For reasons that should be obvious from some of my earlier posts, my anthem for this summer is Bowling For Soup’s 1999 song “1985.”
These lyrics in particular really resonate with me lately:
She’s seen all the classics, she knows every line
Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, even St. Elmo’s Fire
She rocked out to Wham!, not a big Limp Bizkit fan
Thought she’d get a hand on a member of Duran DuranWhere’s the mini-skirt made of snake skin?
And who’s the other guy that’s singing in Van Halen?
When did reality become TV?
Whatever happened to sitcoms, game shows, on the radio wasSpringsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie and music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school they tell her that she’s uncool
‘Cause she’s still preoccupied with 19-19-1985
(Woo hoo hoo)She hates time, make it stop
When did Motley Crue become classic rock?
And when did Ozzy become an actor?
Please make this stop, stop, stop!
I can’t stop time, and I can’t go back to my 20s, so I must find joy in the present. And in the present, I find joy in little things.
Here’s a non-comprehensive list in no particular order of 50 things of things that make me happy.
- Doing impressions with Eddie of Tim Gunn.
- When Gideon yells “I love you, Mama” in crowded places.
- A hot, hilarious, handy husband
- Deciding to give up hoping that certain people will stop saying mean, untrue things about Eddie and me.
- Realizing that my best will never be good enough for some people, and coming to terms with that (a corollary to the above).
- Greek yogurt
- Greek yogurt with pomegranate
- Montessori school
- An iTunes playlist on which artists such as Lady Gaga, Will Smith, Amy Winehouse, OK Go and the Dixie Chicks live together harmoniously.
- Kenny Chesney’s “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy“
- When my mother-in-law isn’t speaking to us
- “Everything” bagels
- That my father found a woman who makes him happy in his post-Mom life.
- Shopping for groceries
- Trying new recipes
- Having friends over
- Close female friends I’ve had for years who “get” me (Trish, Linda, Julia, Tina, Khaki, Heidi, Sophia and Terri come to mind)
- Funny male friends (Royce, Billy, Edgar, Alex, James, Ed, Michael — I’m talking about you)
- Facebook and Twitter
- Certain past and present students
- My Beer of the Month Club membership
- Grammar, punctuation and spelling errors in the wild because it means fodder for this blog
- Hearing the kids sing along to Owl City’s “Fireflies“
- Primary colors, especially blue
- Coffee, specifically in a Starbucks frappuccino
- That I killed a venomous snake by myself
- Entertainment Weekly and People magazines
- AP Style
- “Amazing Race,” “Survivor,” “Project Runway,” “Top Chef”
- Knowing how to make certain meals, such as empanadas with Spanish rice, without a recipe
- Dominic’s interest in science
- That Eddie and I know what each other is thinking with one look (a code look)
- Cheese
- Cranium
- Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Puffs (of course)
- Chickens
- That I can figure out a way to get to New York roughly twice a year
- Week 10 of the quarter
- Apple products
- Leaves changing in the fall
- Christmas Eve
- A quiet house
- Candles
- Living near lakes, the ocean, and people with pools
- Petra’s strawberry cake
- Ida’s Iranian cutlets
- Dragonflies
- Zunzi’s
- “Walter the Farting Dog“
- Bedtime
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