The little things...

Some of my favorite bloggers are doing this, and who am I not to jump on the bandwagon?

Things That Float my Boat

New as of 7/7/2007
*Spending one of those glorious non-stressful holidays with my parents
*Three words: Green Tea Freddo
*$1.99 Indian food from Trader Joe's
*Stephen King, John Cusack and a cold movie theater on a hot day
*Paying less for gas
*Touching ground in California
*Reading a really wonderful book after a pile of so-so ones
*The feeling of accomplishment after doing something I've told myself I would for years
*Missing him but being okay a little bit happy that he's out of town
*Air conditioning
*Raspberries by the cartload in the summer

New as of 6/6/2007
*Girls night with salad, pasta and drunken ice cream
*Beautiful bridesmaids' dresses
*Planning a vacation, but not really planning every last detail
*Learning to be myself around him
*Being in the same space doing our own thing
*Free wine tasting
*Actually being able to identify a specific flavor in a wine
*Baking without burning myself
*Watching a movie with Mommy
*Taking a walk with Daddy and the dogs on a gorgeous summer evening
*Starbucks on a Saturday morning
*Getting a different drink at Starbucks everytime I go. It's the one place where I truly take advantage of variety
*Getting Michael Buble's "Everything" stuck in my head
*Curling up on the couch with Marley on a Sunday evening and reading till my heart is full
*Quick weekend trips to Vegas
*Reading several books at a time - one in the bedroom, one in the bathroom, like four in my car should I get caught somewhere without a book. I'm a walking library
*Marley's happy meows when I come home at the end of the day
*Walking through the door and seeing him there
*Walking through the door and not seeing him there
*Being the one to leave, from time to time
*Tailgate parties that never culminate in a baseball game
*Google-bot
*When he laughs louder at my jokes than anyone else, and means it
*Omlettes on a Sunday morning
*Staying up till three and sleeping till eleven and not feeling the least bit guilty
*Running across a blog that says exactly what I was thinking
*Mommy waiting at the door when I go home for lunch
*JJ and Bailey's happy little faces when they see me
*My camera
*Flickr
*Facebook
*Waking up in the morning full of energy and looking forward to the whole day, not just to the evening.

New as of 4/22/2007
*Meeting friends for dinner at a fab restaurant in a city I'm getting to know better each week
*Seeing Irene happy...actually, hearing her happy on a voice mail is pretty awesome, too
*Random outbursts of complete and utter wackiness
*When it's not just me who's wacky
*Doing nothing on the weekend and still accomplishing so much

New as of 3/24/2007
*The memory of meeting my cat Timmy when he was a mere 11 hours hold
*The joy of having him sit on my lap and otherwise bond with me for the five weeks before we took him home way back in 1994.
*The sound of Timmy's squeeky meow when he sees me
*The way he always pushes his head up against my lips when I give him a kiss
*The fact that Timmy never stops wanting to "nuzzle," since he was taken from his mama so young
*When Timmy climbs on my shoulders and sort of rests himself on the back of my neck
*The weird way that Timmy never likes me to take a picture of him. He always rushes away as soon as I get the camera out. Every other cat will pose and get all cute, but Timmy gets rambunctious and wants to play
*Timmy rolling on the floor, luxuriously stretching out his cat body, waiting for someone to scratch his belly
*Saying "Timmy"
*Picking up this rolly-polly cat, and feeling him push his legs off the floor to help with the process
*The way he tries to balance on the little window-sill when I hold him up to it. He can only ever get three legs at a time, because it's a very narrow window-sill, so one leg will always be on my shoulder.
*What doesn't rock my boat is the way my heart hurts when I realize that it's likely that in a few days, I'll start the process of missing him for the rest of my life.

New as of 3/6/2007
*Picnics on the patio
*Planting veggies in the spring
*Going to Home Depot on a weekend afternoon
*Watching a movie by myself
*Watching a movie cuddled up with...my cat, my boyfriend...just while cuddling
*That feeling when I accomplish more than I expected
*The good memories of my ridiculous and crazy extended family
*Having instinct and women's intuition
*Having a clean apartment
*Getting just what I wanted for lunch
*Getting all dolled up and going out on the town
*Going barefoot
*After a cold winter, wearing a skirt but not tights
*Getting a text message
*Having a whole weekend filled with little things
*The sun! Oh, heavens, the sun!
*Daytrips
*Day trips to wine country I didn't really know existed
*Laughing so heard my throat hurts
*Snow Patrol's "Hands Open"
*Blue October's "18th Floor Balcony"
*Augustana's "Boston"
*Laughing so hard I can't catch my breath
*When I am finally over whatever emotion has come upon me, and I can see clearly once again
*Having chocolate on hand when someone else really needs it
*Pickles
*Tiny little Polish pickles that are completely sour and wonderfully crunchy
*Pan-fried Chinese noodles
*Weekends

New as of 2/27/2007
*Missing someone and then having them come back
*When someone comes back from a vacation and really seems back to themselves, the person you love in the first place
*That my parents are actually madly in love with each other, but not in a sickening way
*That my parents have been married for almost 29 years
*That my parents both have naturally gray hair and don't mind (anymore)
*When my grandmother does incredibly random things like call me on my cell phone, despite the fact that she had never, ever done that before in the entirety of my having a cell phone (oh, about 8 years)
*Lily Allen and Blue October
*Seventh graders (particularly the ones in my CCD class, aka "my kids")
*Hugs so strong you feel like you're melting into the other person
*When Wine Guy reaches for my hand first
*Chicken tenders, particularly with bbq sauce
*Vanilla Coke
*In N Out Burger
*A tiny bit of dessert after a good meal
*Cheese in general, strong cheeses in particular
*Writing my whole name out, middle name included
*Knowing that, in some way, I will keep my last name, because I've fought long and hard to get people to know how to pronounce it, and I'm not giving it up just like that
*Discovering new things about places reasonably within my geographic area
*Roast Beef Dip Sandwiches
*Tuna Melts
*Philly Cheese Steak (the one thing motivating me to ever go to Philly, besides wanting to run up Rocky's stairs, of course)
*Breakfast
*Certain recurring characters on SNL (the a-holes, anyone? anyone? Nuni and Nuni? anyone?)
*Getting into my pajamas after getting my feet soaked in a rain shower
*My Oklahoma t-shirt that says "In Oklahoma" on the front and "Nothing tips like a calf" on the back (mostly because Wine Guy gave it to me AND because I don't entirely understand what it means...what else would tip?)
*California rain showers

