Simple Pleasures

Reaching the top of the mountain.

 

- sunshine
- lip gloss
- when a really good song comes on the radio in the car
- the way my soccer boots are perfectly molded to my feet

 

• The first time you hold hands with a girl you like
• The first mouthful of a massive bowl of Cocoa Pebbles with cold, cold milk
• The minute before you take a Katella Deli chocolate chip danish out of the oven (oh, the aroma)
• Wind on a sunny, cool day
• First glimpse of Dodger Stadium after walking through the tunnel
• A kid doing something so cute that it takes you back to your youth
• Stepping into a shower after a 90-minute workout
• A woman's voice singing that perfect song (Heloise Williams, Lisa Loeb, Hart sisters, Ella Fitzgerald, etc.)
• That smile of the girl from a Coca Cola commercial 8-10 years ago
• Running into the Pacific Ocean
• The excitement local athletes can't hide when you show up to their game
• Pulling back the sheets to a freshly made bed and falling onto a cushy pillow for an overdue nap
• A long cruise to nowhere with the windows down and volume up to techno-trance-house-funk
• Writing your name in the snow
• Playing catch with the baseball with a friend

 

walking a golf course with the morning dew
a nap after a day at the beach
my puppy dog wagging his tail when I get home from work
my wife rubbing my head as I fall asleep in her lap as she watches some old movie on TCM

 

One of life's simple joys is playing with the boys ....


Ew. I do love watching Top Gun though, and any movie I've seen a million times but can't turn away from when I find it on cable.

 

The spray of a wave on your face in the ocean at dusk.
Just floating there.
Covering a spring baseball game at 3:30 in the afternoon, wearing sandals and realizing your friends are all in cubicles and can't even see outside, much less put their feet in the grass.

 

The most recent ones I've read were "Spain: The Root and the Flower: An Interpretation of Spain and the Spanish People" by John A. Crow and "The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain" by Maria Rosa Menocal. Neither one have any knee-slappers, but each one, particularly the Crow book, have a slightly ironic tone that keeps the factual stuff from getting too dry.

 

Getting to 1,000 posts (shoot, I still need 2 more).

 

-- Brain freeze from an ice cold beer
-- A cat sleeping on your chest

 

- Riding around, on a spring afternoon, with the windows down and the Stones on the radio.
- A pretty woman, walking toward you, smiling and holding two bottles of cold beer.
- The smell of fresh cut grass.
- A handwritten "atta boy" note from the ME or the publisher.
- Simple pleasures, like butter in my ass, lollipops in my mouth.

 

Boobs.

 

*Putting on my wedding dress and realizing the last time I will wear it is in just over five months.
*Hearing two people in the same company, but different departments, arguing over who wants to hire me more.
*The sound of my mother and father's voices when they call.
*Reading a special note in a card that brings tears to my eyes.
*Freshly fallen snow before it's disturbed by people.