Simple Pleasures

-- Tivo.
-- Finding a 20 in your pocket right before you go out.

 

* Putting Tuesday's paper to bed, knowing I don't have to come to work again until Friday.

* The first half of a run, when the sweat starts to form on my brow and my heart and lungs get into sync with my legs.

* Watching the alma mater play hoops on TV.

* Not being at work (sense a theme?)

* Miles Davis' understated yet elegant improvisations.

* Spending money I have.

* The first sip of a pint of Guinness.

 

My wife's face when we're at the beach, her favorite place.

Local corn.

Local band playing its own music, audaciously confident, clearly having fun with it, the vibe in the smallish crowd that maybe you're in on something before it gets big. Even though usually it turns out you're wrong, totally wrong, and so is the band.

Talking newspapers with my 16-year-old niece who, alas, wants to be one of us.

Feeding an animal.

Eating an animal.

Catching a woman looking at me. Doesn't happen that much.

A hot bath.

High school reunions.

Dressed up and out to dinner.

The half-hour at the ballpark before a major-league game.

Newsprint in my hands.

Driving into my old hometown after being away for a while.

Hosting Thanksgiving, carving the turkey.

Vacation in the South, sweet tea, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, banana pudding.

Vacation in California, carnitas burrito with lots of guac.

Vacation in Northeast, pizza.

Making a spaghetti sauce from local tomato crop and getting it perfect.

Seeing my wife totally enjoy something I cooked.

Old friends.

Road-trip vacation with a bunch of new CDs.

Realizing if I hit the lottery I wouldn't move out of the county where I live and would still do this kind of work in some fashion.

 

Nice call.

 

SJ is slipping. How did everyone let one of the greatest Boogie Nights quotes go by the wayside?

Floyd Gondolli: I like simple pleasures, like butter in my ass, lollipops in my mouth. That's just me. That's just something that I enjoy.

Steering this battleship back to normalcy, I second Frank. I also like local corn.

 

Always a good one for me.

 

Hey, I played that quote...check the second page

 

--Watching the herons wade for fish in the lake behind my house.
--Finding that the guy who was tailgating you and driving like an idiot got pulled over by the state patrol 10 miles after he passed you, and the troopers appear to be ripping the seats out of his car
--Sela Ward
--Shawshank Redemption
--Finding paper money in the pocket of a jacket you haven't worn in six months.
--Being in the theatre alone with just your popcorn and the screen.
--The close-up sound of her breathing in the scent of your after shave.
--Singing in the car and knowing you nailed it.

 

Walking through the gates at Kaufman Stadium, looking out, and you see the massive scoreboard and the fountains

A perfect sunset

 

Unfortunately, then the game begins.

 

It's been mentioned a couple of times, but really, there's nothing like the first glimpse of field when you walk into a stadium. The first time I got the opportunity to walk onto the field at Turner Field, it's was such an awesome experience.

A few of mine.

*Watching the flight of a crisply struck wedge floating against a blue sky.
*Draining a 40-foot putt in a scramble for an eagle and the win.
*When the temperature is a perfect 70 something and low humidity, meaning no A/C and driving with the windows down and the music up
*Watching a student that I'm teaching finally grasp a concept I've been trying to hammer home.
*The excited faces of those same students when they get an 'A' on their test, probably for the first time in their career.
*Knowing the secret signals of sports officials and watching them run a game
*Hoops players excited that one of their favorite teachers is at the game
*Playing karaoke on my PS2

 

We had a baseball tournament out here a few summers ago, and one night got rained out, so we started at 8 am the next morning...crystal clear skies.....first week of summer........baseball........after a long rain........Fogerty's "Put me in coach" blaring over the PA system........was pretty sweet.