Innocuous things that make you irrationally happy (a list thread)

1. strangers who smile at me and say "hello", sometimes it's a pick me up on a bad day!

2. Cobwebs covered in dew

3. A sunny morning on a day when I don't owe my time to anyone.

4. Finding money in a jacket I haven't worn for months.

5. The daily paper at my door.

6. Eating an apple, I always forget how nice they are - which is part of the charm, coz if I ate them all the time I wouldn't like them so much.

7. A stack of clean sheets, towels just waiting to be used for something

8. A full pack of cigarettes -- nothing can be too bad if you have enough cigarettes

9. Any excuse to use those correction tape rollers.

10. kids doing that stompy playtime talk to themselves thing that they do when they think no one is paying attention to them.

its like a little glimpse into happy imagination land, plus you know they are plotting something awesome

11. Seeing someone walking a dog, and both person and dog just look like they're having the time of their lives.

12. Posting on ILX when I haven't really posted in forever. It's like an old pair of slippers.

13. An adventure to plan

14. using my envelope opener. such a clean open every time.

15. waking up in the middle of the night and discovering that it's earlier than you thought so you can get more sleep and then remembering that tomorrow is your day off anyway

16. dogs being walked past my front porch when i'm sitting outside that stop and come on over to say hello

17. When the timer on the stove beeps and the meal that I've spent a great deal of time preparing is finally ready!!!

18. using those little blue oil absorbing sheets

19. Someone holding the door for someone else. "Right. At least we haven't lost ALL sense of society."

20. Putting my watch on for the first time each morning, and feeling the cool metal of the bracelet. Ahhhh.....

21. A motherfucking E chord.

22. Getting enough sleep and not waking to an alarm clock!

23. Starting a new Moleskine journal

24. Having my morning coffee in my stainless steel travel mug at work..I can nurse that thing for 3 hours!

25. Starting a new bottle of Hendrick's

26. Eucalyptus trees after it rains

27. Clean sheets on the bed

28. The drive to San Francisco from Sacramento (bc we're always driving there to do something fun)

29. Airports and flying

30. Truckee

31. Warm shower after a long workout

32. Seeing distant snow covered mountains on a clear morning while driving to work

33. When whatever you are listening to on your iPod syncs up EXACTLY to what is going on around you
33a. Walking through a light drizzle on an overcast but bright day listening to Massive Attack's "Teardrop"
33b. Walking down the sidewalk seconds before one of the biggest rainstorms you've ever seen and it's impossibly dark and humid and smells like rain and the sky is black and you can see torrential downpours half a mile down the road and you're listening to Spiritualized's "Electric Mainline" and it feels like you're about to walk into something that will change your life

Rain can be just amazing.

i miss rain tbh

34. Seeing cool classic cars driving on the freeway.

Really really old people holding hands

Hedgehogs

35 old people in love xp!

36. Just one wipe

37. Any type of retriever wagging its tail

38. Any three legged dog

39. Or three-legged cat

40. Dogs trying to bite waves at the beach. UNBELIEEEEVABLE happiness.

40. When you're in the house and you fart really loud and satisfyingly and it smells awful but you feel a liitle proud

41. Bed-hair on men. Adorable.

42 g bale's first touch on the full sprint.

43. Watching snow fall, especially if it's dark, and especially near a streetlight that makes them all glow like you are flying thru STARZ
44. Seeing ducks, squirrels, moorhens, rabbits on the way home
45. Being alone in the house and fixing yourself some favourite comfort food that your partner won't eat

46. Pugs

cosign on three-legged dogs. i love all of them, especially my friend's dog Rhonda.

47. Bicycling around to Italo.

48. People asking me for directions as if I am a font of knowledge on such matters.

49. Young pitbulls.

50. http://www.animalsites.net/news/gallery/chow-chow-dog/chow-chow-dog-4.jpg

Oh I love when ppl ask me for directions and I'm all like "Yeah! You're on X st now, you just hang a left and (etc etc)"

51. Taking a spontaneous detour in a less familiar part of town and discovering a nice place to sit and read a book.

52. not having a migraine.

53. autumn

54. I was sitting on the train (first time in 18 years, car trouble) on Christmas day and there were about 20 people in my compartiment - some couples and mostly single passengers who didn't know each other. Nobody was talking, it was very very quiet apart from the train noise. Suddenly, an old woman behind me started eating an apple. In the course of the next ten minutes, this (very normal apple eating) isolated sound she made somehow turned everyone behind her (me & everyone in front of me) into silently crying our eyes out - belly hurting giggling fools. I don't know who started it, but it spread like wildfire and EVERYONE lost it. After a while, the apple was all gone, everyone turned back into quiet strangers until she got off the train (passed by us all and looked at us, clearly wondering why our eyes were red) - then we all started laughing again.

