77 things that don’t suck
Some friends of mine are using today as an occasion for making lists of 77 things that… well, you get the idea.
I’m in Sleepy Hollow again, visiting my brother and family (cast of characters, again: Zhenya = brother; Jo Ann = sister-in-law; Tesher = nephew; right now also Jo’s mom Linda, who lives in Maine). Tesher and I stayed up super extra late to make this list.
I gotta say: the things below are stuff external to us. But he’s definitely one of MY 77 things.
1. goose for Thanksgiving
2. heated mattress pad on the couch where I’m sleeping
3. …in a covered porch, with roof that makes glorious noise when it rains
4. family members’ good spirits in spite of illness
5. Tae Kwon Do [vz: and my nephew's black belt in it!]
6. the way Tesher and his mom roughhouse and giggle
7. Jo Ann’s legendary (what? it’s not? well, it should be) apple pie
8. Vika’s two cat familiars, the yin and yang of them
9. an awesome haiku / you make with your nephew / on a crazy whim
10. Jo Ann and Vika taking over the kitchen (even Jo’s mom remarked on it)
11. clementine season
12. sage, the herb, so versatile and heady
13. impromptu calligraphy painting gifts
14. board games
15. friends who will gleefully come to eat food you cook
16. Kung Fu Panda
17. sushi. especially homemade sushi. and miso soup. can’t leave out the miso soup.
18. computer games. Tesher is particularly fond of Epic Battle Fantasy 3 right now.
19. Japanese anime
20. Hudson River out the window, and sunsets over it
21. fluffy snow!
22. warm sunshine!
23. meaningful work during the daytime
24. waking up Saturday morning
25. cool Japanese mechanical toys. so inventive
26. a computer that doesn’t lag when you type on it. (Tesher is impressed at this as we’re writing out the list.)
27. pomegranate seeds
28. a friend who shares your madcrazy love for oysters.
29. a friend who shares your madcrazy love for fancy cheese.
30. reading a good book (like Hardy Boys, or Undertow) with a glass of iced root beer (or just beer)
31. that new Harry Potter movie, which Tesher thinks is awesome and Vika can hardly wait to see
32. moms
33. dads
34. kids of all ages
35. prisms. and kaleidoscopes too
36. ten-pin bowling: a rare activity, but there’s a big heavy ball and running around and goofing off and stuff!
37. nylon-string guitars as accompaniment to singing
38. singing along with music in the headphones while walking the city
39. computers—and the way they enable us to live in the future, man
40. comic books! (Naruto Bleach, The Dark Tower)
41. walking in the woods
42. chipmunks with cheeks full of nuts.
43. Google image search
44. sand mandalas
45. word games
46. Fluxx
47. the way you can find Russian and English language music and movies on YouTube, almost anything, on a whim
48. Whammy!, the game show
49. long-distance trains, with couchettes
50. Glenn Gould’s facial expressions when he plays the piano
51. multilingual conversation
52. doing a scary thing, or having a scary conversation, together with a trusted loved one–and coming through on the other side still together
53. cross-country road trips
54. waking up without an alarm clock
55. hidden meanings as shared secrets
56. little things made special through practice or ritual
57. the way Zhenya laughs and laughs when you get him going
58. the buoyancy of salt water
59. layers of meaning
60. dressing in layers, then shedding them as you play in the snow
61. prime numbers
62. sunlight flooding the world, in any season
63. marking time’s passage by seasons
64. the moon [is my mistress, i shall not want]
65. lucid dreams
66. dreaming up a thing nobody’s done before, and then doing it ["I make new things"]
67. the world’s tactile diversity
68. people used to (and practicing) casual touch, every day. a balance between personal space and trust.
69. stories as generational memory
70. knowing that what we see with our eyes is only a small fraction of what’s visible (in aggregate) to all species
71. last day of school
72. first day of school after a long vacation
73. compound eyes
74. watching a good game of soccer on tv while rooting for your home team [Roma, of course]
75. underground parking structures refashioned into playgrounds
76. sparkling apple cider
76. biking really fast downhill