Things That Get Overlooked

[butterflydreaming]

I once, as a kid, made a list of 100 things that I considered blessings. I was the only one of us seven that hid in the bathroom to cry, but even still, I put that list together in the time it took to write it out. Things like "snail trails" and "being able to sing" were on it -- maybe not those, specifically, but to that effect.

I made a comment to a friend today about the things that get overlooked. What brings you delight in your day? Not the expected -- don't say family or your lover or your career or writing. Tell me about demitasse spoons. Tell me about air fresheners.


1. I have a favorite mug, perfect for tea, French press coffee, hot chocolate, chai, or cider. It's brown clay; I bought it in Winthrop. I love the way it fits my hands, which makes me feel like I belong in this world. See? I fit.

2. I'm fond of paperclips, especially the swirl kind. They're steel. They're practical. Their design and manufacture is a simple perfection.

3. Mt. Rainier, also called Tahoma, part of the landscape that always catches my notice.

4. Getting to choose postage stamps from several designs.

5. Tinted moisturizer: a brilliant invention. (Guys, in make-up this takes the place of foundation and is good for the skin.)

Because I write posts like this, some people think that I'm a pink-ribboned girl, all unicorns and rainbows and daisies.

Comments

this is gonna sound dippy, but...

[buhrger]

What brings you delight in your day?
looking at a clock and seeing 11:32

Re: this is gonna sound dippy, but...

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

That's a math thing, right? I think I sort of get it.

Re: this is gonna sound dippy, but...

[buhrger]

nope, not a math thing. 15 years ago it was a Joyce thing. by now it's just a me thing.

Re: this is gonna sound dippy, but...

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

now it's just a me thing
Then it's exactly what I gleaning for.

[adventurat.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't that last one be #6? :-)

Mt. Rainier is called Tahoma? Like the font?

1. Hand lotion.
2. The reliability of my car.
3. The view of the North Shore when it's clear and there is snow on the mountains.
4. Demitasse spoons. Yes, really. Until they arrived, I had to stir the sugar into my espresso with the handle of a teaspoon. :-)
5. Pens that write smoothly and don't blot. I'm a pen FREAK. bonus points for ink colours out of the common way.

6 is no blessing

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Hand lotion is underappreciated.

Yes, Tahoma like the font, but I don't know if there is a correlation.

[ironymaiden]

my red hat
when the cafeteria at work has the cheese/crackers/grapes snacks
new office supplies
latte art
when there are meetings in the Ballard Library
Dante's Inferno Dogs at last call
a new bar of soap
fat quarters

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Others than you would also say your red hat.

I have long loved that icon, btw.

[ironymaiden]

thanks. i also love it when there's rosemary in the landscaping. on a rainy day the walk from the bus stop to work smells like foccacia.

[mimerki.livejournal.com]

my leather jacket, Issy
my tweed jackets, especially the suede patches on the elbows of the black-and-grey one
I am especially fond of the way this particular keyboard responds to my touch (which i know is like saying 'writing' but it's more like saying 'my fountain pen')
tea biscuits
homemade bread

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Homemade bread baking, homemade bread freshly cut... ^_^

[the-monkey-king.livejournal.com]

1. I have a coffee grinder a friend gave me years ago. Every time I use it, I think of her and her family.
2. Leather jackets. Heavy, sturdy, warm, and they smell great. What's not to love? I own three.
3. Heated car seats. A frivolity in Seattle, a real need in, say, Chicago or Minneapolis. Plus, hey, endless stupid jokes about having a hot butt. :)
4. The Seattle bridges. They float. This astounds me no end.
5. Making exact change. I don't know why, but handing a cashier exactly the right amount makes me happy. It's easiest at lunch, because the cafeteria prices rarely change...

You mean you AREN'T a pink-ribboned girl, all hearts and chocolates and pom-poms? ;)

[buhrger]

ditto on #5

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Every time I use it, I think of her and her family
I have a few things like that. It's the coolest.

I'm not *all* pom-poms, merely a %.

[varina8.livejournal.com]

1. Seeing flickers in Volunteer Park. You never think of them as city birds, but here they are.
2. The Olympics. I love Rainier, but for me, they are the mountains that make me think "home."
3. Satsumas. They always taste like Christmas to me.
4. Fortune cookies.
5. Aloeswood incense.

[ironymaiden]

satsumas! and pomegranates! they're my December pleasures.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

L thinks of flickers as good omens. We were in Schmidtz park once and saw a group of them courting.

[varina8.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've never seeing the courting ritual. Lucky you!

[boldfeather.livejournal.com]

1. The aroma of hand-tanned moose hide, smoked the traditional way.
2. One of my kids grabbing and holding my hand.
3. Snow falling.
4. The aroma of Brylcreem. My husband uses it, my grandfather used to use it.
5. Flowing water - rivers, streams, creeks. I can sit and watch/listen for hours.

[(Anonymous)]

Brylcreem! What a happy reminder of my childhood, too. My Dad used it religiously. It's a camphor-like, minty smell, isn't it?

[boldfeather.livejournal.com]

I find it more of a soapy smell. But then, like perfume/cologne, it smells different on different heads. I dated a guy who used it, and I was not pleased when his hair was within sniffing distance of my nose.
My husband smells "good," my Grandfather smelled "warm."

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

1. Contact lenses. You get used to glasses, true, but you don't know what you're missing until you get to see up, down and to the sides.
2. Wind.
3. Reruns of old cartoons I used to watch.
4. Those geeky pens where you can switch between four different colours. (They're great for correcting and word count!)
5. The sound of the rain on the roof.

[(Anonymous)]

Some of us at the office got free pens (from one of the banks) that have switchable red/green on one end, blue on the other (!), a highlighter cartridge that you can put in to replace the color ink, and the cap of one end is a palm-pilot stylus. We were like kids at Christmas.

Have you noticed how many of us have mentioned pens?

[bhagwanx.livejournal.com]

1. Air. Really can't live without it, and any day I can take it in easily is a good one.

2. Gravity (http://www.stanford.edu/group/kgb/Research/gravity2.html). Really, not a joke. Gravity makes everything work, and although it can be demonstrated, mathematically proven, and theoretically sound, Gravity cannot be measured accurately to anyone's satisfaction in a universe with bumblebees and dandelions. At least, not is a place where there is air.


3. Waterbeds

4. Irony

5. The Larch

[telynmurali.livejournal.com]

A lot of these are going to be winter things, as I'm winterily warm at the moment. :)

01 Warm pipes underfoot in winter. Under the floorboards in my bedroom, there are hot water pipes all around the bed which are lovely for sitting on and dumping clothes onto to be warm in the morning.

02 A deep, black, flowing pen, one with ink that really sinks into the the paper. And a good idea to write down.

03 The smell of leather and cigarette smoke. It reminds me of rock and roll days. :)

04 Cats liking me. I can't get over it.

05 Chips and gravy.