It was a gloriously absurd and irrationally happy moment. You should have been there, I guess.

^^^ I love this.

Something similar happened to me on a suburban train years ago. This older gentleman was fast asleep. But as the train sped up he would bow his head down almost to his knees, and then his head would slowly come back up as the train slowed down. It was like watching one of those drinking birds you put on a glass of water.

Two stops in and everyone in the whole carriage was watching, and we tried so hard not to laugh out loud. Everyone was red-faced with tears pouring down as we all stifled our laughter.

When he finally got off at his station the carriage was FULL of belly laughs. It was awesome.

But that apple story is even better because it's so random. Laughter amongst strangers is the best.

10. kids doing that stompy playtime talk to themselves thing that they do when they think no one is paying attention to them.

― the great aussie ballkicking vids (jjjusten), Thursday, September 30, 2010 12:29 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark

see also toddlers in snowpants, wiping out, a tense pause, and then just totally losing their shit w/laughter

hahahaha awww

- garden centre

s

Peppermint bark!

?

White chocolate with candy cane pieces mixed in, chocolate on the bottom usually. AMAZING

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/peppermint-bark/

My bff/housemate singing xmas carols, Bing Crosby-style. Esp when it isnt xmas, but he just bloody well feels like crooning "Jingle Bells" while doing the dishes, dammit.

Oh shit I put this in the wrong thread. I HATE garden centres.

lol i thought that was enthusiasm out of character.

I like garden centres! All those plants and decorative doodads for the garden.

Wait, I have to contribute to the anger thread.

-smell of tea

First couple of brushes with a new toothbrush.

oh on a similar note, new pair of socks...feels so right.

27. Clean sheets on the bed

― VegemiteGrrrl, Thursday, September 30, 2010 5:44 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

animals on trains are also guarantee for endless lolz and aws, an old man man with a dog, both licking/kissing each other. (seriously)
or a girl with a little kitten in a cage, very early morning, kitten going 'meow meow' very softly (and a little scared) and the entire silent train wagon goin' AWWWW.

a few weeks ago, i was driving home from work and my car died in the middle of a three-way intersection. i didn't really know what to do. within a couple of minutes, a random guy stopped and offered to give me a jump. when that didn't work, he pulled his car around behind mine also used it to push me through the intersection to the side of the road. overall he spent about 10 minutes of his day helping a stranger in need. then a friend (who posts on ilx) drove out to where i was and let me sit in his heated car (it was very cold out) while waiting for the tow truck, then gave me a ride home. just two things that made a shitty situation a little less shitty.

boss wanted to change my schedule for next quarter. i try to be flexible but they've been changing my schedule every 10 weeks and i didn't really want to adopt the new schedule, so I was kind of passive-aggressive about it and blamed my other job, saying they didn't like me changing my schedule with them, but ultimately i left it open and said I would think about it. today my boss said that due to other issues, they now want me to keep my current schedule. so i got what i wanted without having to look like i'm "not a team player."

my daughter smiling and laughing all the time now, happy babies are a+++

boss for my newer job giving me a totally positive review, even though i feel like i slack off a lot and am still figuring lots of things out

going to parties and knowing lots of people there and feeling like i've now lived in chicago long enough to have a social circle or even multiple interlocking social circles

long enough to have a social circle or even multiple interlocking social circles

If we're discussing innocuous things that I wish were a reality for me in LA, and would therefore make me insanely happy, this would be one of them. Getting there, but damn if work don't get in the way.

it took a long time. but i've been here seven years now.

I'm moving to the 4th floor instead of the top in a little under a month. thank God.

a rare instance where I get to post in both innocuous threads simultaneously.

went to the mall (which I usually hate) to pick up a few rap albums with my gambling winnings, and stopped for lunch. ran into a friend of mine who I haven't seen in a while, who stopped me and we had a nice quick 5 min chat.

her sunny demeanor and the friendly conversation was a big lift for me and put me in a good mood.

The tick-tick of a nicely working derailleur when you're freewheeling along.

Sun is shining, nearly a weekend, and I was just briefly delighted by the sound of a (male, not particularly camp) coworker tittering like a naughty little schoolgirl.

(trying to make the most of being irrationally happy as my most irrationally-angry-making coworker has just got back from lunch, bah)

- hearing YMO (Technopolis iirc) in tacky chain sushi bar

Oh I love when ppl ask me for directions and I'm all like "Yeah! You're on X st now, you just hang a left and (etc etc)"

― (Simple) (Elegant) (Stevie D), Friday, 1 October 2010 16:01 (5 months ago) Bookmark

came here to post about this!

