Saturday, January 26, 2008

Simple Things That Make Me Happy, Off The Top of My Head

  1. Strangers who smile and nod when they walk past you.
  2. Suddenly remembering something that I've spent hours trying to remember.
  3. A comfortable chair, an afghan, a book, a lap-cat.
  4. Creating something and deciding that "it is good." Extra happiness if other people say "it's good" too.
  5. Drivers who pull too far ahead into the intersection, then thoughtfully back up to let me walk past.
  6. Untroubled sleep.
  7. Clothing that fits perfectly.
  8. The anticipation of starting a new project which I fully understand.
  9. A complete collection of something.
  10. Animals doing whatever it is they do.
  11. Being part of an efficient process.
  12. A big, shared Indian meal.
  13. Anticipating free time, with many options for filling it.
  14. Meeting strangers in a strange city.
  15. Looking around a corner and seeing something I hadn't expected.
  16. Epiphanies.
  17. That drunken state when everybody seems perfectly wonderful, including myself.
  18. An epic thunderstorm.
  19. Easy face-to-face conversation.
  20. Halva.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

>A big, shared Indian meal

Is that home-cooked or Indian restaurant food? You know butter chicken, gobi manchuri, palak paneer and the like? That kind of stuff is quite a bit removed from what we typically eat. :)

Adam Thornton said...

Yup, that's Indian restaurant food. I'm sure it's equal to Disneyland in its realism, but it sure makes me happy!

Anonymous said...

> I'm sure it's equal to Disneyland in its realism,

Oh, don't worry. I am sure it is very authentic in its faithfulness to Indian restaurant food. :)

There's a depressing (for natives!) sameness to Indian restaurant food. It does not take advantage of our rich regional home cuisines. I may be wrong, but the typical fare seems to have evolved from what was cooked by the royal cooks for the Mughal emperors. And every restaurant that comes blindly imiatates the existing ones.

Adam Thornton said...

I'm sure you're right, though I assume that's the same with many "regional" restaurants...rather than give you what people in that region actually eat every day, they give you the "exceptional" foods.

Though I've never really checked to see what your average Chinese or Japanese householder eats for dinner.