Monday, September 05, 2005

The Happy List, End of Summer 2005 edition

A long one, so I can get all the summer things in. In no particular order.

  • Taking the Staten Island ferry at sunset
  • The first moment when you step out of air conditioning into the heat
  • Wireless DSL
  • Thai food, especially pineapple fried rice and Pad See Euw
  • High-thread-count bedsheets, fluffy towels, and down duvets
  • Bathrobes
  • Finding a movie you haven't watched in years on cable
  • Taking a unscheduled day off of work
  • The Cyclone at Coney Island
  • The quick surge of waves around your feet as you walk on the beach
  • The Brooklyn Bridge. Walking across it, looking at it, whatever. Its mere existence.
  • Brooklyn Bridge Park / Empire Fulton Ferry Park
  • Picnics -- or actually eating al fresco, period
  • Having hot dogs, french fries, and cold beer at a baseball game
  • The goofy between-innings activities stadiums sponsor at baseball games (especially small-time ones)
  • Lying under a tree on a sunny day, reading
  • Ski lifts
  • Miniature golf
  • Sirius satellite radio, particularly its all-Elvis channel
  • Whitewater rafting
  • Lingering over dinner, tea, coffee, or drinks with friends
  • Having a hotel room all to yourself
  • Camper shoes, even just to look at, and all sparkly shoes, especially when they're on sale
  • The ten minutes after you finish a really good book or movie, when you're still in a trance about What Happened and What It Means
  • My digital camera
  • Bar trivia
  • Fine stationery
  • Good pens
  • Taking tours of interesting/significant places
  • Commuter trains
  • The songs "Love Train" by the O'Jays, "Last Train to Clarksville" by Cassandra Wilson, and "The Book of Love" by the Magnetic Fields
  • Risotto and couscous
  • High teas, particularly the warm scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam
  • The mariachi singers on the uptown 6 train (I never see them coming downtown)
  • Bryant Park -- tied with Cherry Hill for my favorite place in Manhattan
  • Cooking for friends
  • Being cooked for by friends
  • My banana oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies
  • Those cool cello cases with wheels on the bottom, and seeing someone wheeling them down the street or on the subway
  • The flamboyantly dressed dancers in the West Indian Day parade
  • The music from the parade shaking the whole neighborhood, making even the whitest person there (that is, me) groove a little
  • Discovering new cuisines (Trinidadian, in this instance)
  • People playing cricket and kickball in Prospect Park (and practicing tap-dancing!)
  • Katy, Rachel, Melissa, and Ginny, who are all brilliant, kind, funny, beautiful women who I am lucky to know
  • My terrific family
  • Living in New York City
  • Alcoholic cupcakes

2 comments:

  1. Those cool cello cases with wheels on the bottom, and seeing someone wheeling them down the street or on the subway

    Hee. those make me happy too, even when people ask "what is that you have in there? is it like a guitar?" Umm. yeah.

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  2. Isn't it "whom I am lucky to know"?

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