Stuff to be happy about

Things that make me inordinately, insanely, unreasonably happy on this lovely Thursday evening....

1. The world -- my world -- smells like the end of summer. Here in the foothills of Tennessee, that means it finally smells like midsummer in the highest hills of the north Georgia mountains. Every time I walk outside this week, I keep expecting to see Camp Cherokee and lovely Lake Burton. That's what it smells like out there in my autumnal yard. Those memories are too fabulous to surrender just because I'm almost 40.

2. I had a completely delicious and totally scrumptious roast beef sandwich today -- at a real deli. It was the real deal -- piles of rare roast beef on chewy, freshly baked bread, with brown mustard, lettuce, tomato, and thinly sliced provolone. I haven't had a sandwich that even approached such lusciousness since my sister took me to NYC in October, 2001.

3. The movie "Invincible" is really, really good, and I saw it in a really good, clean theatre on a digital projection screen with fabulous sound.

4. The sunset today was absolutely gorgeous. Seriously. I was driving around in the countryside on my favorite winding, rural, country road, and I came around a curve at the top of a small hill and saw a sunset over a green hillside that would make your heart stop. It was beautiful. I didn't have a camera, but I'll carry that picture in my head for days. It actually made me cry. The sun was a soft, peachy orange, surrounded by pink clouds. If you tried to make a paint that color, people would say it's unrealistic. It isn't. I saw it just this evening.

5. I leave for Walt Disney World in 17 days. We're going to have a magnificent family trip, filled with magical memories to make up for the less than stellar trip we had in 2003. (And all of the problems that year were MY fault. I was terribly sick when we arrived. It went downhill from there.) We're going to have an Illuminations fireworks cruise on our second night, and we're going to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party on Woodrow's birthday. We're going to have a simply magical vacation, and I cannot wait.

6. We got the Prius its 30,000-mile tune-up this afternoon. It doesn't have 30,000 miles on it yet, but since we'll be driving to Florida soon, we wanted to pamper the darling hybrid-technology automobile. It is now purring even more happily than it was before, dining on its usual meal of a drop or two of gasoline and hugging each tree it passes as I drive it. Soon we'll put new tires on it, too, and then it will be a perfect Prius in every way.

7. My podcast with my sister. I listened to our last two shows on the iPod this afternoon, and I honestly laugh out loud at some of the nutty things I actually say when I'm not thinking too hard. Podcasting rocks!!

8. I found a new bead store this afternoon. It is not as good as Lilly's Bead Box, I'm afraid, but I just like looking at the beads and stuff. Beading is fun! I wore my new bracelet and got two compliments on it! That's pretty cool, huh?

9. Let's call a spade a spade -- I have a lovely husband who adores me, kids who really, truly like me as well as love and respect me, a cat who thinks I hung the moon, and parrots who sing to me and laugh just like me. I live in the sunny South; and I actually like most of the people with whom I must deal. I am one lucky girl.

There. Those are the things that make me happy tonight, and I am sure I will find even more lovely things tomorrow. It's all in the way you look at things, you know? I hope you have stuff to be happy about, too!