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Happiness is Discovery

There is something about finding great Stuff that I wasn’t expecting that makes me happy. Like cleaning out my closet and discovering something marvelous from ten years ago (in the midst of all the what-was-I-thinking? stuff from back then). Or looking for something on eBay and tripping over something I wasn’t looking for that turns out to be just what I needed. Or browsing Petfinder looking for a dachshund that needed a home and finding the perfect dachshund-chihuahua-alien mix (Johnny is the perfect dog). The important thing about finding something is that I wasn’t expecting it. It’s not like I went looking for a black tank top and found one. It’s a bolt from the blue that makes me smile.

What gave you a bolt of happiness this week?

89 Responses

  1. I’m happy because we got a lot of yard chores done yesterday and best of all, I found my missing 3rd sock!! Over the winter Hannah took 3 of my socks outside. I found 2 in the early part of spring and then nothing until yesterday. I found this one near the back steps in a flower bed we are tilling up and resodding.

    Today is dinner theatre with friends, tomorrow we are taking a drive to visit a greenhouse owned by a friend of Paul’s.

    Happy Victoria Day my fellow Canadians.

    1. The Third Sock Mystery is solved! I like for a book title: The Third Sock Mystery.

      1. That really has possibilities! Two identical socks are a pair. A third one could imply a second identical pair, but what if there was some plausible reason why the first pair should be one-of-a-kind?

  2. Happiness is watching the first two episodes of Murderbot which were excellent. So far sticking mostly to the book. Also, getting to see Alexandor Skarsgård naked, without genitals but still pretty good.

    Happy Victoria Day long weekend for those who celebrate, although I am actually south of the border in Orlando, working our biggest conference of the year. Which means, as I always say, spending my days in a giant, windowless, neon-lit basement with 20,000 badly dressed IT geeks.

    2. Kid 1 wants to watch Murderbot all together when she gets home for the summer in three weeks—it’s really hard to wait!!

      1. Well, at least you’ll have three more episodes dropped by then. So you can truly binge.

  3. I’ve just discovered you on Kindle. It has been a real pleasure. Even staying awake til 3 in the morning to finish a book! Loved Rocky Start, but unfortunately Very Nice Funerals is a small sample, not the whole book on KU. It says 414 pages, but isn’t.

    Not sure why. Sometimes it’s because I’m in London (UK) but the others are fine. Please can you get fixed? Thank you! Debbie

    1. I’ll tell Bob. He’s our tech person. I just make stuff up.
      Welcome to Argh, Debbie!

    2. Is it possible that was the end of the sample? Did you download the book into your Kindle library or just click on the sample? Because nobody else has had that problem, so Bob said to check that first.

  4. Happiness is getting ideas for scenes while nailing down my characters in the plotting class I’m taking. I had fun helping my d-i-l polish a 100 word story she’s writing for a contest. My husband and I made reservations and paid the down payment for a river cruise on the Danube to see the Christmas markets in December. So happy that it’s actually going to happen!

    2. Carrie, you will have an amazing time. A river cruise, our new favourite type of cruise. We cruised Amsterdam to Switzerland in early December. Not the Danube. Dress in layers. It was the best and the most relaxing time. You will love it.

  5. My happiness this week is the continuing spectacular warbler migration and being able to go out to lovely places to find and photograph them.

  6. We are camping! It’s been nice to unplug (please ignore that I have cell service hahahaha).
    And of course, being th May Long, we’re all camping in the rain.
    Which means naps 🙂

  7. I like stuff, too. I think that one of the reasons I sell online is so that I can keep going out and finding great stuff, even if it’s not meant to be mine long term. We are in the throws of yard sale season here, and it is one of the benefits of living in central Pa. We have an aging population who have good taste and are downsizing.

    I bought two bookshelves yesterday for $5 each and spent this morning cleaning and organizing. Storage is wonderful. The only downside is that I had to stop to go to work. It kills me sometimes.

