Happy things :)

-When you see a dog sticking their head out of a car window, tongues wagging, fur flapping, having the time of their doggy life. 

-When you laugh so hard about falling over because you're a clutz that you fall over again. And you and your friends keep laughing

-When you finish wrapping a present for your brother, and as soon as he sees it under the trees, he gets a huge grin on his face and starts shaking it. Your mom tells him, with a smile, to stop, and you start laughing.

When you have a conversation with your brothers that contains so many inside jokes that someone else would have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Discussing the finer points of time-travel theory in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

That harmonization an orchestra makes before they start playing, almost like that long-drawn out sound you hear at the beginning of movies when the letters "THX" are on the screen. Someone should know what I'm talking about here.

Orchestras. Symphonies. Grand music. All the time.

Waking up and realizing I have absolutely no work to do

Wearing something that I made, telling people this when they ask, and watching their surprised reactions

Getting a book that you really, really have been wanting to read, and feeling that excitement of a nice long read ahead of you.

And lastly, whenever I'm feeling sad or whatever, I get this picture in my head of me, in a meadow of rolling green hills. No one else for miles. A breeze softly stirring the dandelions. Either that, or a forest, light slanting in through the canopy, a soft carpet of pine needles and leaves understood. I love the sound of trees softly swishing together in the wind. Reminds me of my oldest brother, who I haven't seen in months.  

-When I ask my friend,"Am I a legitamately nice person?" and he laughs and his friends laugh and I laugh and he says yes.

-When that same friend does this weird thing with his hands and doesn't stop when I look at him. He says, "I only do it around people I feel comfortable with."

-My friend rapping about hair

("My hair smells like a pear

Because I use pear shampoo

Some people say manure but I say horse poo.

Yeah!")

-When I get fake-angry and my friend Gigi backs me up, yelling "OOOH Applejaguar's getting angry! And she's coming in for the punch! OOOOH!"

- Yelling about paradoxes

-The fact that my art teacher plays public radio while he eats his lunch, and then forgets to turn it off. We get to draw and cut to the sound of politics.

-When it started raining and my friend tilted her head with its orange hair up to the sky and said quietly,"The sky is crying."

-Thinking so hard and fast that I can hardly write anything down

-Coming into my Jewish school and working on an old-fashioned pushcart while yelling in Yiddish and discussing musicals and socialism.

- Holding my nose, putting my arm through my other arm, and spinning around while Gigi does the same thing. We look like strange enormous birds and we love every second of it.

Some more happy things:

~Car rides. Watching raindrops race each other down the window and discussing Star Wars conspiracy theories with my dad and singing loudly to that song I haven't heard in ages

~Taking polaroids after basketball games, where half of Paula's face is cut off and I'm carrying Lauren on my back and Jocelyn is making the weirdest face possible

~Looking at the rainbow fish in Walmart when nobody is around

~Getting letters, emails, texts

~Playing hide and seek with my cousins at 3 AM on New Year's Eve, and getting yelled at by my parents because I'm making too much noise. Watching the ball drop and drinking sparkling grape juice, and making a blanket fort only to tear it down because it's freezing and we need them

~Sleeping in my sister's room because she's scared of the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who

~Taking Selah out to eat after Volleyball practice, because it's her birthday and four of us have birthdays between the 29th of December and 19th of January

~When somebody in my class falls asleep and my teacher slams a book on the desk to wake them up. Inside jokes that get passed on from class to class, that we have to explain to the new kids because yelling "Impeach her!" whenever our class president does anything wrong or "Shelly!" whenever there's an option for a name isn't 'normal'

~Drawing with chalk on the sidewalk, then watching it get washed away later when the rain comes down

~Wearing fuzzy socks under my high tops  

Things that make me happy:

-Waking up without bedhead because my hair was flat ironed the day before for a family photo shoot. I run a brush through it and voila, it stays.

-Putting on a new solid color long-sleeve blue shirt and a new owl scarf I got for Christmas. And Capri jeans. For some reason it makes me happy.

Note: The morning was fine, but about midday and all afternoon I had writer's block and I just sat around the house feeling bored and glum. But then the following things happened in the evening and I was happy again.

-Reading a couple comments readers posted on your ski lodge, and feeling very encouraged and motivated to continue it tomorrow. 

-Making popcorn the old-fashioned style in a kettle and not in the microwave. (A friend gave us the kettle for Christmas.) My mom puts lots of butter. Mmm!

-Sitting on the couch with my mom, and my brother is across from me on the other couch, and my dad in the blue rocking chair, and we are all eating the popcorn. My mom and I like our popcorn with Buncha Cruncha. I throw in a few M&Ms for good measure.

-We all watch The Incredibles which we had watched once a long time ago but we didn't remember it very well, so it was fun to watch.

-When I can go to the library and just stare at all the books, run my fingers over them, inhale the lovely smell of books, grab as many as I can hold, and settle onto my favorite chair. One day I will spend the entire day in a library.

-When a drawing works out

-Re-reading posts on RPs I've written

-Creating really good charries who will be with me forever

-A hug from my best friend after we (and the kids) survive us caring for every single child at my synagogue

-Writing a crazy roleplaying story with certain people (espesially when I get to be Holmes)

-When a little baby who I've been watching sense he was born attempts to say my name for the first time

-When Coach Nadia, whose been my coach for six years, since I was nine, tells me how proud she is of me, and how far I've come from the little girl who couldn't even learn her floor routene. The little girl she thought would never even get to level four. How proud of me she is, for never giving up. I'm a level six now, and she thought I would quit at level three. She's like a second mom to me, and her praise means so much. She's the kind of person who doesn't give praise unless you really earn it.

-When one little boy who I've been babysitting sense he was two goes into kindergarten because he's six now. And how when I come to visit his school he still jumps into my arms and doesn't let go of my hand until I have to leave.

-Learning that this little boy's mom is pregnant. Then learning that it's a girl, about seven months later. And getting to hold this little baby girl for the first time, knowing she's gonna grow up with me taking care of her, just like her two little brothers. I love her already.

-Watching one of the kids I take care of do something kind

-FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM!!! AND THE ENTIRE SOUND TRACK!

-You guys <3

-When we work out an argument together

-Hanging out with my brother

-Having synesthesia and watching the colors swirling in my mind's eye while listening to music  

-Learning that I've made a difference in someone's life

-Playing hide and go seek with my cousins and getting stuck underneath a bed, and then one of my cousins hiding in the pantry, so when his brother (the seeker) gives up on finding him and goes to get a snack,  he jumps out and screams to scare him

>Not having too much homework :D

>Inadvertently sewing the stupidest-looking hat ever (and resolving to wear it)

>Making a necktie!

>Washing dishes!

>Long Skype calls with my best friend, whom I love :)

Happy New Year to all!