Happy with a cherry on top

I am quite excited that P from Adventures of an Average Athlete has bestowed the Cherry on Top and Happy 101 awards on me, so that I, too, can spend a few minutes talking about myself. (Wait, don't I do that all the time anyway?)

For the Cherry on Top award you are supposed to write about one thing you would go back and change in your life. Then you thank the person who awarded you and pass it on to six others.

I've actually thought about this question a lot as I've read the various answers by other bloggers. Almost everyone ultimately says that they wouldn't change anything, because everything they've done has made them the person they are today. You know, the butterfly effect, and all that.

Bah! Cowards! Change the world, I say!

Well, maybe not.

I have a couple of answers to this question of what I might change in my past. The first is that I would not have let myself gain a lot of weight after law school. This is truly an area where I have two minds. Obviously, it was not a good thing to gain weight, and it put certain dampers on my life for more than ten years. (Not as much as you'd think; I had a good life during that time!) But certainly, it would have been better for me not to gain weight.

However, had I not gone through that I am pretty sure that I would not be where I am today. If I'd managed to avoid weight gain, I might have just stayed where I was, about 30 pounds more than I weigh now (as I recall), dieting sporadically (as you do), and certainly not rediscovering running at the age of almost 40. (Or maybe I would have...who know?)

Answer number two is something I would change, and I can't see any downside to that...which is, I would never have spent so much money at Macy's. Damn their one-day sales anyway! I have given away and discarded so much stuff from those years of shopping sprees and I truly regret the money gone with the wind.

Okay, on to a more cheery subject! The Happy 101 award has you list 10 things that make you happy, again thank the giver, then pass it on to ten people.

I love to list things that make me happy. That in itself makes me happy! I am going to omit the mandatory friends, family, and loved ones, you can just assume that they are at the top of the list. (Most of the time.)

1. Running. Yes, it probably just have been in the "assumed" category as well, because don't you expect that from a running blogger? But running does make me happy, sometimes while I'm doing it, sometimes when I'm done. :)
2. Food and eating. Should I be embarrassed by this? Probably. But a good meal really rocks my world. Not just the naughty stuff (like cake)...things like oven roasted broccoli, sauteed spinach, Kabocha squash soup, and (oven) sweet potato fries thrill me to no end. (I could do a whole post on my love affair with vegetables!) Tonight I am planning on experimenting with making oven roasted beet "chips." I'm trembling with anticipation! (Okay, that's a small exaggeration.)
3. Great clothes, especially if they are on sale! Yes, despite my regrets over the Macy's debacle, I still love to shop.
4. Books and reading. Another topic I could write an entire post about, or many. I love reading magazines as well, but books are my life. Current "can't put down" read: Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman. (Prior to that, Fly Away Home: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner, and Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen.)
5. My cats, sweet Sammy, Sophie and Libby. (They also make me very unhappy at times, due to certain behaviors which are damaging my house and driving me slightly crazy, but let's not go there.)
6. Coastal Maine and New England in general. I guess it's a little weird to live on the Pacific Coast (and love it here), but yet be so drawn to the other side of the country. There is something about the history and ambience of New England that just speaks to my soul. Harbors, big white houses, little white churches, lobster, and the home of so many great American writers.
7. England, my other spiritual home. Again, I could never choose to live there (even for a sabbatical period, because of my cats), but traveling in England is like going home to me.
8. Gardens. In my own life obsessive running has displaced obsessive gardening, but I still love to visit and tour the gardens of others, or even just admire them as I run by.
9. Good movies. And by "good movies," I mean movies that I enjoy watching. I don't go to the movies often enough, because somehow it seems like such a big time commitment if I am going to go on my own, and if I am going with someone else (e.g. Rod), there is the whole ordeal of finding a movie we both want to see...etc. Here are some movies that, after I saw them, I walked out of the movie theatre feeling happy for seeing the movie (even if it wasn't a "happy" movie). Bridget Jones's Diary, About a Boy, Sense and Sensibility, Hannah and Her Sisters, Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, It's Complicated (saw this on PPV, would have loved it even more in a theatre), Julie and Julia (same), The Informant!, The Proposal, Valentine's Day, Sex and the City, Sex and the City 2, Out of Africa, Little Shop of Horrors, The Devil Wears Prada, The Sure Thing (in college, along with Out of Africa and Little Shop of Horrors), Miss Potter, Spirit of the Marathon, Run Fat Boy Run. Very random list, and there are more, these are just the ones that came immediately to mind! Sorry I didn't take the time to do all the links, but I'm sure almost all can be found on Amazon if you are interested.
10. Blogging. It makes me feel like a writer, and that makes me happy.

So, after all that, Thank You, P, for passing this on to me!

I don't think I could find as many as ten bloggers to list that haven't already done this, but if you haven't, and you are interested, I pass this to these people and anyone else who reads this! (And don't feel obligated to do it if you don't want to. Also, don't feel obligated to pass it on either, I know it's kind of like a chain letter in that fashion.)

Marie, Every Day is a Miracle
Lisa, Discovering the Meaning of Stonehenge
Lifestudent, A Marathon Leap
Alice, Hefferblog
Sassy Molassey
Terri, Middle of the Pack Girl