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJyy-Dfx8I1/?igsh=MXFwbTc1YWg2NW96Zg==

    I also went to another book sale yesterday and got some great craft books. I think that the science fiction/fantasy fandom must have grown because I hardly ever find anything good in those sections anymore, but I enjoy the hunt.

    2. Oh, yeah, the shoe arrangement looks great!

      Hmm. “The Shoe Arrangement” sounds like the sequel to The Third Sock Mystery.

  8. My happiness was getting through two rehearsals with the orchestra before performance last night, which went pretty well. I do think we all need T-shirts that say “I Survived Stravinsky,” but the John Rutter “Gloria” was quite wonderful. And next year, Mozart is planned, so at least chords will resolve!

    1. Was it the Psalms? I spent two months trying to digest the psalms soprano part!
      Mozart is my favorite, his music is so intuitive and near perfect.

  9. I had a very exciting wildlife day, yesterday. Kali was staring into the Blue Spruce, so I went to investigate, and there was a squirrel trapped under there. On closer inspection, it had black string all over its back side. I went to get my strong scissors, pulled the stick closer to me, and cut as much of the string as I could before the freed squirrel ran off. I hope it manages to get the rest of that off. Later, I noticed that the netting held up by two poles next door was all tangled up on the ground. It’s one of those soccer goal things to help a kid get better at aiming the ball through holes.

    Then, last night, I went to see if we were getting the unexpected rain that came up on my phone, and saw my first Opossum of the year on the patio. I’ve been putting out leftover cat food, birdseed and other stuff out for a while. I put half a banana on the plate, last night, too. I love watching opossums eat. It’s quite a challenge, with that long snout and all those teeth. This one saved the banana for dessert. So cute!

    1. I leave out treats for the opossums that come on my deck. I have one that eats on the banana slices first. I think it’s trying to eat them before another one comes along to get them. They also like grapes but often eat the insides and spit out the grape skins.

  10. Jenny, an email friend told me yesterday that her daughter was going to Huntington Beach this weekend to watch the Wiener Dog Race. Have you heard of it? It gave me a giggle.

      5. Thanks, Jenny! I had never seen that. And now I’m making my whole family watch it.

  11. We were in despair because registration for the non-profit’s annual symposium has been so low. So many people are concerned about traveling to the US and don’t want to commit. Someone offered to underwrite the cost enough so that we will be ok even if we don’t have enough people to make expenses, which allows us to go ahead with a clear conscience We can say to people”it WILL happen -plan to come and if at the last minute, you have to cancel, that’s fine”. Also allows fir some scholarships which makes it more possible for some people. We had both been feeling incapacitated and now feel optimistic.

    And my grocery has Australian Violet Crumble honeycomb candy on sale and it is great !!!!

    3. Can you offer registration and access through Zoom or equivalent? Sidesteps the visa, etc., problem. A lot of cons did that during Covid.

  12. I popped into a neighbourhood consignment store to look for a pair of dressy shoes for an upcoming wedding and ended up with a dress and shoes. It’s a fancy wedding and I was considering renting a dress, which involved luck and logistics. The dress is very pretty – navy with pink flowers on the skirt. I paid less for both items than I would have for a pair of shoes at a regular shoe store which also makes me happy.

    After nearly a full week sick in bed, I’m finally starting to feel human again. It was hot last week and my gardens are going a bit crazy, especially the weeds. I finally planted my peas – a little late but we’ll see what happens. Today I’m hoping to finish filling my raised bed and plant greens and radishes. Cooler temps this week so tender seedlings will need to come inside at night.

  13. I’m happy that with the help of my next-door neighbors, my metal raised bed (4′ x 8′ and 2′ high) is finally filled, and I can start planting! I’ve really missed vegetable gardening since I quit about four years ago for a variety of reasons that the raised bed will mostly resolve.

    Also happy to have made significant progress on a BUNCH of quiltlets and lap quilts. Both novel-writing and bed-sized quiltmaking are long-term projects, where progress is hard to notice, so it’s really nice to have little projects that offer some fairly quick, if not immediate, gratification. No pix yet, but maybe on Working Wednesday.

