Happiness is...

**Warning** - There are a few F bombs in this post so if you're offended by some serious swearing, skip over #6.

Happiness is...

1. A really good quality coffee bean pulled to perfection. There's nothing quite like sipping on a perfect espresso.

2. Sitting in a rocking chair on the back patio when spring has sprung with a great classic in my hand, reading to my heart's content. What will it be this year? Candide, Wuthering Heights, Woman in White?

3. Used bookstores. I could spend hours wondering around used book stores. It's best when you happen to find an original copy of something spectacular. This is my find from yesterday's adventures. Original copy from 1945.

So it's not from the 1800s? So what. It's still old. You know what else, it was caked with dust along the tops of the pages. How awesome is that? I'll tell you just how awesome it is. It's AWESOME! :)

4. Working from home in my jammies and fuzzy slippers. Yup, I'm doing it right now. Can't beat it. See?

5. Friends that you can't help but love. I have a few like that and I'm so thankful that I do. BV, TP, TH, BH, MV, CP you guys are the best. Seriously the best!

6. Getting tattooed.

Let me tell you a little story of my last adventures in Vegas. I'm going on the record infront of the whole world right now to say that "I HATE LAS VEGAS". It's true. I hate Vegas with a white hot passion. The last time I was there with a girl friend over her birthday, we had a horrible time. I mean horrible. Nothing was working out. People were pissing us off one after another. She decided she wanted to get a tattoo while we were there so we found a place in the ghetto of Vegas to go get tattooed at 2:30 in the morning. We got there and I was just in a piss poor mood to say the least. We both were. We were so grumpy that we kept laughing at how ridiculous we were both being.

I'm a tattoo snob. I make my appointments 6 months in advance to book the best artists to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars and hours under the needle so going to a ghetto tattoo shop in shitville Vegas town was not top on my priority list. But, I told friend BH that we'd make sure to get it done anyway. So we went into the shop. She told the guy that I was apprehensive about getting any work done from them because I know a little something about getting tattooed (this is big mistake by the way, don't do this). So the tattoo guy leans over eye to eye with me and says in a cool sarcastic tone, "oh...I love it when people know about tattooing, please tell me what you know". Smart ass mother fucker. Oh no! Wrong chick to mess with on the wrong day, in the wrong part of the wrong shit town.

I looked him square in the eyes, serious as a heart attack and said "look...Bitch, I'm not in the mood to get fucked with right now so you might think about tattooing my friend and leaving me the fuck alone before I take that tattoo gun over there and stab you in the fucking eye with it". Ya that's pretty much how it went. I might have missed a couple F bombs thrown around but you get the idea. So, he proceeded to tattoo my friend and a very different guy tattooed me. 5 minutes under the needle and I was all smiles, no joke. How it works, I have no idea. Getting tattooed just makes me happy. See?

7. Shoes. Yup. Shoes make me happy. I can be in a horrible mood but nothing is so bad that a trip to Nordstrom shoe department can't fix.

8. Janice Joplin. Another one of those things I can't explain. She sings the blues but Janice just makes me smile. I love that raspy alcoholic voice of hers. Especially this song.


And this one...


9. Dancing with my husband. There's just something about ballroom dancing with that man that makes me ridiculously giddy happy.

10. The idea of being able to play a classical piece on my guitar someday and it sounding somewhat like it's suppose to sound. Like this one by Francisco Tarrega.



Thank you Karen for awarding me this lovely blog honor.

I'm not going to pass it on to anyone though. I know. I'm a bad bad blogger. :( No, I was just a little delayed in getting it posted and everything and I see that it's going around like wildfire so rather than doing tons of extra homework to find out who has gotten it and who hasn't, I'm just holding onto it for the time being. Then...when you least expect it, I'll whip it out and pass it on.