Anyway, lately it seems like either I'm not feeling like myself or the things swirling around in my brain aren't things that make me smile.So, I thought, gotta do something about that. Can't be a boring, grumpy person with bad cardboard glasses who feels like someone else forever. So, I made a list. Of things that make me smile.
And the list in absolutely no particular order:
1. The way I overuse SO and ANYWAY...no matter how silly or serious the tone of what I'm writing is, I always smile when I use SO and ANYWAY because I KNOW I use them way too much.
2. Mail. The kind that appears miraculously on the floor inside the front door and comes on paper, with a stamp on the envelope. (junk mail and bills rarely have STAMPS on them...)
3. Babies...bus babies, grocery store babies, babies in strollers going for a walk...babies I know are the best kind but babies I don't know make me smile too.
Alice makes me smile even though I haven't met her yet, but you're supposed to smile about your goddaughter!
4. Alex.
5. My family and friends. Okay...so (see, there it is again) sometimes we all know that family and friends can induce sighs of exasperation, eye rolling etc, but really, on the whole, my family and friends make me smile. A lot. And often. And they make me laugh. A lot. And they don't make me sigh in exasperation, roll my eyes etc. all that often!
6. Dogs. Friendly, well-behaved dogs. Ones who love you because you're scratching their ears or just patting them on the head, but in that moment, they love no one but you!
7. Sun and green grass and flowers and birds singing (as long as they stay far away from me!)
8. Paperchase...I've already gone on and on about Paperchase, but it really does make me smile. The website is good because I can't (or I haven't figured out how to) buy stuff on line, but it's bad because it doesn't have the same smell that a real Paperchase store has.
9. Crepes from the Hampstead Creperie.
Oh my goodness, I might devour the entire thing in one bite. Look at my face!!!
10. My "book" from Pax Lodge/Our Chalet. If you've worked/volunteered there you know what I mean, if you haven't, well, it's hard to explain.
11. Strawberries.
12. The envelope of pictures from film cameras straight from the developer, before you know what they're of...and the same pictures (and digital ones) after I've looked at them a million times and still can't get enough of them!
13. 5:00 pm and not waking up at 3:00 am anymore.
14. Saturday mornings.
15. Emails that are not work/Guiding related...you know, the ones that are like the letters mentioned above, but in email form.
16. Watching slides in my parents' living room. Oh my goodness, look at my hair/how big my glasses are! What am I/are you wearing? Remember when....
17. Compilation CDs from Kamiah that are full of stuff I normally wouldn't listen to/wouldn't know existed...because it's so not me that it's great!
18. Good wishes from the people around me for the other people around me who need good wishes right now, even if they don't know each other.
19. Lots of other stuff, but I can't really think of them right now...
Remember, up there, I said family and friends make me smile (#5 I think)...well, it's Vibeke's birthday today and she'll know what I mean by #10. Vibeke definitely makes me smile...Happy Birthday Vibi!!!
Okay...so that's all...now I feel like me with lots to do because I just spend a good deal of time doing this. At least I'll be doing my lot-to-do with a smile on my face. And when I go home, I might just break out some of the stash of Paperchase products, because other people I know also smile when they get letters on paper with a stamp. And I certainly didn't buy all that stuff just to look at.
Oh...an appendix to #1: I also overuse AND at the beginning of sentences!
I SO know what you're saying. ANYWAY I wanted to ask you about paperchase...I don't know this place...(I can hear your *gasp* from here!) AND I was hoping you could tell me about it!
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