these are a few of my favorite things...

not to worry. i'm not about to take up skirt-hemming or pic-a-nic basket-packing.

however. i don't teach for three weeks, and i'm back from a whirl wind of seeing the people i love and drinking good wine and catching up.

so...the next phase:

for someone who likes to go out a lot, i've discovered that i don't like to go out a lot. and so, in lieu of this, i've been charting what truly makes me happy. in the smallish ways.

1. tomatoes with salt and pepper. they don't even need to be sliced. i'll just pour s &p into the bite marks. "she would take a diced up tomato from the garden, a big, red thing, not those fake, pink things that new yorkers eat and don't know no better..." -rick bragg

2. ice cubes in my white wine.

i'm done caring about what it looks like, how the ice is surely knocking out any fragrance of limestone and gooseberry. don't care. like it cold. kiss it.

3. my mother's face. i saw it today, before she went under for an outpatient surgery, innocent and nervous. no one is luckier than me. i don't suspect it. i know it. and it's none of your business why.

4. yard sales. blue glass bottles that only hold a sprig of a flower.

5. i took up painting today, and i'll tell you why. i need a painting in the bedroom and my favorite artist, page, is very expensive (as well she should be). so, i started to save, but thought better of it. i got the canvas and paints from AC moore, an easel from my parents. we shall see. as long as it's abstract no one can tell me, "it doesn't LOOK LIKE a swan."

6. this video. alas. the marriage between barack and lil wayne. thank you, will, the student i was never lucky enough to have: