All I need: 4 things making me happy this morning

"Well, I'm gonna to go then. And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff, and I don't need you. I don't need anything except this [ashtray].

"And that's it and that's the only thing I need, is this. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray. And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need. And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddle ball. And this lamp. The ashtray, this paddle game and the remote control and the lamp and that's all I need. And that's all I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one - I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure. And this. And that's all I need. The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, this magazine and the chair."
- Steve Martin as Navin R. Johnson in the cinematic classic The Jerk (1979)


Some days I just need a couple of things, maybe four things, to keep me happy for hours.  Today's delightful sources of joy are as follows:

 1.  $17 pair of black flats from Target.  I searched and searched to replace my last pair of worn-to-shit black ballet flats.  I ordered four pairs from Zappo's (all returned), scoured physical and on-line stores.  Finally I decided either I found a cheap pair I could live with at Target or I'd spring for the Italian leather ones in the J.Crew catalog which are available in a Size 5.  Hurray for Target saving me $100! I can just wear them to death and not do my usual shoe-math (cost/number of wearings).

2.  The bouquet I brought from home this morning.  I love having a piece of our garden on my desk.  I even enjoyed them in the car this morning, marveling at how it seems like we didn't do *anything* to produce these, nothing at all.  But that's not true. It's just that we laid the groundwork so very long ago, that now it seems miraculous, like they just come out of nowhere, these gladiolas and roses and hydrangea and daisies. 

3.  The goofy dog sticker on my thermal mug.  I have a weird relationship to stickers: I love them and yet I never want to use them so that they're still available.  Ridiculous, right?  Somewhere in a trunk or at my parents' house, I'm sure I still have a Daisy Duck sticker, unstuck, from a trip to Disneyland in the early 70s.  Ditto a "Parc Ornithologique du Teich" sticker from a field trip when we lived in crummy Peyssac outside of Bordeaux in 1974. 

4.  Photo of Trixie and me at Laurent's graduation in May that sits right next to my computer at work.  I love having Trixie's smiling face in front of me all day.  So, so glad we found each other, twins separated by 10 years + 1 day and about 3,000 miles (and different parents, natch).  So many good things the yoga has brought into my life and I count Trixie #1 among them.  Love you, beautiful.



So that's it: all I need for Wednesday, July 7th, 2010.  Done.  Satisfied.  Happy.