  Hard Days Night                          The Beatles
19.  Falling for the First Time              Barenaked Ladies
20.  Say Hey                                       Michael Franti

It's a pretty eclectic list but I'm definitely lacking in the more current hits.  Any suggestions?  What are your favorite, crank-it-up, sing like no one's listening tunes?

Here's to spring and many more days of opening the windows and airing out the winter blahs.

Happiness is...leaving work while it's still light out!

Thanks to the glories of Daylight Savings Time (we won't talk about what it does to my sleeping and eating patterns), instead of the inky blackness and/or oncoming twilight that I usually see as I'm leaving, today this was the view from my windshield...

Ahh, Spring is finally on its way.  Hooray!!

Happiness is...a pretty book cover!

I am very much a believer in judging a book by its cover. I love to wander up and down the stacks in the libraries and book stores just waiting for a book to call out to me from the shelves...'pick me, take me home.'  I've had some great experiences with books I've heard nothing about but practically jumped from the shelf and into my arms.  (Yes, I've also had some pretty terrible experiences as well, but the good ones far outweigh the bad.)  But sometimes I appreciate the book just as much (if not more) for its aesthetic value as its educational worth.  Often what is on its cover is more appealing that what is contained within it.

Here are just a few I've picked up or added to my TBR pile more because of the image on the cover than anything I've known about the story.  Most are richly colored, lushly decorated, mysterious or enchanting; the kind of places you would love to at least visit if not get hopelessly lost in. 

Enjoy the beauty!

What do you judge completely by its looks? Do you find you are more often disappointed when you do?  Have you ever been pleasantly surprised?

(Does anyone know a better way to load photos?! ie, without the ugly white borders and with control over exactly where they are placed?)

Happiness is...this quote!

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

I completely and whole-heartedly agree, as you can see from this snapshot of one of the bookshelves I have currently in my room; four shelves, chock-full, 2 deep in most places.  And we won't even begin to talk about the boxes and boxes and boxes of books I have in a storage unit back home in Utah.  Yeah, it's a sickness. I admit it.  But I hope I'm never cured!

Happiness is...making a list!

I've always been a list maker.  There is something satisfying about organizing your thoughts into neatly ordered columns. To Do lists are even better.  The satisfaction quotient grows exponentially when you can turn around and cross something off of the list you created.  Well, today's list isn't a To Do list but rather a list of the things that have brought me a little bit of happiness in the past week.  So, without further ado...

Happiness is...

• Reading this book  (I love the quirky characters, they're so charming!)
• Catching up with friends
• Baby kisses
• A brand new razor and freshly shaved legs
• Watching this movie ("I don't want diamond sunbursts or marble halls, I just want you." *sigh* I'm destined to be forever thwarted in love for no real man will ever be able to compare with Gilbert Blythe.)
• Eating a bison burger, onion rings, a vanilla Coke and tasty pickles at this restaurant (makes me feel sorry for vegetarians...oh my, sooo delicious!)
• Spending a day getting caught up (well, more caught up than before) on my scrapbooking
• Being in the audience of a performance of this Opera at the amazing Kennedy Center (beautiful, tragic, breathtaking) 
• Finally saying good-bye to February (why is it that the shortest month always seems to drag on the longest?)
• The first signs of spring

you totally can't see this on the small photo, but this is a cardinal and he's been chattering cheerfully outside my window all week

 

• A plan
• An entire day without coughs or sniffles
• Listening to this music

(this isn't the best recording but I love his little lead in in the beginning, this is exactly why I love this song, I am not a scientist but I am definitely an over-thinker)

And there you have it.  Just a small taste of some of the wonderfully happy things in my little corner of the world at present.  Readers, what happiness have you had in your life this past week? Is Spring showing its face where you live? Take a few moments to head outside and stop and smell the roses (or build a snowman if that's more appropriate :)