  14. This morning, I glanced out the kitchen window and saw that the peonies have sprouted. Long stems with actual buds at the tips. What a surprise.

    Last week I discovered how much I really liked chocolate covered pretzels. Never liked pretzels by themselves. Rods, sticks, squares, pretzel shaped, no way. Blech! In a box of chocolates was a chocolate covered pretzel with mini-M&Ms smothered around it. I sort of gave it the stink eye and after waiting a couple days decided to break of a piece and ended up eating the whole thing. Now I’m hooked. Fast forward to yesterday when my son was heading out, I asked him to go by the candy store and pick up a few more for his addicted mother. Unfortunately, yesterday was prom day and people were lined up to get flowers (flower/candy shop) for the girls and he just couldn’t wait any longer. I might have to make them myself.

  15. My solo-adventure was a blast! Not just the show – which I think was Sarah Millican’s best yet! (not at all biased, nooo no) – but just… the whole thing. That I did it, and that it went so well thanks to car-mech SIL and nice staff at the theatre. Both the lady who guided me and her manager (through her) after I thanked them for being there said they were only happy to help out, and encouraged me to come back soon again. And the best thing: I didn’t feel anxious or scared at all! Not even once! It’s a great discovery to find I can go on adventures all by myself now, if I want to.
    Related, smaller happy is that I was smart enough to chuck a small knitting-loom, yarn and crochet- and loom-hooks in my bag last minute, so I had something to busy myself with during waits. A washcloth happened thanks to that, and my hands had something to do. The Flexee-looms are great that way, since you can roll them up or fold them and easily take them with you. Great discovery back when! I should buy some more sets…
    I’m happy and grateful for old children’s books that feel like hugs and safety. And so incredibly grateful for my lovely, lovely friend over in England who picks pieces of me up again and puts them back together. He’s an ocean of calm when I feel like I’m breaking, telling me it’ll be okay and that we’ll do some kintsugi on all cracks: the Japanese art of repairing broken things with gold lacquer to make them even prettier than before. He says that my heart is exactly that. He’s such a gem, this lad. Real shame he is 1. married already and 2. gay. Sigh.

    1. So glad the trip was a success. Glad to hear you liked the Millican show – I can’t wait to see her in the fall.

    2. Congratulations Shass. You may be the bravest person I know. I’m so glad your solo excursion went well. Gay guys are the best. Some Cis guys should take lessons.

  16. I discovered that I can make a reasonably good ricotta and greens quiche that is low histamine and gluten free and have been eating that for lunch all week. Good thing it turned out ok, since I ended up with two 9” quiches… My notes to self for next time are a smidge less salt and chop the greens rather than cutting into strips for better distribution and less ginormous bites of kale/collards and not much else.

    Less delightful discovery was that, while I can tolerate food from Chipotle that allegedly has lime and lemon juice in it, I cannot tolerate even a tiny bit of lemon juice from the lemons in our yard. I put 2 tsp in a huge batch of lentil salad and was immediately congested and itchy after sampling it. Sigh. I guess I’ll just be grateful I can eat my little Chipotle bowls for whatever reason…

    We watched part of the Eurovision finale yesterday and I almost died laughing at the Estonian performance—that was quite a discovery!! Somehow the song was very reminiscent of one on a pop CD my MIL gave me many years ago called Il treno va (excuse any misspellings—I only know a few words of Italian). My MIL purchased the CD based entirely on the album cover and freely admitted she had no idea of the music was any good when I asked. Most of the album was entirely forgettable, but Il treno va was somehow a real bop that was also ridiculous and made us laugh every time we heard it… I’ll have to look it up on Spotify and give it another listen.

  17. Happy about the nice sunny weather.
    Happy to have made progress in the front garddn (which is dmalk): flowers planted, bench moved so that we can sit in thf afternoon glow). Amazing how many muscles I seem to never use (soreness all over from only one afternoon of work!).
    Happy the my ebook readers are full of interesting books and the mail brought two second hand copies of books that are in perfect condition!

