September 13th, 2012
1000 Things We Like: Still Going Strong
From Bob Armstrong:
486) Garden-grown tomatoes.
487) Taking off hiking boots at the end of a long day.
488) GORP.
489) Homemade waffles.
490) Running during a snowstorm.
491) Bending notes on the guitar, whether the song needs them bent or not.
492) Community — especially the paintball episodes. (RR says: I have to see this show–everyone says I’ll love it!)
From my far-away friend Melanie:
493) Eating cereal before bed. (RR says: I do this almost every day!)
494) Line drying the laundry.
495) Sleeping next to a baby.
496) Packages in the mail.
497) Toast with jam.
498) The first chilly day when you know fall is coming.
From Andrew (with corrected numbering to correspond with order of posts, making Andrew the winner of the 500th like slot!!)
499) Elderly women looking in trash cans
500) Elderly men standing and watching construction
501) When cats burp or fart (RR says: my cat only farts in times of great stress. I’m sure you needed to know that.)
502) When you lock your bike to a pole and it falls down
503) Drunk kids eating pizza or Chinese food while staggering home, letting their trash fall behind them as they go
504) Those people whose whole week leads up to Karaoke Night and who are really good at Karaoke
505) Hearing about someone falling asleep on the toilet
506) When Bonnie Prince Billy makes reference in song to either his beard or stomach
507) When little kids fall down and don’t cry until someone asks if they’re okay
508) West Coast IPA
509) Watching anyone over fifteen learning how to skateboard
510) When firefighters set their practice house on fire (RR says: what, you can just go see that? I would like to see that. How? Where?)
511) This friend I had who had a ghost in his house and would pee his pants (grey track pants) whenever he thought about it
512) Tracking lines on VHS
513) When you wait around all day for the mail that might have money for you in, and then you go out for afternoon beer and come home to find the money has come
514) Frank’s hot sauce on everything
515) Using “dickering” instead of “haggling”
516) Other people’s fear of clowns for some reason
517) Those promises you make to yourself when you’re going to sleep that tomorrow you’ll wake up and do all things you’ve been doing wrong the right way
And last (for tonight) from lovely Corinna:
518) Kitty sneezes
519) When the berries on the vine in my back yard turn from green to rich blues and purples in September
520) Petting animals at fairs (goats, chickens, cows, bunnies…) (RR says: we are very much alike, Corinna and I.)
521) The marshmallow ice cream at White Squirrel
522) Cats in boxes (RR says: SO ALIKE!)
523) Fresh homegrown tomatoes with oil, balsamic vinegar, basil and shaved parmesan
524) My dad’s emails
525) Glitter
More than halfway–amazing. But there’s still more to like…bring it on!!
September 12th, 2012
1000 Things We Like: new stuff
The lists below. are from the comments on yesterday’s post. And they even did their own numbering–bonus! Nice work, guys!
Please keep your lists coming, either directly in the comments or by posting them on your own blog and putting a link in the comments. Feel free to use the contact button above, too, if that floats your boat. HOWEVER, if you have used said button in the past couple weeks, I don’t think it was functioning properly, so please (please!) follow up with me by email (rebeccabooks[at]excite[dot]com)–I don’t want to miss any good liking, or anything else. Magical Stuart at Create Me This fixed it almost as soon as I realized there was a problem, but I can’t be sure how long it was broken before I did notice. Sorry about that, guys!
And now back to the good stuff:
Nathalie says:
410) a new package of coloured markers
411) post-it notes, in all the colours of the rainbow
412) finding the right word for the job
413) being in the middle of a favourite author’s oevre, knowing there’s still lots of great reading ahead of you
414) thoughtful comments left on your blog (RR says: like this one!)
415) recommending a good book
416) nursing a baby in the first six months and knowing all his delicious baby fat has come from you alone
417) teaching a child to read
418) witnessing a child fall in love with books
419) purring cats (RR: yay!)
420) evicted squirrels
From Carolyn:
421) the smell of meadows in the late summer/early fall
Frederique says:
422) A flaky croissant, fresh from the oven.
423) Bolchaia 4 o’clock tea from Albert Ménès in Paris (RR says: usually I like what Fred likes, but I have no idea what this is…intriguing!)
424) Paris
425) Smelling a smell you haven’t smelled since you were little.
426) The number eight
427) Harmonizing with a song on the radio
428) Every song on Madonna’s “True Blue” album
429) Ampersands
430) Holding hands (RR: 1000 yeses!)
431) Unintentional rhymes
From Jarret, via Twitter, the contact form, and email (thanks for sorting through my contact difficulties, Jarret!!)
432) getting lost in a great song
433) road trips for ice cream (RR says: absolutely! preferably near a river!)
434) a cold beer on a hot day
435) hockey!
