Happiness and gratitudes

I fell asleep with my shoes on.

• professors at my college, because they are fascinating and cool, and they care about students and like talking to them and getting to know them. and they do things like host Mennonite Dinner, which I will have to tell you more about in its own post, maybe.

• studying culture shock.

• more story-storming with my screenwriting film student friend.

• declining to start sentences with "um" or "um, well." because actually, I do know what I'm going to say, and I am comfortable.

• pretending I'm dancing when I give bicycle arm signals. you can just stick your arm out. or you can make it ballerina-graceful every time, that pre-curtsy sweep—and a deep nod as you round the corner...

• my latest idea for a rice cooker snack: I steamed some apple slices in it and then rolled them in a mixture of brown sugar + cinnamon. yummm. definitely doing that again.

• opening my window and letting my room fill up with wind while I work.

• rainy weekend mornings, when you don't have to go outside and can just stay cuddled up listening to the roof. or maybe get up just to put a pot of oatmeal on and find a book to crawl back in bed with.

• attending church services in denominations that ordain women.

• tasting my first McIntosh apple. absolutely delicious. somewhere between a Fuji and a Granny Smith. pale and acceptably sweet, with a little Essence of Gummy Apple Rings that crescendos to a veritable Zing! in your mouth. I felt compelled to tell my one friend who has the last name McIntosh, and then I felt like I was complimenting her when I did.

• reading #14 on this list—

"Instead of focusing so much on manipulating your body, focus more on getting to know yourself. Explore who you are, what you believe in and your greater purpose in life."

—and realizing that that's exactly what I've been doing with this year.

• another read-aloud party. I forgot to mention this last week. we read Twelfth Night. there were only three of us reading about fifteen characters, which was kind of nuts but perfect given all the gender/identity confusion already in the play.

• the soundtrack from a musical about a mad Bavarian king, courtesy Alaskan Anna. it's actually really beautiful!

• scanning my negatives myself instead of having to pay Walgreens to do it. the scans are a little bit scratchier, but I really like them. I didn't love paying for the scanner (it's a different kind), but it will pay for itself.

• an unexpected gift from my padre.