55. manic phase

56. making a St Patrick's Day playlist, Mr Veg and began dicussing the finer points over dinner. Mr Veg adamant that I should include Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar On Me. Me going WTF? then reminding me that they recorded it while they were holed up in Dublin, Rick lost his arm etc etc...and then I lol'd and lol'd and lol'd

57. Youtube videos of babies laughing uncontrollably at dogs doing dog things.
58. Hockey hugs after a goal. And the handshake-line after a playoff series is won.

59. on the way home y/day, a boy of about 7 or 8 sat on a riverbank, staring contemplatively at a pair of swans right in front of him, staring peacefully back at him

(this would not be so <3 if I were not so distrustful of both children and swans)

60. My dentist is like a dude straight out of Mayberry, sweet and lovely and quaint, the whole office feels like a delightful time machine. Today, greatest thing ever. As I'm having work done, my Mayberry-esque dentist begins describing a scene from Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke to his wonderfully square assistant. I had tears rolling out of my eyes as he describes in great detail the scene where the stoned motorcycle cop pulls the van over after it has caught on fire, his assistant looking on wide-eyed and not laughing really at all. It was all so surreal and hilarious and I have NO idea how my dentist even got onto the subject of weed or where Cheech and Chong fit in.

But it was great and made me happy despite being trapped in a dentist chair

61. Weaving through stopped bumper-to-bumper traffic on my bike
62. Secret passages and underground tunnels

non-rejected jbr screennames that probably should have been rejected but the urge to torture with puns is too great

My friend's very exuberant and ruffly dress today.

Buying a food and its expiration date is your birthday.

but that's sad :(

"Happy birthday!! YOUR FOOD IS DEAD NOW >: [ "

I think it's just that I'm vain enough to appreciate any reminder that I was born, even in the form of a memento mori (for the food).

"when does this cream expire – June 12? – how delightful, I am alive."

oh my god, that is p beautiful actually.

It's a totally little kiddish feeling. "My borthday is Important."

Noisy little bastard shouting the name of every car that passes the bus while his brother climbs on the seat next to me. All while the mum is browsing Facebook on her phone, completely ignoring their behaviour. Still half an hour of this to go before i can get off.

I get the birthday expriation date thing too. Also seeing a car commercial and the disclaimer says PRICES GOOD UNTIL [YOUR BIRTHDAY]!

I think not_goodwin is in the wrong thread.

For real, right now the crushing synth in Zombi's "Surface To Air" is making me irrationally happy.

oops. :-/

67 (I think) -- being done with the @!(#*&$I()^& weed-eating/edging. I hate doing it, but I love looking out and being able to say "yeah that looks a lot better."

new clothes.

Depositing a check via ATM

68. Old men wearing incongruous clothes. Like the old Chinese dude I saw the other day, wearing a sun hat and an awesome Morissey jacket.

69. Dogs that jump up and lick your face with affection no matter the time of day or how often you see them.

There is a young woman who works as an aide at one of the schools where I drive kids. She's somewhat pretty, but not a knockout by any stretch, and I have not had any lascivious thoughts about her. But she has a grade-A good-person's face and somehow just looking at her makes me feel happier about the world.

Which is to say, people whose innate goodness radiates from them make me happy.

otm

there's a tube driver in london who speaks with a really heavy caribbean accent, who says at every stop: "the next stop is....please take all your belongings with you and wherever you go, whatever you do, whoever you see, whatever the weather, have a NICE day!"

at every stop that exact same mantra! i turn off my ipod whenever he's driving just to listen to him.

he should get an award

tell me which line please

love those people

there's a lovely bagger at my supermarket, shy young girl and she always gives a big beaming smile & is so genuine & sweet, I just love her to death, she makes my day

ron4n, that guy sounds awesome. there used to be a bus driver in San Francisco like that, but he retired :(

I have sort of made it my life goal to be this person in everything I do p much

that is a great story, ronan.

Not sure where to put this. Geir just said this in another thread:

They are, I would think, rare indeed.

Avenues. Love 'em. There's the one I cycle down through Hyde Park on the way to work, iridescent leaves lit by the morning sun, and a lime one through the grounds of Chiswick House, shady and cool and very green.

Oh, and while we're at it, and similarly, sunken lanes.

Trolling this thread for ideas right now, iirc, could use some irrationally happy time today.

go rub your wifes stomach jon

(lol at this out of context)

Definitely part of the plan, but have to wait until way later tonight.

hey have you done the whole headphones on the stomach thing? that was my favorite part of my wifes pregnancy.

played beach boys to him all the time.

Also squeezing a good pimple makes me happy. This has nothing to do with pregnant wives

Haha, yes we have. We received those "Belly Buds" as a gift and we have a six-song playlist that gets played quite often. There is a Beach Boys song on there!

