Dirty Thirty

Haha!  I tricked you into reading this because you thought it involved alcohol.  Nope.  Unless you are drinking while you read this, which I ALWAYS encourage.


I stumbled across a post on As Simple As That in which she listed the 30 things that made her happy this holiday season.  I decided to steal borrow her idea and write my own list.  


It is good to remember that even when life is a shitstorm, my life is full of wonderful things.  So here I go ... the 30 things that make me happy (WARNING, if you dislike schmaltzy-ness and are only here for the funnies, skip the first half):

1. My amazing, wonderful, fantastic husband who loves me, keeps me laughing, keeps me grounded, and puts up with me.
2. My beautiful animals who give me so much more than I could ever give them.
3. Even though we do not own a home, we are very lucky to have found the situation we are in.  We have a lovely place to live and are able to save up a little money as long as we are here.  
4. I may not be in the BEST shape in the world, but I am healthy, walking, talking, and functioning.  I have use of my hands, my arms, my legs, my feet, and my brain.  I can rely on all my senses to fully experience the world around me.
5. My immediate family.  What a bunch of wonderful wackos.  They keep me in stitches, they make me cry, and they will always have my back.
6. My fantabulous in-laws.  I am lucky to have escaped the wretched wrath of heinous in-laws, and instead, have a wonderful new family to call my own.  I love them all dearly.
7. My extended family.  Not everyone has cousins, aunts, and uncles who they love so desperately and adore spending time with.
8. Everyone I love is relatively healthy and happy.
9. I am literate.  Where would I be without my literacy?  
10. I have a job.  I don't make very much money and the work is hard, but I am employed in a time when many many others are not.  Our bills get paid, and I am able to buy thoughtful gifts for my loved ones.
11. I have "things" in my home -- furniture to sit on and sleep in, food to eat, and things to make my life comfortable.
12. I have healthy outlets that make me happy.
13. My unhealthy outlets are not the unhealthiest in the world, and I am not caught up in any seriously debilitating habits.
14. I am able to appreciate some of the little things in life (even though I miss many of them!).
15. I have removed the toxic relationships from my live (or the toxic aspects of the relationships I cannot cut out of my life).
16. My ability to remember amazing memories from my past.
17. The fact that I HAVE amazing memories in my past to recall.
18. The things I have learned from my (many) mistakes in life.  My regrets are few, and they are only the things that I did NOT have the courage to do.  Every time I fell, I know it taught me a lesson, and I will carry that with me always.
19. I have laughed more than I have cried in 2009.
20. My ability to look to the future with hope, anticipation, and excitement.

I was hell-bent on making a SERIOUS list, but I knew in my heart of hearts that it wasn't possible.  Therefore, my final ten are "non-serious, maybe sarcastic" things that make me ever-so-happy.

1. Coffee, aka, the nectar of the gods, aka, the reason I can function during the daytime.
2. Chapstick.  I am positive I would be on smack if I didn't have my chapstick to be addicted to.
3. Reality TV.  from Keeping up with The Kardashians  to Teen Mom, you keep me entertained and remind me how good my own life is.
4. My medical shows.  Conjoined twins, chimerism, fetus in fetus, and superfetation!  Klinefelter's Syndrome, Chiari 1 Malformation, and Guillain-Barre Syndrome!  Keep it coming!!
5. My crime shows.  I love being a detective without having to respond to phone calls and crime scenes at all hours of the night.
6. Thursday night television.  C'mon.  Parks and Recreation, The Office, 30 Rock, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?  Comedy GENIUS.  And all in a ROW?  It's the new TGIF, people! 
7. Vino.  Red wine, white wine, I love (almost) all of it.  
8. My beautiful new cell phone.  I love holding it, love talking on it, love texting with it, and like being seen with it.  Consumerism ... drool.
9. My beloved DVR.  How would I be able to keep up with all of my faves AND hold down a job if it weren't for this amazing device?  The answer: I wouldn't.
10. That new GAP commercial with little girls singing about sweaters and boots.  Jeremy and I die every time that little blonde screams.  Plus, I love the line "forget those girly dresses!"

I hope you have some things that are making YOU happy as 2009 winds down!