  18. Happy yesterday was two (and a bit) hours of yard work resulting in satisfactory front yard status, plus a bit of watering apparently served as a rain dance. Even a few drops of precipitation is welcome. I then gave myself permission to cancel a tentative dinner rendezvous with former co-worker (he’s been rescheduling for weeks, it was my turn) because I was tired. And I then arranged with DH to order from a favored local restaurant so he could pick up dinner (for two days) on his way home. And we then watched the first episode of new season of Welcome to Wrexham.

    Today, happy is having gotten some actual housekeeping done in advance of landlord / friend visit, plus watered things in the backyard, fed the birds, cleaned the hand vac, and took out trash. DH is in the process of cooking breakfast. Once landlords / friends get here, neither of us will get a damn thing done so it’s good to have a productive morning.

    Now I’m going to treat myself to a book at Smashwords. Happy days, y’all.

  19. I’m happy today because Grandson #1 helped me assemble (he did all the work, actually) my new bed, the one with electric motors that raise the head and feet. Last night I got a full night’s uninterrupted sleep. GS1 also carted away the old frame to the trash. Good kid. 🙂

    Today I reassembled gardening unit Liam and replanted three of four plants in it. None had germinated yet.

  20. I’ve had a lovely week with an old friend who came to stay. We had some good outings, and the weather continues surreally fabulous.

  21. Craft classes made me happy this week … London Craft Week so Armenian Embroidery, taster Gold work embroidery, Chinese bamboo basket and polish paper cutting. Now I have more projects to finish, but lots of fun learning new things

  23. After a tough week, we went to see the band Pink Martini on Friday night, and they were as brilliant as ever. It was a fantastic show, they sang old favourites, and a brand new song they were still working on. I’d forgotten we’d bought the tickets in all the drama of the past few weeks, and when the reminder pinged on my phone, it was a moment of delight.

  24. Thrilled to have the power back after two days without. A squall line attached to a thunderstorm hit our area especially hard. But our house and tree chame though just fine. SO HAPPY I paid to have recommended three work done earlier this spring. I’m sure it saved our bacon and possibly our neighbors’ too. 😀

  25. Happiness is getting awesome feedback from the judges of a writing contest that I submitted two pieces of work to. Thrilled with their insights even though I didn’t place. But 12th and 14th out of 70 ain’t bad. 🤩

  26. After returning from a two-week trip away, a break from caregiving, I’m happy to finally feel a bit back into routine. I see the imminent end of multiple other responsibilities, and that also makes me happy. On the lighter side, I put up the hummingbird feeder and have been visited several times, including once while I was arranging red flowers outside. They want to try a sip, I guess. After our annual checkups, the cat (who never notices the feeder or the hummers) came back with good health reports, and so did I.
    I bought a watercolor set with the little pans of pigment, perfect for painting outside, and the intention is to use them.

  27. I had a mostly good time at a quilting retreat. I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped but here’s a link to what I did finish. The scrappy quilt still needs borders and the paper piecing has a long way to go. https://www.instagram.com/p/DJzuHPvxea8/?igsh=MTk0OWM0NzI4eGt0aQ==

    This was the 5th year of our group retreating together. However, we had a few folks missing for sad reasons. One because her husband had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer so she stayed with him. Another because her son had chosen to go into hospice and passed away Wednesday morning of the retreat. He had MS and leukemia. Another was missing because of a family event, so at least it was a hopefully happy time.

    We did have 2 new folks joined us and one of them was an absolute delight. So, I’m happy I got to meet her and I hope she will spend more time with our group.

    I’m also happy that I took Friday off because the weather was beautiful! I washed my car and got a few things done.

  28. Happiness is buying some flowers and vegetables and actually starting to plant them. I’ll probably need a few more flowers so will need a second trip to the green house.

    Went to my progressive group’s new location opening. We’ve grown over the years and needed a bigger space. Yay!

    Next up is our primary election.

  29. I took a quilting class on Saturday. I probably learned two things about this particular pattern – otherwise, it was mostly a time to sit and sew with others from the guild.

