Love.

Things I love (in no order):


Lazy Saturday mornings spent watching movies and playing Scrabble
Telling and re-telling my favorite jokes, and adding new ones to my arsenal
The uncomplicated joy of putting a record on
Looking through stacks of old family photos
Going on Adventures/Picnics/Explorations
Running away excitedly after lighting a firework
Afternoons and Evenings at Black Dog
Grocery Shopping
Unusual Skirts and Dresses
A Cappella
Touching all of the paintbrushes in the display at the art supply store
Humpback Whales
Admiring well-crafted children’s books
Affectionately poking around Pa’s leather bound book library & Marmot’s teapot collection
Searching for The Most Wonderful Tree House in the World
Window-Shopping at Park Avenue in Orlando
Getting stopped at the top of the Ferris wheel
Singing Along/Singing Alone
Swimming very very slowly through clear water
Listening to old people recount their lives
Squeezing clay slip through loose fists
Windsor Newton Watercolor in Cobalt Blue 178
Having tea parties as often as possible
Climbing up things (furniture, trees, boulders) to get a different perspective
The tiny brass turtle with the secret compartment that sits on Marmot’s desk
The sweet stringy feeling of biting into a ripe mango or fig
Gospel Choirs
Crafting days
The way firewood looks all stacked up in a neat pile
The important feeling I get when I line up all the sushi ingredients in a row along the counter
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Favorite Episode : “A Touch of Satan”)
Eating in loud restaurants with a small group of friends
Oil paintings of ships with big sails
Watching Nature Documentaries (The Lives of Mammals series is best)
Admiring a job well-done
Camaraderie
The gentle, dignified voice of David Attenborough
Smelling all the soaps at the Saturday morning Downtown Marketplace
Wearing silk slips
Figuring out how things work by taking them apart
Maggie crawling into my lap for snugs
Huge bushes of Blue Hydrangeas
Midnight golf course adventures with Kimmy
Touching Violin Rosin
The way sunlight looks from inside a greenhouse
People-Watching on park benches
Playing piano with all the lights turned off
Appreciating extravagant beards (The World Beard Championships)
Fall evenings playing basketball with Pa and Little Brother
The pride of finishing a painting
Picking apart hot edamame
The weight of a brand-new, unread book in my hand
Elaborate Costume Parties
Puns about fruits and vegetables
Vast stretches of wilderness
Peruvian Spanish
Spontaneous Girl Dates
Finding pets who really do look like their owners (or just watching that scene from 101 Dalmations))
Sweet potato tempura
“Abbey Road,” “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” and “The Slow Wonder” in their entirety
Giving Little Brother new albums/artists/songs to listen to
Decorating Christmas cookies
Going to the symphony on the weekends and closing my eyes
Great Danes
Winter coats with big buttons (especially when there is money in the pocket from last February!)
Kool Beanz café on Thursdays with Holly
Cleaning, re-arranging, and re-decorating the house in the middle of the night
Reciting Shel Silverstein and Edward Gorey poems aloud
Flying dreams
Inventing nicknames for family members/friends/complete strangers
Receiving CD compilations from friends
Wiggling fingers into Marmot’s big canisters of rice and beans
Discovering new fonts and lettering styles
Painting murals with huge brushes
The soft warm weight of Maggie curled up on my chest
Splurging on an entire crate of Clementines
Reading design blogs with a cup of tea early in the morning
On My Desk
Tiny picture frames
Typing out poems or love notes on my typewriter
Going on dates with Sister
The low vibration of a Cello
Women who wear big fancy hats to church
Clock-Collecting
Being able to speak to someone in his/her native tongue
Owls, Crows, Sparrows, & Finches
Argyle sweaters all year-round
Jackie’s midnight pasta in our apartment’s tiny kitchen in Firenze
Ornate china teacups with gilded edges and matching saucers
Every Decemberists concert I have ever attended
Snails and slugs sprinkled liberally over the landscape after a big storm
The pangs of longing I get in Williams-Sonoma stores
Catastrophically large chandeliers
Getting letters in the mail
Sitting on bales of straw around a backyard bonfire
Hand-Holding
Fancy umbrellas that curve to a point at the top
First Friday at Railroad Square
Refrigerator magnets, including magnetic poetry, which, I admit, can keep my occupied for at least an hour at a time
Intricate Paper Cutouts
Making homemade goat cheese pizza and eating it while it’s still gooey
I’cche C’e’ C’e’
Hopping birds under park benches and on café tables
That room at Sister/Brother-in-Law’s house with all the tiny things!
Sculpture Gardens
Enormous old libraries (with spiral staircases)
Pen and Ink drawings of Bicycles
Anthropologie
Taking whole afternoons off to go shopping by myself
Selecting the perfect produce at the Wednesday farmer’s market
Playing dress-up
The first look at a treasure trove attic as you reach the top of the stairs
The quiet humming murmurs of visitors in an art gallery
The Golden Age of Disney Animation under The Nine Old Men
Watching foreign films at the movie theater
Fancy doorknobs and drawer pulls
Goldfish prints
Playing Super Mariokart and actually getting the shortcuts
Inventing
The sound the tea tin makes when I pop it open first thing in the morning
Science Friday with Ira Flato on NPR
Old Hymns
Banana Runts
Rocking chairs on porches
Watching The Air Guitar World Championships
Painting with the windows open and music playing in the background
Open Windows in General
Old maps
The smell of pipe smoke
The Grace of God
Birdhouses hanging from tree limbs
Thunderstorms and Power Outages
Reading the following books over and over and over again:
Cien Años de Soledad,
Le Petit Prince,
Everything is Illuminated,
Lolita,
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass (And What Alice Found There) ,
The entire Harry Potter series,
A Heart-Breaking Work of Staggering Genius,
and The Time Traveler's Wife
and, of course
Making long lists and then checking things off