436) a long straight drive off the tee
437) action flicks where lots of stuff blows up
438) Muay Thai after a hard day
439) boneless chicken wings
440) chocolate!
441) watching the game with a group of buddies
442) funny sports bloopers
443) Edward Van Halen
444) that feeling of accomplishment right after completing something difficult or something you’ve put off
445) cookie dough ice cream
Wowsers, I did not think we’d be almost halfway through before I got to add some more–this is going incredibly well. And now, from me:
446) when the cat pretends he can’t jump on the windowsill so that someone will lift him up, because to figure out dishonesty he’d have to be pretty intelligent
447) Swiss Chalet dipping sauce
448) naps
449) getting nail polish on my nails properly (very rare)
450) Magical Stuart at Create Me This
451) a second wind
452) my shiny blue shoes, even though they hurt (worth it)
453) liking a book I didn’t think I would like
454) buying something on sale
455) seeing someone help a parent lift a stroller off a bus (or doing so myself)
456) dogs that clearly want me to pet them
457) P!nk’s song “Trouble”
458) the second seat behind the back doors, beside the window, on TTC buses
459) watching a rainstorm through the window (or from a screened porch)
460) seeing my new niece play with my childhood dollhouse
461) seeing my parents seeing #460
462) the magic words “per diems”
463) feeling the plane taxiing down the runway
464) getting an appliance to work that previously refused
465) seeing the post-carrier on the way into my building and feeling hopeful
466) high-calibre hugs
467) meeting a friend’s new baby for the first time–new friend!
468) British Museum in London, especially the collections from the 1800s that were collected *at the time*
469) schwarma from Pitaland
470) passing someone so many times on the sidewalk over a period of weeks that you finally start smiling at each other in greeting, even though you have no idea who the other person is
471) swings
472) peanut-butter M&Ms
473) Donald Barthelme
474) palindromes
475) Christmas choral music
476) good hair days
477) the word “calliope”
478) going to readings and hearing something new
479) prime numbers
480) Hotti Biscotti
481) using my liberal arts degree ALL THE TIME (take that, haters!)
482) Tina Fey
483) Jimmy Fallon
484) My sparkly pink retainer case
485) My brother
That seems an appropriate note to end on–more soon, I have no doubt. Who will give us the 500th like?
September 11th, 2012
1000 Things, 3rd edition: so many things!
These are from Amy, an excellent human with whom I once talked for pretty much three days and she was fascinating the entire time. Happy to have her likes on the list:
382) road trips
383) roller coasters
384) slurpees
385) being underwater
386) group singalongs
387) bears
388) buffy the vampire slayer
389) lake superior
390) dog cuddles
391) beards (RR says: Yes! So underappreciated!)
392) frozen grapes
And these are from Mark, who is also awesome, and the first male contributer to this list. And married to me!
393) That cobalt colour the sky gets right before the dawn
394) David Francey’s music.
395) Really good gym workouts.
396) Fresh tomatoes.
397) A good novel, especially one that you know will be good right from the first few pages.
398) Getting married (RR says: yep!)
399) Flying home for Christmas and meeting delightful weirdos at the Fionn MacCool’s in Pearson T2 while waiting for your plane.
400) The first day of a new season, any season
401) Parties where disparate groups of one’s friends meet and all get along splendidly (esp. at our wedding)
402) Anthony Burgess
403) Wes Anderson movies
404) avocado
405) Thanksgiving
406) back rubs
407) Victoria-by-the-Sea, PEI.
408) Hugs from nieces
409) Seeing your name in print
September 10th, 2012
1000 Things We Like: and more!
These are from Heather, who posted them in a comment on Allyson’s blog:
280) the smell of rain
281) picking a tomato warm from the sun off the vine and eating it
282) the cool breezes of fall
283) cooking a meal with friends
284) a hot bubble bath in my claw foot tub during a winter storm (RR says: envious!)
285) my cat waking me up by peaking his head up at the top of my bed and meowing
286) the feel of a man’s skin under a cotton shirt
287) new sexy high heels
288) canoeing in Alquonquin
289) cooking an Italian feast, while sipping on wine and listening to Billy Holliday LPs on my record player
290) skinny dipping in cool water on a hot summer day
291) the excitement of a new painting/sculpture emerging into my psyche
292) summer storms
293) Driving a truck, listening to Led Zeppelin really loud
294) Kensington Market Pedestrian Sundays
295) Dancing to the Lemon Bucket Orchestra
296) Porch sitting with good friends
297) Watching a great film/documentary at TIFF
298) James Joyce
299) a glorious day in the studio creating without interruption
300) Peaches in season (RR says: this is the 3rd variant on the peach theme!!)
