Maybe it's the latent "Daily Routine" blogger in me, but sometimes I just feel the need to make a list of all the seemingly stupid things that make me ridiculously happy. I mean, I spend most of my time ignoring the little things and keeping my focus on the "big picture," but at the end of the day as I'm getting ready for bed I measure the success of my day by how many tiny, beautiful things happened to make it sparkle. So here is the beginning of what I hope to make a regular post: several things that make me giddy with joy.
1. There's this one stretch on a road I travel rather often where the speed limit goes from 30 mph to 45 mph. There's something about pressing down on the gas pedal and acceleration 15 mph that makes me feel like I'm king of the universe, or at least like I'm going way faster than I really am.
2. On a really hot summer day, after I've spent at least 30 minutes sitting on the beach with the heat from the sun wrapping around me, diving headfirst into the water; it feels so cold to my sun-baked body and is honestly one of the best feelings in the world.
3. After you've applied to at least twenty different stores and swear that if you have to fill out another application with the words "washed dishes, swept floors, wiped tables" you will tear every last hair out of your head...when the phone rings and you pick it up and it's someone telling you to come in for an interview, they got your application and liked it so much they're thinking of hiring you. It's like the world is finally realigned along its axis and the future makes sense again.
4. You know what it's like: you're 18, starting your freshman year of college, and you've never gotten a paycheck before. So that second Friday of the school year you make your way to the Cashier's office, stand in line with a dozen other not-so-excited people and say "I'm here to pick up my paycheck!" And then when you deposit it in the bank, knowing that it's money you worked hard for...you feel like if you can do this, you can do anything.
5. The last hundred meters of any run, when you see your goal ahead of you and let loose in a final sprint; suddenly all the tiredness of the past 30 minutes dissipates and you're free, you're a cheetah, you feel light and airy and fast and so good and you remember "this is why I run."
6. After a long day at school or work, 8 hours of incessant brain exercise, when you sit down in your desk chair and log on to Facebook, and there it is: that little red flag that signals you have some notifications...but wait, there's more! That other little flat, the one for messages, is also up! It's pathetic, but you suddenly feel like maybe your life has purpose after all, because...you have Facebook notifications!
7. As lovely as getting a Facebook message is, there's still nothing quite like going to CPO, peering through the little crack and seeing something there; your heart starts pounding and you try to calm yourself down, you mutter "it's probably just another stupid flier," but you open it up anyway and it's not a flier, it's a real, honest-to-goodness letter from a high school friend. Now you know that life really is good.
8. There's almost no place I love better than a library: all those shelves of books, endless rows of reading material, make me feel like a kid on Halloween, coming home and counting up his candy. And the best part of the library is the opportunity to find new and incredible books. There is literally no feeling that can be compared to reading a book you've never read before, turning the pages and not knowing what's coming next, staying up til 3 am because you need to know what happens...and at the end, you close your eyes and wish you could rewind time so you could read it all over again without knowing what's going to happen.
9. All the same, there's also something so special about rewatching a show or movie you've seen thousands of times before. You start laughing five minutes before the funny scene, because you know it's coming and the anticipation is just so exquisite. And if you watch it with a friend, you're always scanning their face for their reaction to the part that has you clutching your gut with laughter, or wiping the tears from your eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment