August 15, 2006

brown paper packages tied up with string

fa-so-la-la

I like to be happy. And I like happy things. Here are a few of my favorites.

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Fences groaning under the weight of big messy wild honeysuckle vines.

Random old black and white movies on TV that I found without meaning to and started 15 minutes in so that I don't know the title or what it's about but get completely absorbed in, enjoy thoroughly; laughing, crying, and then it's over and even if I never found out what it was, we're fast friends.

Buying books and squeezing them into full bookcases.

Standing on top of brick mailboxes on windy days when I'm comparatively sure no one is watching, like the owners for instance.

Dan reading aloud to me.

The produce section of Whole Foods in summer, with all the smells combining into one intoxicating scent of leaves and sunlight and warmth, and all the thousands of colors glowing peaceably together in lush discordant harmony.

Sunlight sliding into the grass sideways around 5:30.

Watching people I love be happy.

Playing piano while Claire sings, especially late at night when we're the only ones awake and we have to use the damper pedal and sing quietly.

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Tell me yours?

13 comments:

Androphenese said...

one of my favorite things is the silence of the night when all you can hear is the breeze quietly blowing and the twinkle of the stars...

Lynn Bruce said...

i'll take ludwig's breezy stars if you can make them twinkle on the water over a lake house with a big porch. ludwig can come, too. we can talk about stars on the water and the pros and cons of smoking a pipe.

i'd like it, too, if i found a package of books from old british bookstores on that porch every few days. oh yeah.

van Danne said...

dry clothes, hot chocolate, and a good book after being drenched by the rain.

the full moon on a clear night.

lightning.

the silence of the house in the middle of the night.

curling up on the couch in the evening with your blanket to watch recordings of your favorite tv shows after a long day.

video game night with the roommates.

Saturday morning at the apartment with a day of happy nothingness ahead of you.

the feel of the Porsche accelerator.

a windy summer day.

Texas.

Caitlin's hand.

either one.

a good audio book with your favorite snacks on a late night trip by yourself.

a cold, cold room when you go to bed.

Elvis said...

-clean sheets...just out of the dryer
-the towel aisle at walmart or anywhere really..when all the colors flow and they're so soft and fluffy...
-hot showers...very hot
-note books, pens and pencils, white paper...right before you write on it!

I think that is a pretty good start.

Deeapaulitan said...

Fa-so-la-la's posts. :) ~ Creme da la Creme

Cimmanim said...

-Cool fall Saturdays for which you have no plans and no gruesome chores that you must do and are permitted to just play life by ear for a bit

-having a long tête-à-tête with a friend on the phone

-Being outside with friends on a summer evening with the sounds of crickets in the background

-Drawing while listening to someone read aloud or to a book on tape

-Watching a movie with friends or family

-Somebody hugging me for a long time

-A spur of the moment road trip with my best friend

-Laughing with friends

-Inside jokes

-The feel of mud between my toes


These are a few of my favorite things...

rachel tsunami said...

lots of my favorite things already listed here by others.

good chinese takeout (actually available here in Ripley) and our favorite chopsticks--with my favorite someone--on tv trays at the sofa and a terrific movie.

It's one of our favorite date nights when there isn't time, money or energy to do anything else. and often even when there is.

Cal-el of Krypton said...

really cool dreams!

Alabama football!!

waking up knowing you're at Harmony Hill!!!!!

listening to a small group of four part acapella singing!!

praying with the group of nurses that I'm about to go on shift with!

.... makes me happy

gabbie said...

oh, yes. a lot of my favorite things have already been listed.
********************************

Being on The Hill. And when the HH people are there, that makes it all 217,234,954,485,763,564,763,475 times better!

Rainy afternoons when my siblings are actually relatively calm, and curling up on the sofa with a good book.

Taking pictures in random places (such as a Walmart or bookstore) with my best friends.

Reading Winnie the Pooh and other great stories to my siblings.

Taking long drives with my mom and singing along to oldies and 80's music nearly the whole time. The very definition of fun.

Taking long drives with my dad and us two harmonizing for about 5 hours straight. -sigh-

Buying good books. Going to a library and checking out books is okay, but I really like to own the book so I can have it always.

Getting "old-fashioned" letters in the mail.

Long hugs. (Stole that one from you, Hannah. :)

Listening to stories from my grandparents. And looking at their old pictures.

...just to name a few.

Androphenese said...

does anyone know what the defining sound of arkansas is?

Lynn Bruce said...

ummm... the sound of cars driving through it to get to texas?

Lynn Bruce said...

OK, for real now... some of my favorite things:

I like to dream that I'm flying.

I like a fresh Ticonderoga pencil, right out of the box, and that whoosh of cedar (yes, they're really made of cedar... ahhh) that hits my nose when I sharpen it.

I like messing about in boats.

I like fresh mint in my tea.

I like to hear my friends singing.

I like the turquoise/cerulean sky in Santa Fe, the impossible whiteness of the clouds, how unfathomably BIG it is, and how it always smells faintly of pignon pine and sagebrush and roasted peppers. (My oh my, I need a plane ticket.)

I like velvet.

I like locking the door when I take a bath, and I like nobody knocking in spite of it.

I like having too many happy people in my dining room.

I like remembering my grandmother's dill pickles and my granddaddy's plate-sized ruby red organic tomatoes and what it felt like to drink tea in the rockers on their huge front porch.

I like eating a sandwich while studying a map. I always feel happy while eating a sandwich and studying a map.

I like it when Fa hands me a new poem she's written.

I like it when Shieldmaiden sings Puccini's "O mio babbino caro."

I like it when Spuddy gets the giggles.

I like it when Great Scot dances like a nerd in the kitchen. Especially if he's making chocolate chip cookies.

Laura Kathryn said...

Ludwig-
Is it crickets?
Or maybe Grandma's "whoooeeee" for supper?
A fiddle tune?
Perfect happiness with my family?
That is a good sound.