duck, duck, GOOSE...

so it seems i have been "tagged". my "tagger" was, imagine this, Micah, who is my one and only follower and the person who converted me into a blogger. again, i'm still new to all of this, but i guess i just have to list six unimportant things that make me happy. i'm also supposed to tag other people to do it after me, but i'm going to skip that part. as of now, i don't have any blogger friends aside from Micah and i'm not quite sure how the social networking aspect of this whole blog thing works.

soooooooooo for whomever may be interested, these random tidbits make me happy...

1. porches. i loooooooooove porches. my summers involve spending a good majority of my time on porches. porches are my sanctuary. i sit on the porch to relax, to read, to drink coffee, to drink wine, to talk on the phone. it's my favorite place for me time. the condo i just moved out of had the most fabulous porch! the view was amazing! i was really, really sad to leave it. i had to because a retired couple from florida was coming in for the summer. you would think i could get away from those people all the way out here, but noooooooo! one day, like 75 years from now, when i actually have a house, it will most definitely have a wrap-around porch with rocking chairs and a porch swing. i can't wait!

2. speaking of porch swings...swings, in general, make me happy. there is a park near my house where i sometimes stop to swing when i am walking past. it always makes me think of the ginormous swing set at crabtree elementary school. i thought those were the best swings in the world when i was five. my great-grandmother would take me there. it was fantastic! call me silly, but i think swings are the simplest form of liberation that people of all ages can enjoy. i also classify hammocks in the swing category. while they may not be as exhilirating, i still throughly enjoy lying in a hammock with a good book while the breeze blows you gently back and forth. luke has one at his house. he has no idea that's the only reason i am dating him ;)...

3. shopping. there is nothing like a good retail therapy session. i don't like online shopping quite as much as actual shopping, but i have had to adjust since i live in a town that's 3 hours from the closest mall. it's still fun to rip open the package and see it for the first time when you already own it, but the actual shopping process is my favorite, all of it. i'm pretty picky so most people don't like to shop with me, but i'm okay with that. i like to take my time shopping. i want to look at all of my options, try them on and make an educated decision. this is usually a very lengthy process. when i get home, i like to lay everything out on the bed and try it on again with the proper accesssories, etc. that i had pictured when i made the purchase.

4. grilling out. doing this at the lake is my most favorite, but anywhere will do. i like the camaraderie of it all. how could anyone be unhappy chilling in the sun with your best friends, sipping a delicious beverage, playing badminton and catching a whiff of whatever may be cooking over the fire? not to mention, you finish it all off with a typically fabulous (and relatively inexpensive) meal, easy clean-up and sometimes a camp fire. what's not to love?

5. sunny spots. not the actual sunny spot, but the feeling you get when you leave a shady spot and cross into a sunny one. regardless of the temperature, this always warms you up. inside and out. i like taking the time to stop and turn my face directly towards the sun so i can soak it all up.

6. a well-organized closet. i can't even begin to describe all of the things i could do with carrie's closet at the new place in the sex and the city movie. now i'm the worst unpacker ever, i moved last week and still don't have a third of my things unpacked. the thought of taking it all out of those boxes and bags and seeing it strewn across my room is enough to make me stab myself in the eye with one of those scorching hot fire poker thingys. however, the satisfaction of having everything hung neatly in the closet in plain sight and in descending order from darkest to lightest is overwhelming. i like having a lot of shelves and drawers in the closet too. i can't quite afford to have the closet of my dreams just yet (well, that and i have a tendancy to move every 6 months or so at the moment), but one day i will have the kind of closet you open up to hear angels singing and see bright lights shining down from the heavens. again, i can't wait!

i've used all my descriptive time for the above-mentioned tidbits, but i think these deserve an honorable mention...

the silence of a rocky mountain snowfall, then the sound it makes beneath your feet when you walk through it, boats, the sound of thunder, toddlers clapping, laughing 'til it hurts, chips and dip and the ice cream bites that luke feeds me as he's eating the whole pint =)