Coffee!

What makes me happy in the morning? COFFEE.

Oh, sweet nectar of life. Off to my second cup of glory juice. Thanks for listening. :)

This Song

Since You've Been Around by Rosie Thomas

I heard this song at the end of a particularly romantic Criminal Minds episode, so I looked it up and downloaded it. It was a cozy, rainy kind of day, and the song fit my mood perfectly. Now it's a cornerstone of my "chill" playlist, and I often find myself hitting repeat again and again.

Apropos of nothing, this artist's wikipedia page says she's a singer/songwriter/stand-up comedienne. What a range. :)

Confetti

We were lucky enough to get Brewers tickets to game 5 of the NL divisional series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. (That alone should make the "what makes me happy" list, but wait, it gets better.) It was a slow game, with few runs scored, and it actually went into extra innings. It being game 5, the last of the series, there was a lot on the line. We were all wringing our terrible towels in angst. In the 10th inning, a couple of batters got on base, and then Nyjer Morgan (aka Tony Plush) hit a game-winning RBI to beat the D-backs 3-2. The crowd went wild.

And then...
...confetti rained down from the stadium's ceiling.

It's been on my "bucket list" since forever to be somewhere when confetti comes down. This was it. I was caught up in the crowd's ecstasy in the Brewers' win, but it was disguised ecstasy for my part. I'd quickly gotten over the big victory and had moved on to the fact that one of my life goals was complete -- I was right in the middle of a genuine ticker-tape situation. How cool is that!? (I'll admit that while everyone was "woo-hoo"-ing and slapping high fives, I was in my own little world yelling, "I LOVE CONFETTI!" You might think it's lame, but I don't care. This had been a long time coming.)

So I was happy to be a part of my team's big win, but most of all, I was happy to feel the tiny pieces of confetti landing in my hair. I even took a few home in my pocket. And then I wondered whose job it was to clean all of that up? I bet they weren't as happy about it as me. :)

The Beach

I recently took a trip to Santa Barbara, CA with my family (more on that later). I literally could not contain my happiness when I was at the beach. I took off my sandals and ran right into the surf, jumping around and screaming. It might have been partially due to the massive amount of coffee I'd just drank due to my small bout of jet lag, but the waves made such a nice sound, and looking out into the vast expanse of the ocean horizon was breathtaking. The sand was warm and soft, and the salty water sprayed as it swelled up onto the shore. We collected seashells and rocks, skipped stones, and only one of us got really wet (me). Anyway, I took a video to share. Enjoy!