Me Likey...

In the spirit of leaf-turning, seasons of renewal (and given that I am well aware that Spring began nearly a month ago, I realize my inherent tardiness - which if unforgiveable, is, at least consistent) and all that "each day is the first day of the rest of your life" jazz, I thought I would attempt a sunny-side up (though my preference since childhood has always been scrambled) entry. Clearly, it will be a bit disconcerting given my general gloomy tone as of late, but never fear, I may be whimsical in the head, but I will always be chicken-little at heart:

Things That Give Me A Distinct & Unexplainable Pleasure: In No Particular Order
(an entropic, bullet pointed list, by me)

• Anyone talking like a pirate ("Aargh!!!")
• My new evil carbohydrate friend who keeps me company in my office at my nose-well-worn-down-by the-grindstone-profession: Darth Tater. (Indeed, I am 27 years old going on 6.)
• Venti, non-fat, no-foam, extra-hot, sugar-free hazelnut lattes. (My love for this Starbucks narcotic is so great that I no longer bat an eye at the fact that I have become one of "those people" in the 'Bucks line, the ones everyone rolls their eyes at. I find comfort in the fact that "at least I am not that person who also asks for "half a packet of Equal, not Splenda." Anecdote here borrowed from friendly neighborhood barista trying to placate me and assure me I was not in fact the most ridiculous customer he had ever had. Good to know.)
• Frozen yogurt - two flavors, side by side. (Not swirled, that's cheating. Then you aren't in control of proportions of flavor. That is lazy man's FroYo.)
• Not having to set my alarm. (No explanation needed.)
• People who read the New York Times even though they don't live in New York. (Posers? Maybe. But they are my kind of posers.)
• Dancing on tables (Maybe the air at the higher altitude makes you more buoyant, or more likely because you have reached a pitch-perfect buzz which gives you rhythm inside and out, but making that fateful decision to ascend to the table-top vantage point to shake your money maker never disappoints. It is always, hands-down "soooo much fun!!" Note, however, utilizing glass tabletops and/or lampshades is not recommended and is indicative of one too many shots of Patron having been ingested.)
• Baseball. (The joy derived from both the love - Oakland A's, Red Sox triumph over the Evil Empire, Cal Ripken, Wrigley Field, the Home Run Derby, Ichiro, Eck crying at his HOF induction, Pedro and Zim duking it out in the '03 AL playoffs, Field of Dreams: Is this heaven? No. It's Iowa. - and the hate - Yankees, A-Rod, Slide, Jeremy, damnit, slide!, Kirk Gibson's homerun in the '88 Series, Wade Boggs up on that horse, Johnny Damon, A-Rod again, Barry and his flax-seed oil, whatever!)
• My Blackberry. (There is a reason people call them Crackberries - addictive. The solution for those of us who have long feared the phone. So there it is, a little blue square that allows me to cross issue 278 off of my list: Verizonophobia - no longer a problem.)
• Outrageous "this is my last day at work, fare thee well" e-mails. (Would never have the courage to write one. Distinct envy of those who do. Well aware that they circle the earth via forwards in about 6 minutes. Really. One particularly juicy and malevolent one last year from a lawyer at another firm unashamedly declared: "May the smoking ruins of my career be seen far an wide" and went on to decry the "lifeless husks" which the partners had turned the associates into. It was truly a thing of beauty.)
• Ugly dogs. Amendment: Ugly small dogs. (I just love the idea of a dog you can put in your handbag and the more awkward looking the better. Pekingnese - fabulous! Affenpinscher - Adorable! Pug - nirvana!)
• Gift-Giving (This may be my favorite activity of all time. I am such a sucker for the "open it, open it - open mine first!" money shot. I love when I have managed to stumble on just the right present which has meaning and is still fun because it is, of course, a present. My life has gotten so busy in recent years that I no longer have been able to invest the time I would like into the gift giving process. These days I am lucky if I remember the event to be comemorated in a timely fashion. So many aplogies for belatedness. It will be a mark that I have recovered a normal life again when I can once again spend the appropriate amount of time on gifts. If you can't invest time in your friends and family, then you are too busy and with all the wrong things).
• Freaks of the Industry by Digital Underground. (It is not truly a dance party till this song makes it into the rotation. They played it at my prom. They played it at my 8th grade dances. Ooh, what does this say about where I grew up? Giving new meaning to the term "bedroom community" I suppose.)
• Clean Laundry. And if you want to kick it up a notch, a freshly made bed with just-out-of the-washer sheets. (Heaven.)
• Long walks through a city. (Especially when you are going somewhere you have been before, don't have to be there at a particular time, and either, take a route you have taken before and happen to look around and notice something new, or you take a different route and discover something you never knew existed there before.)
• Proximity to bodies of water. (Never been much of a fan of sand and thus direct contact with beaches, but a view of the a body of water - sea, lake, river or bay - has always inspired a certain awe in me. It is a thrill I do not think I could live without. In my many habitat locations in life, I have always been fortunate to be and have been happiest when I was in closest proximity to water.)
• Shopping. (This may in fact be a problem. To say that I experience a contact high when I shop is no exaggeration. Better mental health through shoe and handbag purchases? I say it is possible.)