Little Bits of Happiness

In answer to all those times it seems like one's life is ruled by Murphy's Law, please allow me a moment to bask in a moment of calm peppered with little joyful surprises. Life is fun right now. Isn't that wonderful? I have no complaints, but I have aspirations. Know what I mean? It's kind of the difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone-- at times it's all in the semantics of a situation. But I genuinely have had so many fun things happen recently. I feel effervescent.
Part of the change in 'tude likely came from getting away for the weekend. I went with my parents to a family reunion in southern Colorado. The highlights: 1) You can't look around the Conejos Canyon and not recognize the beauty is God's handiwork. 2) I saw my grandfather's cousin/former BYU Communications professor Jack Nelson. That man is an absolute inspiration. It not only made me feel more connected to the Jack family (and relieved that I finally know how everyone is related), but also I felt more in touch with the BYU community again. Go Cougars! 3) I spent Saturday morning in Alamosa at the farmer's market and checking out the antique stores. I only found a copy of a Daphne DuMaurier novel, but it's one I haven't read, and it was $1.87 with tax. That's a deal. I did find one other thing that I liked, but I resisted the temptation to buy it. It's this ugly, ugly, ugly puppet. It's supposed to be a baby, but it looks more like an alien. Or a fetus. I'm not sure. It wasn't worth $35, but you never know. I've actually had my eye on the thing for a year now, but I'm waiting for the dealer to take a lower offer. It's so ugly, it's remarkable. And I love it.
Other beautiful little surprises of late:

* Finding 6 Regency-style, harp-back chairs for a song at a local junk store. I'm currently looking for a good upholstery fabric for the seats so I can decide what color to paint them. They're going to look great around the kitchen table.
* Winning $10 worth of free gasoline from Phillips 66. Who knows how long it will take to actually receive the voucher in the mail, but I don't even care. I think I'll give it to my boyfriend, because his car gets great gas mileage, but it still costs him about that much for a roundtrip visit to my house in Los Lunas. I am an excellent girlfriend. (Or perhaps just transparently selfish.)
* Hearing from an old acquaintance I'd kind of forgotten about, but was pleasantly surprised to reconnect with. Thank you, Facebook!
* Finding an excellent assortment of Boleslawiec pottery at T.J. Maxx. I'm now the proud owner of a new casserole dish in a pattern I haven't had before. Ta-Da!
* Good times at the Anthropologie sale section.
* A new book in the Georgia Nicolson series, "Stop in the Name of Pants!" (Does anyone else think it's funny that so much of my good mood stems from last night's shopping excursion? Don't get me wrong-- I don't think that retail therapy is the be all, end all of problem solving, but a bargain does make the world a little brighter.)
* Happy times with boyfriend. Holding hands in public is fun. Coming soon: A report on how he weathers the storm of meeting my family. Cue the scary music! Just kidding.

All in all, I’m still sleep-deprived, and my backyard needs some serious help in the grass-cutting and weed-removal department, but it’s ok. It’ll get done today or tomorrow. And when I finish that little chore (plus giving the house a little sweep-sweep, dust-dust, mop and toothpaste removal from the bathroom mirror), then I can sit back with one of the new books, or with my best television friend Felicity. If that’s not happiness, I don’t know what is!