The Happy List, Episode IV: A New Happy

(also known as the Happy List, Summer 2005 edition)

• Sliding my bare feet through grass
• Pedicures
• Sparkly nail polish
• Sandals that don't hurt my feet
• Movie previews
• Watching baseball
• The International House of Pancakes
• Postcards
• Long Island Iced Teas
• Marty Markowitz
• Finding things on the street in Park Slope (two recent notables: a plastic foot attached to a stuffed leg and a record from the Cornelia Street Cafe reading and music series)
• Stoop sales
• See's candies
• Bliss toiletries
• Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge
• Lying in the sun talking/drowsing with friends
• Being incredibly smug and annoying about Harry Potter (a pleasure I have for only six more days)
• Smart action movies
• Sunglasses
• Rice pudding; also chocolate, vanilla, tapioca, and bread pudding (but not bubble tea)
• Fresh-grilled meat
• Fresh-made s'mores
• Rain on the roof
• Sitting in the park reading/writing/editing
• The park in general, actually, and doing just about anything in it . . . I say this often, but I think heaven will look like a New York City park on a sunny Saturday afternoon in June: The whole diversity of humanity eating, drinking, napping, rollerblading, running, making music, listening to music, playing Frisbee and baseball, reading, tossing tennis balls to dogs, grilling, sitting in lawn chairs, getting ice cream, strolling, all in utter peace and harmony and beauty, and I feel so lucky to be a part of it.
• The way a box fan makes one's voice sound funny when one speaks into it
• Croquet!