So Much Negativity

I’ve realized, I think a couple nights ago after my last blog post that there’s a TON of negativity in here. That’s not that fun to read, I think, so I’d like to spend the next few minutes writing about stuff I love, enjoy, and that overall make me happy, because there are plenty of them and of course naming them off just has a good all around affect on me and possibly people reading. So, instead of rants for today, let’s try raves. These are in no specific rank, I’ll just pop ‘em off as they come along.

Craig’s list. I love craig’s list. Never before have I seen the internet come to such an immediate reality. Usually I email, browse web forums (like craig’s list), read the news, sports, blogs, and everything else possible on the web, but craig’s list is like immediate gratification at it’s finest, and not in a sick way. For example: About two months ago, a $5 computer I bought from Sharebuilder broke on me. The hard drive crashed. It started making weird “clicking” noises, and bam, game over. This I was ok with because it more than served it’s purpose, and had a return on investment of about 1000%. Yes, the investment was still $5, but still, I don’t know of any other investment that could possibly give you that kind of return in that short of time. Return on investments make me very happy, but that will be listed later. Anyway, craig’s list. I posted up my broken computer + monitor for free and within one day it was out of my house. Craig’s list is a great place to get rid of trash. And knowing that the service is free, and people are so trustworthy of others using it that I think really amazing things can happen. In fact, really amazing things are happening through the intarweb every day. But in general, I think Craig’s list is meant for the good.

A good, competitive game. There is nothing better than watching two teams, or two people battle back and forth. It could even be rock paper scissors for all I care. But if both of the parties involved are putting their entire being, their whole hearts in to the game, it means everything to them, and to me. Regardless of the outcome, I love to play and watch…almost anything. And yes, I may be overly competitive sometimes, but I blame my upbringing. Everything was a damn competition with the kids I grew up around. We even made a competition out of punting a soccer ball…throwing a football over the light pole…silly idiotic things like this. But thinking back on these things makes me very happy, and even last night, watching an intramural flag football game that was extremely close…I could do this at least once a week if I had the chance. Here’s hoping that my ex-football team the Athletic Supporters makes it to the championships this year. We were one game away last year!

Chocolate and cookies in general. I love chocolate. In fact, I have a mini crunch bar sitting on my desk right now that I’m going to peel open and consume. Cookies I think are the perfect dessert. Typically they don’t get the consumer very dirty, no utensils are needed, and they go great with milk. How many things go great with milk? A few I’m sure, but more than likely a cookie tops that list in so many books.

Music. Listening and playing. I was just thinking about this on the way home from work the other night. I know, I am a complete dork, but I don’t care, I’m going to admit it: While pulling out of the parking garage last night, I had my music tuned in to 106.1. I’m a total pop star fan boy, but I don’t care about admitting this either. The second latest Gorillaz song “Fun Inc.” I think it’s called was on. Suddenly while taking a left turn at my first light, I was in a club in pioneer square and imagined myself gyrating my hips and moving my shoulders and head in my awkward fashion. Oh yeah, I was stylin’ and singin’ along. Awesome. Also, I like to figure out piano and guitar songs that I hear and can’t get out of my head. It makes me happy to dissect things that everyone else thinks are the “best song ever” but when you plunk it out on the piano everyone thinks you’re some sort of genius, but in fact the music is really simple (maybe this is why they might be geniuses? Who knows.) Music and just sounds in general serve so many purposes for me. I think I might have to die if I were ever to go deaf.

I’ve been taking a shower downstairs ever since I moved home. Why? My sister and I wake up at the same time, and we both take showers right when we get up. So, I go downstairs. I like to say it’s because that shower has a taller nozzle (it does) but there is something I especially like about the downstairs bathroom: there is a window right next to the tub. I especially like this in the winter months. Why? Because I open that sucker wide open and I can feel the frigid air (40 degrees and below) blowing in and out of the bathroom. The mixture of that and a warm shower makes for an interesting time. Sometimes the gusts of wind will come and hit my back, but I flip around and let the water run down my back…ahhh, feels so good. So refreshing. Another great part of it is that once I’m done, I open the shower curtain to the window side and get a little bit of an air dry. But it is a freezing air dry. Right above the window though, there is a heater pointing downwards, and there is no way to describe this feeling…but imagine, you’re wet, you’ve just come out of the shower and you’re grabbing for your towel. Suddenly two gusts of air hit you, one from your right side and one from above you. I guess you can compare it to those bathrooms that have those blow dry machines. I like the way those feel. Add that to the list of “good feelings”.

Pounding hard on the clutch, shifting and flooring it. This is probably the only reason I drive a stick. Is to feel this rush. To have the ability to red line it through each gear I choose to and burn ridiculous amounts of fuel. When you’re stuck in traffic for 10 hours a week, once you get some open space whether it be on the side streets or on the freeway on ramp on a Friday night all you want to do is gun it. I don’t think automatic drivers can ever understand this feeling because…they just couldn’t. It’s almost like, with a manual, the car has become a living extension of you. How you control the engine is up to your feet and your hands. All the reports I’ve been reading has me thinking that the manual is the thing of the past which makes me very sad. I do not want to be lazy like everyone else, and the tiptronic or flipper pads are just as boring as an automatic would be. There is just something to be said about having the ability to “drop the hammer”. And burn outs? One of the most fun things to do when bored. *sigh* If we ever get to a point where there aren’t any more sticks I’m just going to buy old cars.