Pet Sounds, man. The whole thing. Do it! :)

Actually I was going to say ILXORs having babbys, like Mordy's little Dalia, and jjjusten getting married and ppl doing v cool things make me happy...and jon anticipating a babby even though I know he has the weight of the world atm <3 <3

I played my kid pet sounds, smile and simon and garfunkel. recently he told me fleet foxes are his favorite.

simon & garfunkel was my favorite as a kid

Getting a really good set of letters in Scrabble, and having two spots available to play the bingo so you know you can't be blocked.

scrabble makes me irrationally angry.

ooh, we have a thread for that too

groups of people of different nationalities where none of them from the country they are in.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ac-M0_bqRHU/TBTf7dKfjDI/AAAAAAAAA6E/8qW_ndTVKMU/s1600/World+Cup+US+UK+flag+fans.jpg

:D

Ahm, no you're right PP - I didn't think that one through. I was more on a international bonding, with an aura of shared enjoyment at culture they find themselves in, the IH stemming from the general aura of eagerness to find out about each other, all of which seems embodied in those groups. But now I realise there is a dark side.

a international bonding, mind.

sunny complaining about innocuous shit makes me irrationally happy

^^^^

there was just a sudden, very brief downpour as the sun was going down.

groups of people of different nationalities where none of them from the country they are in.

that is a really good one. this only half-qualifies, but last night i was interacting with these young-ish guys from manchester, and they just seemed so happy to be hanging out and traveling around america, and they were super-friendly in a way that so many tourists from europe seem to be. it was just nice; like they didn't have an agenda or whatever, they just seemed really happy to be here.

A picture of my brother holding a tamed fox in Mexico.

He says the fox licked him & it had "the softest little tongue."
<3!!

1st night in my own bed after a weekend camping, who knew clean sheets were so amazing.

Part of my job today involved sourcing images for a resource for sex workers. this means I have been given permission to spend several hours looking at stock images of naked women.

I have recently discovered that I love love love being able to navigate my way through unfamiliar bits of London on my bike.

Going to cafe for full English breakfast in the afternoon.

Yeah, that's awesome. Good man.

Yes! I love English breakfast.

I just found out I can buy BBQ pork by the pound at my local cheap-&-greasy Chinese takeaway - was p obvious but I was always too scared to ask the grumpy serving lady. Made singapore noodles last night and considering how often I crave char siu I will be making all things BBQ porky over the next months!

When newspapers/magazines have stories about animal pals - like this story I saw in the fortean times about cat and owl buddies!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqmba7npY8g

Got the perfect balance of sweet and creaminess with a little vanilla extract in my morning coffee today, and I am seriously enjoying this. Yay.

Big clouds coming in from the west. The sky the same weird blue of the Seattle Seahawks uniforms. The sun only coming in from unpatched holes.

For June 24 in the mid-south, I'll take it.

Trains. I'm on an Amtrak train and it is making me irrationally happy to look out the window and watch the landscape go by.

Also trestle bridges!!!! :D

OH oh I like train travel!

I've never ridden anything bigger than commuter rail. I'd probably lose it and start singing "City of New Orleans" every ten minutes.

Laurel, me, too. My enthusiasm on this trip is slightly hampered by the fact that track work requires us to take a bus partway, but I'm digging the train in the meantime and it definitely beats the hell out of driving.

PP, the conductor leads everybody in a verse when s/he comes through to take tickets.

If I had more time, I'd take a train again from here to home as long as I could reasonably expect it to keep to schedule. The only time I did that trip, we were massively delayed and missed our assigned track er crossings/sharings with the freight schedule and had to wait on sidings for HOURS to get back into traffic.

(Likewise, I can't help but humming "Coming Into Los Angeles" when landing at LAX. Arlo wrote some good travelin' tunes.)

I took a train from Colorado to Delaware in my more robust youth - in coach! It was epic and awesome and exhausting and I'm pretty sure I could not do that again.

Watching WWE videos on youtube.

The second, not the first, shave from a razor cartridge. It's always the smoothest and closest.

store yoru razons in mineral oil they say - and smooth shaving all the day

Getting people who are personal heroes popping up in my FB people-you-may-know, even if I am too chicken to friend them.

People who say "Thank you driver" when they get off the bus.

everyone does that, though, right?

hell naw

The right to withhold thanking a driver due to arseholeness makes me irrationally happy. It annoys me* in London that so few buses have single-door entry/exit, so 99% of the time I'll thank the driver on the W5 or whatever, but not thanking is just normal London behaviour anyway, so it's not like he'd know he wasn't being thanked on purpose.

*It's outweighed by the speediness of 2-door simultaneous entry and exit.

I don't say "Thank you driver" any more than I'd say "Thank you butcher" were I to pick up some sausages. Who says "Thank you driver"?

i say that too. well, just 'thanks.'

i deliver hm a hand printed card that says 'very notably discharged'

i always say thanks or thank you. the "driver" bit is unnecessary.

most ppl in glasgow say 'thanks driver' ime

the 'driver' part hardly the core of the issue tbf

Because he's not just a driver. Then again, reading his namebadge and saying "Thank you Clive" would be wrong.

