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Make Yourself Happy Day 2004-02-08, 6:42 p.m. Valentine’s Day is one of my least favorite holidays – I just don’t like calendar reminders to do nice things for the people I love. Of course, I’ll send cards to my family and some far-away friends, but I do that year-round. This year is especially interesting because I have the added predicament of being in a hard-to-define relationship at present (I’ll elaborate on that drama another time), and he’s going to be out of town for the weekend and I am planning on quality time with my girlfriends. And of course, even though I don’t even LIKE Valentine’s Day, I’m in a funk about the whole thing – I think it’s part paranoia that he and I will really be done when he gets back, and part frustration that I won’t see him for several days. So, to get myself out of this stupid funk, I decided to make a list of things that make me happy and things I love without shame. 2004 is all about me and my happiness, because as a wise person pointed out, I have to be my own number one priority. So, Valentine’s Day 2004 is now hereby Make Yourself Happy Day. Here's my list of some things that came to mind that make me happy: • My family. God, I miss them. • My friends. • MATH+1. These people are fabulous. • Award shows. I like the over-the-top performances. • Online banking, even though I kind of hate my bank. • Weight Watchers. Cheesy meetings aside, it’s working for me. Nothing EVER has before. • Asparagus. • Diet Coke. • No Pudge brownies. 2 points per square! And they don’t taste like ass! • Fresh snowfall, before anyone drives in it and makes it gross and dirty. • Self-cleaning ovens. And that might be because I might have spilled an assload of olive oil in my oven yesterday, might not have realized it, and might have turned the broiler on, causing my apartment to fill with smoke and set off the smoke detectors. Maybe. • Owning my own washer and dryer and having a laundry room in my apartment. • My cats. • Netflix. • My subscriptions to Cooking Light, Real Simple, and Budget Living. • My digital camera. • Cable internet and digital cable. • Time Warner’s version of TiVo service. • James Spader. • The Apprentice. • The fact that I get all weepy at really cheesy movies. • The sound of church bells at night. • Hearing Simon & Garfunkel songs on the radio. Bonus points if it’s not the oldies station but the classic rock station instead. • My car – it’s a cheap, pretty girly car, but it continues to serve me well and I will cry when the warranty expires. • My local library. I request titles online and go drop books off and pick up whatever’s waiting for me about once a week. If they’d build a drive-through, I’d be in absolute heaven. • Heath bars. • Making lists of baby names for hypothetical children and sharing them with my equally baby-less friends who also have no looming prospects of marriage. Somehow, it’s not depressing but very fun. • Justin Timberlake. • Toast. Healthy Choice whole-grain bread and Brummel and Brown spread. • Omelets. Pineapple taught me how to make them perfectly. • My relationship with T. We’re working on it, and what we call it doesn’t mean anything compared to what it really is, but all of that aside, he makes me really, really happy. • Phone calls from friends I haven’t talked to in a long time. • Getting letters or cards in the mail. • Having stamps when I need them. • Sitting around at the bar with my friends, drunk on draft beer and smoking Marlboro Ultra Lights until our non-smoker-unless-we’re-tanked lungs burn. • Harboring innocent crushes on cute boys that I run into occasionally. • Target. And Wal-Mart. • Bookstores. • OPI nail polish. Spa pedicures. • Cookbooks. Dawnie and Naked Hannah are wise, and their recommendations are spot-on. I’m also watching the food network more than ever before, which is not at all me trying to be trendy, but me slowly turning into my parents. • Scented candles, pretty glass and shiny things, picture frames, quirky wall décor. I live in a beige box with no personality whatsoever so the little accessories make me happy. • Pajama pants. Bonus points if they’re paired with an Ex-Boyfriend T-Shirt. Even better if I spend an entire day sitting around in fresh pajama pants with an Ex-Boyfriend T-Shirt with no need to leave my apartment. • Reading books about money management. This one is going to change my life. • The fact that I can do my own taxes. It helps to have no dependents, not own property, only have one job, not itemize deductions, and not move during the year. However, a startling number of my friends in the same position as myself cannot do their own taxes and must outsource this every year. • Make-up. Sephora. Hair products. • Horchow. Personalized stationery. • The Soap. • Lush. • Lists like this – even though I spent a good part of the day cleaning my soggy carpet (thanks, leaky roof!), I have a lot to be happy about.
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