301) London’s Camden Market
302) Road trips with a stop off at Tim Hortens
303) Visiting Blake’s work at the Tate
304) Getting a henna tatoo in Little India
305) Dressing up for Lunacy Cabaret
306) Openings on Queen West and Ossington on Thursday nights and seeing everyone
307) Rotis at Bacchus
308) Walking along the beach in winter to see the swans
309) The rush of a first kiss
310) Creative, sensual men with long hair
311) Listening to street musicians
312) Street art
313) Junction Flea Market
314) The canals of Venice
315) Meandering……
316) Singing spirituals
317) Dancing to Funk
318) Making art in the studio with friends, take out Thai, great music and Mill Street Organic
319) Taking the ferry to Toronto’s Wards and Algonquin Islands
320) Ted Talks
321) Hugging my son
322) The MOMA
323) Chateneuf du Pape
324) The taste of fresh roasted corn
325)Listening to Mississippi Blues while eating Catfish and cornbread
326) The last scene in Big Fish
327) Riding my bike to the studio
328) Sharing a cottage/tent with friends
329) Cuddling and watching a movie on a rainy Sunday with a lover
330) That moment when all is working on a art piece
331) Velvet
332) Vintage Clothes
333) The scent of oil paint and wood when first entering a studio space
334) Tuscan beans on Crostini
335) Finding a great Jazz album at a flea market
336) The scent of earth at the beginning of Spring
337) Falling in love
338) Visiting the baby goats at Riverdale Farm
339) Sharing an evening of great conversation with a good friend
340) Chartreuse341) Being absorbed in a great book
341)Citroen Deux Cheveau
342) A lover’s strong hands
343) Visiting my out of town soul sisters and recharging
344) Gypsy Wagons
345) Sinaed OConnor’s haunting voice
346) the scent of figs and brown sugar
347) Kissing on the beach
348) the first cup of coffee in the morning
349) dying old vintage slips bright beautiful colours
350) discussing politics with friends
351) Turquoise blue vintage cars
352) Looking at photos of my daughter when she was a toddler
353) my canary yellow kimono
354) The scene wear Denys takes Karen in his plane in Out of Africa
355) Snow covered trees on a bright Winter day
356) Baking cookies for my son when he gets home from school
357) Bangles
358) Crawling into a bed just made with sweet smelling sheets that dried on the line
359) Finding a treasure by the side of the road
360) Watching the dogs play together in the water at the beach
361) Bear hugs
362) Sunday phone calls with my mom
363) Parties (RR says: this a great one–often overlooked!)
364) Putting on a fire after a long walk in the snow
365) Taking a train
366) Street festivals
367) Visiting a Baptist Church in Harlem
368) That rush of speed when a plane first takes off
369) Finding my way around a transit system in a new city
370) Praying with friends
371) Bookstores
372) My cowboy hat
373) Discovering a restarant/bar in an alley way
374) Dancing the tango
375) Vespas
376) Receiving flowers from a beautiful man
377) My daughter calling me Mama
378) Discussing poetry over a glass of a full bodied red wine
379) People who give up their seats to the elderly on the bus
380) My neighbourhood dog friends
381) Walking in the Ravine
Can you believe we are almost 40% there already? Me neither. Keep’em coming. I’ll post more in the morning from Amy and Mark!!
1000 Things We Like–yet more!
These are from Allyson Latta on her lovely blog. This lady is very good at liking things–and such wonderful things to like:
137) endings to books that make me want to cry because they’re so perfect
138) Leonard Cohen’s voice, no matter how husky it gets
139) fresh mangoes, and don’t ask me to share (RR says: that’s at least two mango likers so far on this list–but different angles, so I’m letting it stand)
140) freckles across the bridge of the nose (anyone’s but mine)
141) driving alone with the radio turned up
142) driving barefoot in summer (a no-no, I realize)
143) the view of the lake from Loeb Boathouse in Central Park
144) actually, everything about New York City
145) writer friends, published or not
146) kinkajous
147) taking photos, when no one’s telling me to hurry
148) buying a new bracelet
149) creating something yummy for dinner when there’s virtually nothing in the fridge
150) ghostly tales
151) sunlight on water, so sparkly I have to squint
152) talking to others who love books and movies as much as I do
153) amber
154) Saturday morning coffee (fresh ground) in my pj’s
155) planning a trip, or a writers’ retreat
156) dry wit
157) browsing bookstores, with nowhere else to be
158) my husband’s laugh when he’s watching Seinfeld re-runs, no matter how many times he’s seen the episode
159) jazz festivals
160) the feel of a sailboat heeling over
161) Elvis Presley
162) colourful anythings
163) messages from old friends
164) messages from new friends
165) crazy coincidences (life is full of them)
166) writing
167) the first bite of a cone when you’ve licked down to it (RR says: zactly)
168) the things I learn from my book club that have nothing to do with books
169) new bar of soap in the shower
170) my Morkie’s little head-tilt when he’s listening
171) memoirs that go deep
172) a field of cosmos
