Favorite Things, Part I

A long time ago, a friend told me to do a blog post about my favorite things. I have been turning the idea over and over ever since (and it was a long time ago). I decided to break it up into parts. Today's is a little more of the personal side. (Please ignore my tell-not-show writing style here, and forgive me. One of these days I'll have more time for a show-not-tell post.) Later, I'll do fun gear. Because everyone likes gear.

One of my favorite things about my relationship with my husband happens when we are watching a scene on TV or a scene unfold in public, and we look at each other, and we just KNOW what the other person is thinking. A small shake of the head, a smile, or a glance, and it's a whole conversation. It makes me light up inside.

One of my favorite things about my family is that we actually love to spend time together. We genuine interest in each other, and we are all kind to each other, and to others out in the world--I'm very lucky that I am surrounded by such generous people--with their time, their love, their enthusiasm, and their support when things get rough. I have a deep sense of admiration for these people.

One of my favorite things about my friends is that I can always, always, always count on them to pick me up. Time and again, my friends say and do things that keep me real, cheer me up, and remind me not to take everything so seriously. And we can always make each other laugh. And god knows, I love laughing. We are so good at entertaining each other.

One of my favorite ways to spend time is reading magazines, especially ones with in-depth features (think Esquire, Rolling Stone (though I don't read that one much these days), Bitch, Bust, Vanity Fair, New York, New Yorker) and home decorating (Elle Decor, the beloved but defunct Domino, ReadyMade, etc.). I love getting lost in other people's lives, ways to see the world, and how people live. One of my favorite parts of traveling is the send-off...getting to the airport and splurging on all the great magazines at the newsstands.

Which brings me to one of my favorite things about myself--this one was hard. I think one of my favorite things about myself is my sense of curiosity. I like to learn about other people and their lives, what makes them tick, how they live, how to do new things, or how the world goes 'round. I'm truly curious, and I hope I never lose that sense of wanting to learn, wanting to be surprised, and constantly finding signs that humanity isn't totally cracked.

Recommitting to the Intention

Lying on the floor on a rubber mat, breathing deeply, and emptying out the contents of my brain. Reverse thinking. No doing, besides breathing and letting go.

Then, suddenly, I sweep my arms over my head and stretch from the tips of my fingers to the tops of my toes. Arch up and bridge out, raising and lowering my arms and spine as I breathe in and out and find my zone.

Heart beating a little faster, standing now, sweeping arms up overhead, now bending in half, suddenly pushing a leg back to a lunge, palms pushing against the floor, now the dreaded plank, and we freeze, holding ourselves up, the beginning of a pushup. Now, lower, and halfway up into Cobra, then Up Dog, now curling toes under, pushing sitting bones up, blood rushing as I hang my head and hold it, breathing, waiting for the next gentle suggestion.

Shaking it out, pushing into Crescent, arms overhead, pivoting, Warrior one, two, three, my thighs are burning, but as I hinge forward that my back lays flatter (though not yet as flat as I'd like), and I am touching the floor with certainty, not grazing with fingertips, not hovering six inches above the floor. Boat pose, leaning back but not relaxing now, no, shaking, a thin sheen developing over my whole body.

Hip flexors, calves, lower back, relaxing the shoulders down, rolling the neck, tipping the head back, spine crackling.

Every Tuesday night, my yoga instructor asks us to commit to our intention. It can be a simple one. No lofty goals needed in an hour of yoga, a nice reminder to someone like me, someone as flexible as a two-by-four.

I commit. I commit. I commit to each pose because I want to be healthier, more flexible; my stomach likes it, I can tell. I commit to letting go of the day, of the six days leading up to this hour. I forget it. I indulge, and I work at it.

I will likely never be able to sing or play piano, despite my deep wishes, or paint a beautiful portrait, or change the world, or win a Pulitzer or Booker prize. But for one hour, I can commit to breathing. Just breathing.

I need to commit to writing. I relax into it, but at the same time, if I'm serious, I have to work at it, invent synapses, create bridges, reach out through my whole body, exercise vocabulary, strengthen my mental reserve, push myself to the limit. I have to commit. Instead of my fingers finding the floor, they find the keys, and hopefully, eventually, they are skyward, and I am saying, even if I'm shaking, finally. I'm where I want to be.

As my yoga instructor reminds us each week: If you could call it perfection, what would it look like, feel like, be like? In this moment, call it perfection, and know that it is enough.

Our Favorite Things

Inspired by WeeMo's request and Found Out About Me's post, here is a list of a few of my favorite things:

Cupcakes
Being married to William
The smell (and taste) of oranges
Molly's paws
Babies laughing
Fun snail mail
Fake eyelashes
The smell of line-dried sheets
Rock and roll
Protesters
Old photos
Trivial Pursuit
Big sunglasses
Sleeping in
Hawaii
Long conversations
Lilacs
Caffeine
Vintage dresses
Correct punctuation
Afternoons at Ikea
Thunderstorms
Blank books
Purple
Not using plastic bags
Mounds bars
Calvin Klein sheets
Target
Laughing so hard I cry; making someone laugh so hard they cry
Fresh lemonade
Letterpress stationery
Peonies
Bookstores
Play-Doh
smell of suntan lotion
making lists
The Bill of Rights
Nerds
Glitter (the art supply, not the Mariah Carey movie)
Feeling useful
Arguing politics with my dad
Driving with the windows down and the heat on in my car in the fall
Goat cheese
Home decorating
Tennis
Project Runway
J. Crew
Trees
Dr Pepper
Fishing
Simply Orange
Blog Friends
Hot days, cold lakes
Getting off airplanes
Listening to Liz Phair, Tom Petty, R.E.M., etc.
Chocolate mousse
Pineapple
William's egg sandwiches on weekend mornings
New socks (especially knee-highs)
Massages
The New Yorker
Good questions
Pretty paper
The scratchy sound on records
Animal prints

William's favorite things:
Laying in bed after a hard day
Pale Ale
Chips and salsa
Sound of blow dryers (hair dryers)
Warm laundry
Crisp fall days
Milk and cookies
All things Dutch
Snuggling with Katie and Molly on a do-nothing Saturday
First snowfall of the year (extra props if it happens at night)
Football
When my Katie sings
A new magazine
Good deals
Being in a boat
Sunflower seeds and fishing
Waking up second
Good graphic design
Riding my bike
RadioLab (New York Public Radio show)
Deep-fried turkey
Bacon
NewsRadio and Seinfeld
Tetris
Researching stuff online (esp. potential purchases)
Traveling: seafood in Santorini, paella in Barcelona, pomme frites in Amsterdam, mousse in Paris, naan in India
Right when the wheels leave the ground on the airplane
Doing Molly's voice
Saying "Caaaaats!!!" extra props if they are in "paaaants".
Robots
Legos
Chocolate
Chocolate again
Art supplies (all the hidden potential which may never come to be)
Seeing a sunrise (much better than a sunset)
Jumping on pillows
Jumping into water
Smelling Katie's hair
Smell of Molly's paws
When Molly huffs and puffs
Playing catch with a baseball or football
Playing basketball
Flipping Out (both the show, and just flipping out)

Our favorite things:
Thai food on Friday nights
Eating at The Sample Room
Weekend mornings at the Farmer's Market
Hawaii
Decorating
Vintage shops
Making each other laugh
Dogs
Teak furniture
The color pink
Corn on the cob and BLT's
The Bulldog bar
Setting goals
The Office
Arrested Development
Art fairs, especially Art-a-Whirl
Etsy
Each other