Ok, so I’m continuing on this rave post 24 hours later. I’ve got an hour left to my shift, so let’s see what I can come up with.

Discounts and sales. I love getting stuff cheap. If something is 50% off it almost doesn’t matter what exactly it is. 36E Padded bra? Sure. I might need that some time. Thank you discount! But seriously, if I get a coupon or rebates of any kind, I’ll look for any excuse to use them. You probably might find me in Linens and Things (although very late at night) with my $10 off $50. Online shopping is notorious for having major discounts (probably due to the lack of actual employees selling you the item and low overhead) and I like to do a lot of my purchases through online stores. Plus, then I have the ability to pine over things just by going to the web site. The last purchase I made was for my 20” LCD monitor. I thought about it for THREE WEEKS before I bought it and would stare at the picture online every night until I mustered up the strength to buy it. And I couldn’t have been happier.

Cuddling. I love to cuddle. Before Michelle and I were dating, we went to a LOT of concerts. That was like, “our thing”. And I think the way I snagged her (in my drunken state) was with a lot of cuddling. I needed someone to stay with me. Going home alone and drunk is one of the worst things ever, but let’s leave that out because this is a happy thread. So, I’d have her stay with me and cuddle until 2 and 3 in the morning until she was starting to fall asleep and then she would get up and leave. But cuddling with her is the best. Sometimes I laugh out loud when I’m cuddling with her because it’s so good. When that happens, I feel so lucky to be cuddling with her. Just talking about it makes me feel stupendous (I’m running out of adjectives here! My vocab sucks the past few days).

Q-tips. I don’t care. They say don’t stick them in to your ear, but I KNOW a lot of you guys do. Well, me too. I call them “eargasms”. Oh, so good. Cleaning out your inner ear. Who knows what kind of damage I’m doing, I don’t care. It just feels so good though. Almost like a massage for your ear.

Scaring people. This might not be that great for them, but I LOVE to scare people. Well, I like to get scared too, but getting scared but other people is fun afterwards, but it sucks right when it happens. Anyway, I like to sneak up on people, and my mom is notorious for this. She turns up the radio when she’s at home alone, and might be washing the dishes. I quietly open the lock on the door, slip off my shoes and glide on the wood floor until I’m right behind her. Then I grab her shoulders and yell, “MOM!” and she usually screams and tries to smack me a few times as I flee from her slaps and pinches laughing very hard. I do this to a lot of people though. Scaring people in general (because most people don’t expect it!) is a great thing to do. If one of your friends goes to the bathroom, just hide around the corner outside the bathroom and as they’re walking out, jump out at them. I once tried to do this at QFC, you would think that no one else would be in that bathroom, but I accidentally scared an older woman who dropped her purse and grabbed her chest. At the time I was HUGELY embarrassed and apologized profusely, but now that I look back on it, I can’t stop laughing about it.

Which brings me to my next point: Reminiscing. There is something to be said about having history with people. “Remember when?” I think is one of the greatest openers when you’re between friends that have multiple inside jokes and plenty of stories to tell. This is what is awesome about being friends with people for your whole life. When I look back on all the great times I’ve had, I realize that if I was forced to die today, I can say that I’ve lived a full enough life and definitely have been a lot more lucky than MANY people in this world.

Rewarding myself. I did this a lot in college, a lot less so now that I’m working. But, believe it or not, I worked my ass off in college. I may have seemed like a slacker, but I definitely put my work in when I felt like I needed to. And when I was finished with that last final, every quarter, I celebrated in my own ways. Maybe going out to party. Maybe having a few drinks with the roomy. Maybe going out to a good dinner on the Ave or downtown. There is this amazing feeling you get when you’ve worked so hard on something, and the moment you’re done with the test, or turned in that paper, or finished presenting, it feels like this giant weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Almost like you can fly. And I try to ride that feeling as long as possible.

Ok, that took 30 minutes. I’ve got 30 minutes to go. I think I can surf the web for that long. I’ve definitely got more to my list, but I’m not sure if I can accompany each of them with an explanatory paragraph. Maybe I will just list them.

http://www.pandora.com/
Popsicles followed by Gatorade followed by ice water on a hot day
Getting my hair cut/shaved
Pay day
3 day weekends
Fixing things/taking apart things with tools
Drinking cold bottled waters
Dancing with my headphones on
Sweet love
Comfy couches and beds
Warm slippers
Having the ability to be half naked most of the summer
Picking big boogers
Eating fast food/Applebee’s happy hour late in to the night/hot dogs/onion rings/tartar sauce
Mom’s home cooking
New shoes along with new shoe smell/new car smell
Wearing sweats
Going for a long run
Really soft Kleenex
Hot cocoa and a good book at SBUX
Grumpy old guys that call the seahawks “seachickens”
U-village mall because Jamba Juice being right next to the ram which is near Pottery Barn. Eat, drink a smoothie and then go rest on cool couches.
Massages, half the fun is paying to get naked (under towels!)
5 for $5 or 10 for $10…anything. Mrs. Field’s cookies, totino’s pizza…you name it, I’ll buy it.
Clothes that no one else has.
Pictures
Eavesdropping and people watching
Flamboyantly gay people along with homophobes
Christmas lights, Candle light (when the power goes out)
Not tying my shoes
Getting lost/traveling

And…now it’s time to go home. Maybe I should keep this list going? Probably not.