* Being cold.

I like putting the new water container on top of the cooler in the office and watching the bubbles go from the nozzle to the top of the bottle. AND THEN, I press down on the valve to fill my 32 oz cup and THE BUBBLES KEEP GOING. WHAT'S THE WATER COOLER THINKING, "WILL I BUBBLE FOREVER?"

butterflies from meeting someone new

pissing into a bottle on a plane

Isn't there a convention of 'drive'/'driver' address amongst people who have regular contact with professional drivers tho? Delivery vans and stuff. London buses I hold my hand up in a wave as I depart the bus occasionally, two-fingered salute if they've missed the stop or made old people fall over by starting suddenly sort of thing xpost.

1. A few days ago, I borrowed a coworkers umbrella to run an errand only to find that it was a clear bubble umbrella and it made walking through the rain so much more fun.

2. A coworker at my other job just emailed me to tell me she bought me a pumpkin pie from a delicious local bakery and put it in the staff fridge for me to pick up after class tomorrow. <3<3<3

Listening to my old tapes on an old portable cassette player at my dad's...Impact is Imminent by Exodus sounds great!

50% off organic strawberries...and eating some for breakfast. Sooo ripe and lovely.

to balance out my post on the other thread:

having a completely random amount of change in my pocket and finding it exactly totals the same amount as a purchase. i figure this to be the consumerist equivalent of a solar eclipse.

Bacon.

my new lady

Missing the bus by about a block this morning, but having a friend drive by mere minutes later and giving me a ride to the train station!

dressing up as a zombie for work

pics or it didn't happen, etc

Makeup is kinda mild atm...fake blood to be added later

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/pp201/sharonjoy666/20e71cfe.jpg

Oh that's GOOD!

Nice!

Products that far outlast any reasonable expectation of durability. I love my 20-year-old umbrella.

When handwritten ampersands come off.

How much everyone else hates the cold. :D

Ha! The cold itself makes me irrationally happy.

Yes! me too! i walked 2 miles to school in –14C weather, and I was all invigorated and joyful when I arrived to see the hunkered-down masses bitchin' about a 30 second walk from the car to the faculty lounge.

"invigorated and joyful" <--- that is exactly it.

Before I lived in DC I was really looking forward to a properly freezing winter, and experiencing the - indeed - invigoratingly joyful bite of cold air on my face. And then it turned out to be one of those really mild winters and only snowed a bit.

The type of salt packets with two tubes of salt in, as opposed to one. These are the best!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Salt-packet.jpg

Putting on clean socks in the evening and getting in a comfy chair. Bliss.

The check engine light in the car disappearing as mysteriously as it appeared.

glass block windows

The first sip of coffee, every morning, just barely cool enough not to burn myself.

Coming into work in the morning and finding that the day before I got a head start on some work that needs to completed that day. Especially nice on a Monday morning, e.g., today when I had to look up a bunch of cases and remembered I had stayed late on Friday to prepare a list of the ones I needed.

Tomorrow I will find a bunch of crap done so I can just proof it, add a thing or two and send it out the door. Hooray for head-starting me!

Another litter of PUPPIES!

desk fan I love you <3

standing up on the pedals of your pike while its moving is soooo underrated

dogs in cars

ehh dogs in general, really

yeah

standing up on the pedals of your pike while its moving is soooo underrated

yes!

I actually still do the same thing I did as a kid, which is that when I get near to my house I start pedalling really fast and then stop pedalling and try to time the whole thing so that I come to a complete stop right in front of my house.

I feel irrationally tickled reading and using archaic and overly serious language in legal documents. For example:

NOW COMES the Petitioner, Je55e, and states....

Know all persons by these presents that on this 28th day of June, 2012, Je55e posted on ILX. ("Know all men" still gets used a lot)

and my favorite is on subpoenas it says YOU ARE COMMANDED [to appear, to produce, etc].

getting home from work on a really hot day and taking my pants off

co-sign

there are days when this feels like the best thing ever

Brand new athletic socks.

Brand new underwear.

Both at the same time = day-long sense of great wellbeing.

At lunchtime a car with a rooftop bikerack passed me on the freeway. It had 3 bikes ontop, and there was one bike that was broken down to just the wheel, placed in the center of the rack, slightly lower than the other upside down bikes.

The oncoming wind made that one wheel spin and it kinda looked like the spinning wheel was powering the car.

It made me giggle for a good 10 minutes.

having recently been on a camping trip, I'd like to add:

playing with fire

cup of decent coffee
piece of homemade chocolate cake

goddamn my tastebuds are happy

The little flower/star shaped device on fire sprinkler heads.

having recently been on a camping trip, I'd like to add:

playing with fire

! I thought I was on the Irrationally Angry thread and I was like WTF, playing with fire is great, and even if somebody didn't like it, getting IA at others doing it would be pretty touchy.