New as of 2/23/2007
*Bubble baths
*Really good pizza
*Really cheap pizza that still tastes like a treat
*A busy social life
*Irenie
*Irenie when I'm having a crisis
*The wisdom of my mother
*Friends who surprise me
*The fact that my Daddy is and will always be my superhero
*A fantastic mocha (usually not from Starbucks)
*Pasta
*Homemade pasta
*That spinach and artichoke dip from Costco
*Coldplay and Keane
*Extras (this wacky British comedy on HBO)
*Grey's Anatomy (the tv show, not the reference book)
*Fitting in as many social outings as possible in a given week
*Sitting on my couch doing nothing
*Even better, sitting in my bed, under a warm blanket, with Marley curled in tight beside me, doing something mildy productive
*Birthday parties
*Planning birthday parties
*Gettin' my groove on
*Going to the movies
*Oh! Oh! The previews at the movie theater!!!
*Saturday
*Sunday evening
*Picking someone up at the airport (quite the opposite of dropping someone off, which I hate)
*Talking in the car
*Singing along to good music in the car
*Singing along to music in the car that I would not admit to listening to
*Tupperware
*That feeling when I am actually caught up on all my work
*Understanding a foreign language

New as of 2/20/2007
*Standing on my front balcony in the middle of the afternoon
*E-mail from Irene
*Lunch at home
*Super burrito's at Mario's
*Waking up to realize my life is better than my dream life
*Green tea
*Sex & The City
*Sleeping with Marley curled up in the crook of my arm
*Hugs
*Big smiles
*Knowing some of the library customers by name
*The smell of new books
*The smell of old books
*Curling up under a blanket, tea beside me, music playing, reading
*Driving
*Driving with the windows down
*Driving with the windows down and the stereo blasting
*The Killers and Snow Patrol
*Chocolate cake
*Chicken chow mein
*Garlic bread
*Lunchtime
*Waking up on a Monday and remembering I have the day off
*Getting just the perfect amount of sleep
*Five more minutes on the alarm clock

Original List
*Mommy & Daddy
*Mommy's desserts, especially the ones that came from 1950's military housewife recipes (the odd combinations of chocolate, toffee, coconut...wow...these people had a LOT of time on their hands and not enough money for groceries)
*Hugs from my dad
*When Marley crawls into my lap, looks up at me and meows
*Anything having to do with JJ
*Ghetto fabulous songs from the '90's that make me think of the good parts of high school
*Rainstorms
*The Barenaked Ladies (particularly the Stunt CD)
*Getting thingy at place w/my girl Irene
*My girl Irene
*Ghetto phrases spoken from utterly un-ghetto lips (phrases like "my girl")
*Target ($1 bins! HELLO!)
*Whenever Wine Guy looks at me and says, "Hey there."
*Wine Guy
*Bob Hope
*John Mayer
*Laughing with my relatives
*My cousins
*Church songs
*Lullabies
*Having a man play guitar just for me
*Blade, Underworld and other things Vampiric
*Books!!!!
*Dancing barefoot in the living room
*Weird catch phrases like "cool beans!"
*Spooning
*Having a man's hand in the small of my back
*Holding hands
*Ice skating
*Hot chocolate
*Sitting in a cafe, late at night, with my friends
*Sharing a common past with my friends
*Surprise lunches with my friends
*My friends, in general
*Phone calls from Monica
*E-mails from Milada
*Strawberry soda
*Pink cereal and raspberries :)
*Kissing
*Making out
*Slow dancing
*Strange love songs
*Breakfast at Tiffany's (the song more than the movie)
*Watching old videos I made with my cousins
*Oatmeal Raisin cookies
*Laughing so hard I can't breathe
*Conversations without complete sentences (Remember? When she? Oh! Yah?! Crazy!)
*Fresh baked cookies and a cold glass of milk
*Berkeley
*The beach in San Francisco
*Black and white photography
*Black and white photographs
*Taking weird close up pictures
*The way my grandma smells (aka Chanel #5)
*Spring
*The smell of October
*Those cloudy days when you can't tell what time it is, but it also never rains, and the day just goes on forever
*Sitting on the couch, under a blanket, watching a movie
*Swimming
*Swimming in the rain
*The rain
*Walking the dogs
*Lasagne
*Surprise phone calls from my friends
*Writing lists
*That feeling when I remember I'm in love
*Dancing with my girls in a club in the city
*The buzz of conversation all around me at a party when I actually know all the people
*My car
*Damien Rice, Regina Spektor, Rachael Yamagata and the Jayhawks
*Mix CDs
*My iPod
*Watching my mom enjoy her iPod
*Getting text messages
*The way Jessica says "hugs, hugs, hugs!" whenever I see her
*The Hosana portion of mass
*My dad's bbq ribs (mmm)
*Having a date on a Friday night (or Saturday night...or ever)
*Bailey's butt-bumps
*Timmy's sad, quiet little meow
*Toasted brioche or brochen with melted butter and jam
*Pandora (new music!!)
*The end of the work day