stuff I can't get enough of
This list will grow, as had the list of stuff I don't get.
Leashed dogs carrying their own leashes. It must have been Thursday morning, actually, because this would have been on my way to work. A human held the handle but the dog had some slack in its mouth. I love that.
Magpies, even whiny baby ones.
Saying "peace out."
Of course all the obvious stuff like my sister and my husband and my friends and sex and chocolate. I am after the frivolous here.
The name Esmerelda. I think Victor Hugo made it up. Or not. Also Alyosius and Blythe and Mathilde. And David.
Café Star's chili chocolat pot de crème.
Eucerin moisturizer.
The way I figured out to put up shoulder-length hair: simple braid tucked under and pinned.
My paisley-shaped faux tortoiseshell hairclip.
Maggie Simpson, especially dancing.
Oolong the Pancake Rabbit. Farewell, Oolong, we hardly knew ye.
The three Ruth Gordon characters I know about, especially Maude of course.
Figuring out how to explain a computer process and pretending my explanation is technical writing.
Parchment paper between cookie dough and baking sheet.
The happiness that sufficient (but not overdoses of) "Linus and Lucy" from the Vince Giuraldi Peanuts Christmas spawns in me.
Anthony Lane's dismissal of Yoda's speech pattern: "Break me a fucking give."
Calvin's opinion of back-formation: "Verbing weirds language."
The lost art of thank-you notes.
Serviceably short (just enough white for backscratching), unvarnished fingernails.
Good tweezers.
The smell of fresh paint. Latex, oil, spray, whatever.
Good real-life names: Edwidge Danticat, Evander Holyfield, Zane Phoenix.
My ongoing mock campaigns for Bathrobe Day and Pet Day at work.
Pilot BP-S ballpoint pens, violet ink in a green barrel. Except not so much anymore: without ceremony in 2004 I started using
Sanford Uniball Gel Grip, medium nib with purple ink.
Rising piano chords. Or whatever it is. Nick Drake, "One of These Things First"; or Joni Mitchell, "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow."
Emlet's French-accented English.
Freshly-hatched ducklings at the Denver Botanic Gardens (or anywhere).
The tulip gardens of Keukenhof in spring.
Doing my happy dance. Anyone joining me in the happy dance, whether imitating (or mocking) mine or inventing their own.
The way Denver's dry shade is almost always cool, and its winter sun almost always warm.
The fact that a positive about Denver occurred to me without my needing to balance it with an Old Lyme positive.
Old Lyme's lack of need to be defended.
Labrador ears, especially my neighbor Morgan's, which are especially thick and soft.
The way Mia begs for belly rubs.
How Mazie looks like a jackal in profile.
Babies in embarrassing outfits like teddy bears or peapods or especially stars.
Grover Gardner, Frank Muller, and epsecially George Guidall as audio book narrators.
My particular iPod's survival instinct and ability to shake off the bruise on its screen and near-absence of headphone jack and the longevity of its original battery (nearly three years old).
The thank-you note I received from the nine-year-old I gave that iPod to after I received
My 60-gig video iPod, Dandelion II.
Emerging into a frigid wind or snow with sufficient polypropylene and Gore-tex to enjoy the weather.
Warm cozy safe shelter from such weather after snowshoeing or similar.
Getting into a bed made with sheets fresh off the line.
Snorting cockatiel dust.
Not even snorting but just smelling cockatiel dust.
Listening to my buddy chew his beak.
The buddy's chucking-greeting noise and calling it either his attack noise (which a silly person thought it might be) or his ladybug noise (since he's about as threatening as a ladybug).
Plumes of buddy dust rising and settling around a preening or ruffling buddy.
Buddy bowing, prancing, and being heart-shaped (when he mantles).
How goofy the buddy gets in the shower, and how he sings into the hand cupped to protect eyes and ears as he's blow-dried afterward.
The way the buddy looks downward, with his head to one side (since he's monocular), especially with the bamboozled or confoozled look he affects when, say, you remove the floor of his cage to change the bedding.
How put out and offended the buddy can look when his own feathers go wrong (think of how a dog will attack a particularly itchy spot, or its own paw after you've tickled it), and the pause during a preen as he waits to see if a feather will finally lie comfortably or open properly.
The slight but definite thumping of 90 grams when my buddy hops onto my shoulder.
Having my skin indented with a single cockatiel footprint when a napping buddy hasn't moved in long stretches of time.
Cockatiel eyelashes and cockatiel eyebrows.
Napping with a tucked buddy.
Watching the buddy get the yawns.
Watching the buddy groom his tail.
The pitter-patter of buddy feet retreating into a buddy box, and skittering out again when he thinks you've stopped watching.
Addressing Blake "Buddy" instead of by his name, referring to him as "the buddy," and modifying all his apparatus with "buddy."
Almost everything buddy-related that doesn't involve his sexual urges or shitting.
Such as crest feathers and snowflakes of filoplume.
Sunflowers, and things decorated with sunflowers like hair appliances and stationery.
Babies chortling, toddlers giggling, and children laughing.
The warm or cool embrace of my lake's water.
My beach when the water is (or feels) warmer than the air.
Almost any beach, at any time or weather: sun glinting on water; wind sloughing up surf; salt spray; the sound of surf.
The smell of salt air, lilacs, agastache, sage, lavender. And of used book stores.
The taste of blueberries, basil, lamb, oranges, tomatoes, oysters, cold water, raspberries, kiwi, peanut butter, and chocolate.
Especially black-and-white marked dogs like Howie the basset-dalmatian cross and Mia the Lab-St. Bernard cross.
Okapis, penguins, magpies (enough to repeat them), elephants, river otters, sea otters. Whales.
Tickling dogs (and cats) with the hair between the pads of their hind paws.
Thunderstorms.
Star-gazing.
Chasing fireflies, or just dancing among them.
