Happy Happys

I was given the Happy 101 award by my longtime blog buddy Lissaloo. Thanks for thinking of me, Lissaloo! And sorry it took so long. I've had this post sitting in edit mode for a while :(

I've got to list 10 things that make me happy... let's see if I can limit it to 10.

1. Listening to Yvie read. It still amazes me how well she can read, and really that she can read at all. I know, she's six so of course she's capable of reading but one year ago today she couldn't read, and now she's reading books like Little Women (an abridged version). She reads a chapter each day with Mrs. LB.

2. Going out to the movies. Mrs. LB and I used to go to the movies a great deal before we had Yvie. Now, it's rare though we do go from time to time. We got to see Avatar recently (awesome movie). I'm actually very picky about what movie I go see in the movies, since I don't get to go that often.

3. Traveling. 2009 was a unique year in that I got to visit two countries that I'd never stepped foot in previous - Costa Rica and Canada. I don't anticipate visiting any new nations this year, or next, so I'm always grateful when I have the opportunity to visit new frontiers.

4. Cooking/baking something I know will turn out good. I guess I've always been a pleaser, so I like to please taste buds by making something good. Sometimes it can be a pain but it's always worth it.

5. Music. Not just any music but stuff I like to listen to.

6. Quiet, alone time. I don't get much of it, but when it's just me and my thoughts (and my laptop and crackberry) I soak it up.

7. Spending time with my parents. I like to take my girls over to see my mom and dad. Since we live five miles away, I take advantage of the distance and go over there often.

8. Having dinner set and ready to go when Mrs. LB gets home. I love to time dinner so when Mrs. LB is walking into the house the dinner has just been put on the table, nice and warm and ready to be chowed down. It doesn't happen that often, so I relish it when it does.

9. Meeting an impossibly ridiculous deadline. For my day job (which technically is my mostly-Saturday-nights-from-March-through-November job), I sometimes have to meet an impossibly ridiculous deadline. Like, the game finishes at 10 p.m. and I need to have something over by 10:01 p.m. The worst deadline I ever had was a game that finished at around 1:30 a.m. PT. It was for a big-city newspaper, and they were literally holding the presses for me to file the story. I was in Japan covering a soccer game there, back in 2002, well before WiFi, so I had dial-up. The game was 2-1 in about the 85th minute when I sent the story. We had to hold our collective breath to make sure that no other goal was scored because that would have completely ruined it. Luckily that's how the game ended. I was on pins and needles, but I got such a rush writing and filing that story. Good times.

10. A great run. Whether it's on a treadmill or a Sunday morning Loper run or a race, I love the feeling of having accomplished a great run.

Happy times.