- the smell of weed coming from at least one car at an intersection in my neighborhood

- golden fall sunsets

The feeling of being freshly showered. Especially in the evening.

elderly gentlemen shopping at the salvation army thrift store, whistling along to "like a virgin" or "i melt with you" or whatever bouncy pop thing is playing on the store pa system.

people who confuse "roadie" with "groupie".

I wonder if you meant to post that in the angry thread.

Ibuprofen. Sometimes you have an inflammation that is actually self-perpetuating, and the ibuprofen basically reduced the tightness/inflammation so that the problem can heal more easily. I had this back pain from a minor injury, and the advil didn't just temporarily relieve it but actually helped it get better.

jury duty today, about to run out of the house, check the website, my # ain't needed, i'm going back to bed!

when you have that tiny little, thin piece of food stuck in your teeth, and you spend like ten minutes trying to get it out with your tongue, and then it finally comes loose and you are actually able to salvage it, and it's like "Bring the rogue before me!" and you can just stare it down before you sentence it to die.

Drumline practice at the middle school half a block away.

when you pay for something with credit card at the grocery store and you have to sign the electronic credit card pad and it says SIGNATURE APPROVED like it ran a detailed handwriting analysis to make sure it's your credit card

makes me feel like i'm in mission: impossible

On a hot day, walking into a store or other public building where the A/C feels like

http://www.festivusfilmfestival.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/jack-nicholson-frozen.jpg

3-way text between new boss, co-worker, and me: "[Co-worker], please make sure all know [ilx user get bent] is in charge. I will reinforce." AW YEAH.

when you pay for something with credit card at the grocery store and you have to sign the electronic credit card pad and it says SIGNATURE APPROVED like it ran a detailed handwriting analysis to make sure it's your credit card

any kind of card approval makes me IH (irrationally happy). even if i know i have money in my account, i still sweat a little when i'm waiting for the process to finish.

This evening I was listening to WKCR and they were playing outtakes of John Coltrane playing Like Sonny, and on a couple of them he actually fucked up the melody, bad, like came in in the wrong key, and somehow this made me ecstatically happy.

Like "holy shit, John Coltrane actually fucked up sometimes"

that was why all the practice

The high-pitched little squeaks and whistles that come from my sinuses after a big wet sneeze.

This has been going on for like a week. Pure joy.

Agreed.

Came here to post this

1. strangers who smile at me and say "hello", sometimes it's a pick me up on a bad day!

― officer i didn't know it was a penguin (San Te), Thursday, September 30, 2010 12:22 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thunderstorms first thing in the morning!

joyful dancing to pop music

joyful dancing, joyful music in general

salad spinners.

in particular plying this one to the tune of yoo doo right.

The generic international chain hotel I'm staying in is decorated almost entirely with stills from films made by the golden generation of graduates from the Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa im. Leona Schillera (Wajda, Munk, etc). There's a poster for Camera Buff in my room.

listening to people reading a braille test at work yesterday was v. placid and quietly happy

So I've been struggling and feeling like I'm drowning all week at work because I've been having to deal with all this complex financial analysis at a very high rate of speed and I barely understand any of it (I'm working with more senior people who have a better grasp of it), and just been feeling pretty overwhelmed and bummed out, like I'm just not cut out for my job. And all these e-mails are going around and I can barely keep up with what's going on.

So tonight an e-mail from my co-worker went out that basically said "I'm looking at page x of document y, and it looks like the banker used the wrong values for the low end of the range" etc. So I open up the document and suddenly I see it -- my co-worker is misreading the chart, because the low end of the range should be the value with the highest discount rate and the lowest multiple instead of the lowest discount rate and the lowest multiple. So I called him up and let him know, and he sent out an e-mail crediting me with catching his mistake.

I didn't want to pwn the guy or anything, I just felt fantastic that I actually managed to understand and contribute something and even see something he missed - he's an intimidatingly intelligent guy.

On our new toilet, the seat cover is light and attaches tightly to the seat, so I can give it a little push and it lowers gently into place instead of slamming down.

Open parking spot right in front of supermarket

New pen!

stuff made out of crocheted granny squares

space heater

anticipating seeing one of my favorite childhood friends for the first time in 10 yrs

When a subway line goes above ground

cupcakes with filling inside

really good grits

Transferring stuff out of a crappy old wallet into better, tighter a new one.

Organizing my toolbox.