    I did come away with insights about myself though. We didn’t cut anything until we got to class. I made short work of the background and accents for the entire quilt. The focal fabrics were to be a variety of fat quarters – a piece about 20″ x 18″. The cutting instructions allowed you to get the pieces for 4 blocks out of one fat quarter. So I cut one FQ and proceeded to make 4 blocks. I didn’t even consider making just one – it didn’t make sense to do it that way. But everyone else was amazed that I’d come up with this chain piecing method of doing four blocks at a time.

    So, happy with the time spent with others. A little flabbergasted that no one else thought about the piecing the way I did. A little amazed at my efficiency brain working overtime. (I did get 8 blocks pieced during our time in class. I think the next most was 4.)

    1. I’m surprised you didn’t layer the FQs so you’d cut 16 blocks or so at once. Good job on getting stuff done!

      1. I will admit I thought about it, but I’m still tentative as to which FQs will be included.

  30. Rose the Cockerdor has started her Silver Sniffer Dog course, and it is a joy watching all the pupils in action. There’s everyone from her Bronze course (Rose, Cooper the Springador, Olive the red/gold labrador and Alfie the Cockapoo). We have been joined by Jax (brown labrador) and Herman (miniature Daschund, now fondly referred to as Herman the German).

    There’s lots of bouncy, slobbery behaviour, and then there’s Herman, who looks at the rest with disdain and trots along on very short legs with great purpose to home in on his sniff targets. He’s an absolute delight.

    1. Herman! My heart. I grew up with a Daschound, so I have a soft spot for their short legs and big personalities.

      1. EB White wrote a fabulous essay about his dachshund Fred.
        I will try to find the name of the book it’s in, but I did find this lengthy and lovely excerpt. (Actually he apparently wrote a lot about his dogs and so someone pulled it together in a book called “White on Dogs” but I found it in a book of his essays.)
        “There is a book out called Dog Training Made Easy, and it was sent to me the other day by the publisher, who rightly guessed that it would catch my eye. I like to read books on dog training. Being the owner of dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor. Every sentence is a riot. Some day, if I ever get a chance, I shall write a book, or warning, on the character and temperament of the Dachshund and why he can’t be trained and shouldn’t be. I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club than induce a dachshund to heed my slightest command. For a number of years past I have been agreeably encumbered by a very large and dissolute dachshund named Fred. Of all the dogs whom I have served I’ve never known one who understood so much of what I say or held it in such deep contempt. When I address Fred I never have to raise either my voice or my hopes. He even disobeys me when I instruct him in something that he wants to do. And when I answer his peremptory scratch at the door and hold the door open for him to walk through, he stops in the middle and lights a cigarette, just to hold me up.”

  31. My siblings cracked me up with silliness on the family text thread. Since I’m about Pope Leo’s age, and I grew up Catholic in the Chicago area, they constructed this (wholly fictitious) narrative that I dated him in high school, helped him recognize his calling, and nudged him toward the priesthood, “because MJ brings out the best in everyone.” Again, Internet, this is COMPLETELY MADE UP.

    2. “Hmm, it’s not you… it’s me. I’d rather be celibate instead of dating.” Future Pope Leo

      😉

  32. Late update: I had my audition and got a callback for the part I liked best! Director loves how I did it and told me so!

  33. I successfully spent my 65th birthday weekend gardening.

    While I was gardening, a kid walking by with a tiny backpack and a very large walking stick said, in tears, she was lost and running away and asked me if she could use my phone to call her mom.

    Of course I gave her my phone (and then took it back to give directions), a glass of water and tissues.

    When her mom showed up the girl said I was invited to her funeral but the first thing the mom did was hug her (and said something about how this wasn’t a good decision). The second thing the mom did was hug me. I don’t think a funeral was on the agenda.

    It all ended well so it had a Norman Rockwell flavor but it could have been bad.

    That was my unexpected discovery of happiness.

  34. Happiness this week was putting down a deposit on an eclipse cruise next August. The dates are right in the middle of a deadline, but I’m definitely retiring at the end of this year, so I don’t care.

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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