smile :)

Things that make me very, very happy (in no particular order):

• ice-cold Coca Cola
• best friends
• the smell of a bookstore
• homemade chocolate chip cookies
• fall leaves
• babies
• "Friends"
• chocolate milkshakes
• good hugs... giving and receiving
• Tetris
• hearing one of my students read a whole book for the very first time
• road trips
• flannel pajamas
• sleeping in my own bed after sleeping somewhere else
• homemade chicken noodle soup
• shopping
• long summer nights
• the smell of new stereo equipment
• dogs
• Yankee candles
• maps
• an evening of board games
• Joel McHale and "The Soup"
• writing (blogs, poems, lists, journal entries, letters, notes, stories)
• making scrapbooks
• Fourth of July fireworks
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
• flirting
• the cool side of the pillow
• remembering a dream
• singing (in the car, in the shower, with a choir, with friends, alone in my room, with Doug)
• the good old Christmas movies ("Christmas Eve on Sesame Street," "The Year Without a Santa Claus," "Charlie Brown Christmas," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas")
• teaching
• shopping at Target, Wegmans, or Trader Joe's
• the beach
• making someone else laugh
• hearing a choir sing
• Monet paintings
• holding hands
• "When Harry Met Sally..."
• strawberry-banana smoothies
• the slidy-screechy sound of fingers changing chords on an acoustic guitar
• brand new notebooks... all those clean, white pages!
• getting a hair cut
• Crayola crayons
• opal jewelry
• learning a foreign language
• sleeping in crisp, cool, clean bed sheets
• the smell of Coppertone
• beer bread
• jeans
• crossword puzzles
• "new car" smell
• books that make me laugh out loud
• when someone says exactly what I was thinking
• buying gifts for other people (and wrapping them!)
• the first dip underwater in the pool on a really hot day
• swimming at night... warm water, cold beer... 
• roller skating
• blue eyes
• good nachos
• feeling trusted
• family get togethers
• bonfires
• Dorothy Parker's poetry
• "Summer, Highland Falls," by Billy Joel
• concerts
• wrapping Christmas presents
• a glass of good wine
• late night diner conversations over coffee and pie
• going to church
• re-reading a favorite book
• a Philly cheesesteak ("American with")
• daydreaming
• stargazing
• parties
• fresh roses
• traveling
• People magazine
• music
• having an "inside joke" with a friend that only the two of us get
• curling up on the sofa with a blanket and a mug of hot cocoa on a snow day
• French manicures
• cooking
• watching the sunset over the bay in Fire Island
• going to a Flyers game
• "The Sound of Music"
• taking pictures
• homemade pierogies
• driving around in December at night to look at Christmas lights
• dancing and not caring what other people think
• mix tapes
• words like "mellifluous" and "endoplasmic reticulum" and "binomial nomenclature" and "autumnal" and "antidisestablishmentarianism" and "specificity" and "ethereal"
• funky patterned socks
• Back-to-School shopping
• Fiona Apple songs and lyrics
• Girl Scout cookies
• waking up to find out that school is cancelled
• Mo Willems books
• "Dancing with the Stars"
• doing something creative
• looking through my old photo albums
• Broadway musicals
• taking towels out of the dryer... all clean and warm and fresh
• coffee!!!
• getting lost while driving and finding my way without looking at a map
• getting good mail (magazines, postcards, greeting cards)
• gerbera daisies
• making lists
• kisses
• fresh, juicy berries
• laughing until my stomach hurts and I can't catch my breath
• the smell of the air right before it snows
• "Lost"
• Butter Rum Lifesavers
• The Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire
• snuggling under the covers with the a/c on
• phone conversations that last for hours
• beer... an ice cold Lager, a summer Corona with lime, holiday & seasonal beers, mixed six-packs, micro-brews, beers with fun & unusual names...
• my windowsill herb garden
• a snifter of brandy
• extra dark chocolate (70% and above)

Feel free to add your own!