When my colleague from the Netherlands says "slice and dice" in the broadest Dutch accent imaginable.

the Dutch for "snow" makes me happy, as 1. it is spelt "sneeuw", which is pleasing; 2. it sounds like saying "snow" while holding an Elvis lip-curl

walking past Argos/Toys R Us today I heard a child calling his mother a "silly-billy bum-bum", which made me irrationally happy for a moment

(and then almost nauseously anxious for a few seconds of "what if that is actually the child expressing the full force of hatred with the only words he knows, what do you do if you are a parent and you know that" and then "why do I care when I will never be a parent, even if I want to be" and then I managed to steer myself back to irrational happiness)

chili cheese fritos

Small bodies of running water outdoors - creeks, ditches. Even rain and melted snow running down the driveway to the gutters vaguely satisfies.

I always enjoyed how a former colleague who is Dutch pronounced equipment: "ee-KIP-ment"

Finding a coin on the ground. It makes me feel like the universe is tipping me the wink.

Supermarket french bread. Soft & fluffy & omg I could eat a whole loaf. It's like a bread cloud.

my french co-worker used to say "I tink it very in-TEHR-es-ting"

My Dutch co-worker frequently referred to the "in-sink-er-ator" which made me lol every time.

http://www.wastedisposers.com/images/products/images/Insinkerator_65.jpg
?

We call it a "garbage disposal" in the U.S.! I have never heard the term insinkerator until Dutch post-doc! Who, btw, fixed my garbage disposal/insinkerator. And also collected newts.

Dutch post-docs: full of lols

Wait a minute, I think my home kitchen had an insinkerator, and all this time I thought it was an In-Sink Erator, and I was wondering what an "erator" is, i.e. did not get the pun at all.

quincie i thought you were saying dutch post-doc said 'incinerator' funny, i actually looked for my own joek insinkerator gif but couldn't find a good one like kinder's. anyway we had an insinkerator in my u.s. home too. but no one called it that except as a joke because ha ha insinkerator. i am 90% convinced that that is the only kind of garbage disposal anyone has.

we have an insinkerator.

yeah we had an insinkerator in the US! I was quite scared the first time I accidentally switched it on.

Two mid-thirties business dudes striking up a conversation on the corner about one of the dude's vintage 1987 Caballero skateboard. Could've been annoying I guess but they both seemed genuinely excited.

After grocery shopping, getting the groceries into the truck and August in her car seat. I remember the first shopping trip we did together and ever since, just love that part. Plus grocery shopping is done.

one of my students just started graduate school! my class was her first college class <3

!!!!! Yay teachers and yay next generation!

Mrs. Meyer's Honeysuckle Dish Soap

My defrosted freezer

turquoise, pink and red colors used in any handmade item, felt especially

I'm listening to Men at Work: Cargo. Right now for the first time in years. It was the first record I ever owned. I played it all the time when I was 4-5 years old. Enjoying the shit out of it.

I decided recently to become more handy by force of will -- will just try things I don't know how to do, look them up on the internet, and not give up when I face setbacks. Today I removed an old shower door from our tile shower stall, and the hardware was really old and rusty and there were a few stripped screws, and I wrestled mightily with them, and I got the motherfuckers out.

When you say hi to a dog you don't know, and it starts wagging its tail so hard you think it might tip over.

^^^that's a good one! Also: street cats, whom you expect to be pretty shy, who actually bound over to you purring when you bend down to call them.

Free tupperware with every takeout soup order.

People who go into Starbucks or Costa and say, in all seriousness, "i'd like a coffee please". Must be infuriating for the baristas but i find it oddly endearing, like they've just stepped out of 1954.

apologies i shd have promoted it more here but i only just discovered i still had a password :D

― mark s, Monday, May 18, 2015 8:47 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha

I've got a new purse (wallet) and it's a big MUM PURSE. I'm sitting watching TV and transferring everything carefully from my old purse to the new one.

18 oz of organic raspberries (fresh, not frozen) for $3.61
I feel I could make it rain raspberries and still have some leftover to eat

when i provide detailed easy-to-follow instructions and someone actually follows them

People who go into Starbucks or Costa and say, in all seriousness, "i'd like a coffee please". Must be infuriating for the baristas but i find it oddly endearing, like they've just stepped out of 1954.

― Petite Lamela (ShariVari), Thursday, 7 May 2015 11:31 (3 months ago) Permalink

I similarly feel IA at people who in 2015 are still harping on "OMFG I DON'T UNDERSTAND STARBUCKS ORDERS WHAT'S A GRANDE I JUST SAY LARGE" -- at this point you either know how it works and are being pretend simple or you just never set foot in Starbucks which is completely fine but then why are you commenting on your inability to understand their ordering system?

then take it to the IA thread, megan complainor

haha whoops

read the "endearing" part out of the quote and thought I was in the other thread for a second

surgical adblocking

haha yes

yes! i am a latecomer to adblock and it is amazing. Before my browser would crash or slow down to a crawl anytime I went to an ad-heavy, flash-ridden site

Case in point was the two elements the Washington post adds to obscure its pages when you're using an adblocker. 8)

From there I went on to remove all the comments, the side bar, the social media div, the 'popular articles' div... Element hiding helper ftw

minor social successes
it's like they buoy my spirits just enough to make me want to try to make them happen more often (inertia, etc)

I love old couples holding hands. This week I saw one couple walking with their arms around each other.

