My Favorite Things

Granted, Oprah’s list is probably better than mine, but I’m on a budget here people…

Watching movies in bed on Saturday mornings: I love to wake up on Saturday with nothing on the books. No weddings or showers to go to, no mile-long list of errands or chores, just a blank page of a day. Even when I wake up relatively early, I don’t mind because I take bliss in the knowledge that I have no call to get out of bed. I can stay there as long as I want. Generally, the HBO Gods smile down on me and I am able to find an entertaining, but not too perplexing movie. About thirty minutes after this ritual begins, I scamper to the kitchen and start a pot of coffee. What’s a Saturday morning in bed without coffee? Which leads me to favorite thing number two….

Coffee: Otherwise known as sweet and essential nectar from on high. Coffee is so much more than a beverage to me. It’s my morning companion – when no one else is awake at 5:25 on a Monday morning, I’ve got my coffee. It faithfully sits on the bathroom counter in my Luckenbach, Texas, mug while I dry my hair and make ready for the day. Coffee is also a communication platform. It’s the excuse for a first date, a reason to catch up with an old friend. You never hear people say, “Hey, let’s get together for water sometime.” Nope, it’s always the coffee.

Laughing: I’m not talking about the forced chuckles we all muster up for our coworkers’ lame (LAME) jokes. I’m referring to next-day-abdominal-pain, teary-eyed, coke-out-the-nose laughter. It’s the kind of fun you can only have around people you get, and who get you back. There can’t be any shame or reservations or shyness, that would mean you were uncomfortable with the people around you - and you don't want coke coming out your nose around just anyone.

Family & Friends: These two get lumped together because there is a lot of overlap in my life. The only friends I had when I moved to Texas were family. And the friends I’ve made since, are a part of my family now. I don’t say it often enough, but I am blessed, I use the words family and friend interchangeably, because to me they are one and the same. I have such an amazing group of people in my life. There is never a need to worry if I’m bothering them, annoying them, making them mad. It’s a waste of time to try and impress them, because the only reason they loved me in first place is the promise they saw, which I couldn’t see in myself. True friends aren’t exactly the same in every way, but they are perfect complements of one another, which makes the teary-eyed laughter thing all the easier to accomplish.