Slowly coming to realize that Amory's current mayor is actually a cool guy and not discernably conservative. He doesn't mind when I address him as Illustrious Potentate, he's younger than me, and he's a Ween fan.

Facebook ads where the comment thread is all people taking the piss out of the product

When kittens get crazy eyes and run diagonally.

Walking across a parking lot at sunset and having a 30-foot-long shadow.

On Facebook, seeing my first-grade teacher wishing my kindergarten teacher a happy birthday today.

The morning of a summer day.

half of a leftover birthday cake in my fridge atm

happy birthday!

lol i should clarify, half of *mr veg's* bday cake

that he's kindly sharing with me
so vicariously my birthday

thanks! :D

When ILX maintenance or repairs cause a server restart, because that means Blog View will work for a week or two.

Seeing green shoots from flower bulbs emerge in late January.

Lost my phone on the metro this morning. A couple of hours later call my own phone, somebody answers, we set up a meeting point and I get my phone back.

People, they're the best!

p rational

phones are like wallets these days

Unzipping a zip file, releasing the folder within, then dragging the zip file into the released folder before dropping everything into the garbage can.

Squirrels. Definitely pests, never tire of watching them, wish they knew how much we loved them so they would stop being so squirrelly.

Took my car to the garage because something was faulty in my reversing light. Bear in mind every time I took my car to my old garage it ended up costing £££.
Got the bill at the end - £2.12

Playing "heads will roll" and my 13 yo goes:"oh i know this!"

A handful of things that make me happy:

1. A good cup of English-style tea (PG Tips and Yorkshire Tea especially).
2. Good music that reaches my soul and heals me from within.
3. My friends.
4. When I'm on my medication and I'm thinking clearly and neurotypically.
5. Doggo/pupper posts on the interwebs.

32. Seeing distant snow covered mountains on a clear morning while driving to work

― VegemiteGrrrl, Thursday, September 30, 2010

When a line of distant cumulus clouds hug the horizon and look like impossibly tall snow covered mountains.

^ similarly, seeing a cute dog being walked on morning/evening commute.

Haha I have introduced dog spotting at work. Hey look at that cute dog! Oh wow. Lol. What breed is that?

Living in my town: you discover everyone knows everyone. At a funeral yesterday seeing it again: hey they're friends of my dad and now I'm here saying goodbye to the daughter. That made me unhappy (duh) but you feel a closeness.

The burial made me unhappy I mean. Goes w/o saying. Made me unhappy and exceptionally angry. Fuck drunk drivers. Really.

All doggos are good girls and boys. Their existence is one of the genuinely good things about this world. Drunk drivers are one of the many terrible things. I'm terribly sorry for your/your family friends' loss, Naths.

Not hitting a red light for TWO WHOLE MILES

there should be awards for that
best feeling ever

Dee for real. I was so angry. Still am.

It makes me happy that Thad Cochran died Thursday and didn't merit a mention on the obituary thread. Fuck that guy. Always smiling, always genteel, always a reliable party line vote for shitty policies.

yeah I think sometimes reveling in the indifference towards some low level diabolical politician cunt dying can be more satisfying than one of the big dogs eating it, there is something quite cheap and performative at times about pissing on a big dog's grave.

The second through, say, the 8th or 9th shaves with a new razor cartridge.

When there's a small bit of a song that you can't identify that periodically reappears in your head for years and then suddenly you hear the song.

In my case it was a bit from "Die Wölfe Kommen Zurück" by Coil, a track I probably hadn't listened to in almost 15-20 years.

Not innocuous. Nocuous, in fact!

But I was driving down the road and someone flicked their cigarette butt out the window and it exploded in a shower of sparks on the asphalt. I hate smoking, and I really hate littering, but it was pretty in the twilight! You never see that anymore and it brought back old memories.

I’m definitely glad people smoke so much less these days, and that I quit myself, but god damn if some of the little rituals and aesthetic hallmarks of the Smoking Section Years don’t hit me hard

last week i ordered online gifts from different sellers, for two family members in diff parts of Australia, *hoping* they’d arrive early march but unsure due to covidity & postal service etc

both orders arrived today!

..and one of them never even gave me a shipping notification! i was messaging them yesterday asking to confirm they even ~got~ my order lmao

it just made me stupidly happy to have stuff show up super early for a nicc change

Dude upstairs and a buddy are playing keyboard and guitar and it's so soothing and I'm not feeling well and it's cheering me up immensely