173) terra cotta
174) swimming a long way under water
175) a foot massage when I’m least expecting one
176) creative people and the way they think
177) old limestone houses
178) roller coaster rides
179) just-washed hair
180) teaching people who really want to learn
181) dolphins in the wild
182) friends who don’t check their cell phones while they’re with me
183) Battenberg cake
184) Kingston’s waterfront
185) Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl”
186) my kids accomplishing something I didn’t realize they could do
187) me accomplishing something I didn’t realize I could do
188) finding something that was lost
189) The Great Gatsby
190) chardonnay, oaked or un-oaked
191) Facebook and Twitter (god help me)
192) the Rideau Canal
193) feeling giggly
194) listening to my husband playing guitar
195) people-watching
196) roast lamb with garlic and rosemary
197) a luscious teal on my toenails
198) both “our” Ryans (Reynolds and Gosling)
199) realizing I don’t have to go grocery shopping after all
200) having my hair brushed and brushed, like my niece used to do when she was little
201) the scent of snow
202) strangers who smile (or smile back) at me
203) cobbled streets
204) being introduced to new music
205) country music (don’t ask me why)
206) dappled sunlight through leaves
207) films that really make me feel
208) hot, buttery toast
209) the way a friend of mine signs off messages to me with “Zigzags” — there’s a story there
210) Main Street in Unionville, day or evening, any season
211) editing a wonderful manuscript
212) remembering things my mother said, and knowing she was right
213) sushi (and just writing that makes me crave some)
214) houseboat holidays in the Thousand Islands
215) having someone else clean my house — and that fresh smell after they do
216) words I have to look up in the dictionary
217) finding out my kids remember something about their early years that I thought they’d forgotten
218) drinks on a patio in summer
219) hiking in the autumn
220) the way my husband’s eyes turn bluer when he wears a blue shirt
221) enthusiastic people, whatever their passion
222) singing “O Holy Night” at Christmas
223) singing, period
224) also dancing
225) that weird connection that redheads have
226) Greek food on the Danforth
227) the scent of a wood fire
228) hugs
229) wearing sandals with a bit of a heel
230) fresh cilantro
231) horseback riding
232) memories of my brother’s chuckle, so clear in my mind though he’s gone
233) a new DVD arriving in the mail from Zip.ca
234) spending time with a friend who’s known me forever
235) disposable contact lenses
236) the smell of banana loaf baking
237) zip-lining
238) gentle (but strong) men
239) strong (but gentle) women
240) the light after a rain
241) first time out with a new handbag
242) canoeing
243) goofy pratfalls in comedy
244) pretty much anything chocolate with a glass of milk
245) Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s crinkly-eyed smile (RR says: yes!)
246) achy-bright mornings
247) rainy mornings as long as I don’t have to go anywhere
248) my home office when it’s organized
249) juicy peaches
250) my kids making me laugh when I’m trying to be mad at them (sometimes)
251) tropical breezes
252) browsing celebrity mags at the hair stylist’s, guilt-free
253) having a dog, because I never really thought I would
254) the red rocks of Sedona
255) a surprise invitation
256) the chlorine smell of a swimming pool
257) ticking something off my to-do list
258) blue cheese
259) Latin guitar
260) that when we’re out, my husband notices cute babies before I do
261) pretty journals with nothing yet written in them
262) pretty journals with stuff written in them
263) waking up to an adventure somewhere other than home
264) wearing sunglasses
265) Architectural Digest
266) fireflies
267) photos of my kids when they were wee and didn’t know how cute they were
268) Indian food with raita
269) Thai coconut curry
270) wearing my hair up on a hot, hot day
271) strolling the boardwalk in Toronto’s Beach neighbourhood, where I used to live
272) the smell of fresh paint
273) shavasna at the end of yoga practice
274) good science fiction
275) my dog nuzzling my toes
276) riding a bike
277) a short lineup at a checkout (or better yet, no lineup)
278) Japanese pottery
279) idea people, like Rebecca (RR says: aw, thanks!)
September 9th, 2012
1000 Things We Like, third installmant: the ball is rolling
One thing that didn’t occur to me when I started this third installment of 1000 things–I know why more people, and way more diverse people, than I knew back in 2007. No longer are my closest friends the only ones reading this blog (though to be honest, you guys are still a large percentage). Tonnes of people responded to my call-for-liking, and they are posting their likes all over the place.
This is fantastic and inspiring, but also confusing–not everything is linked directly back to Rose-coloured, and I bet most of you don’t vigilantly monitor the interverse for this stuff. So I’ve decided to repost all the like-lists in the main blog (with a link to the original, natch)–that way it doesn’t matter if you posted in the comments, on Facebook, on some other blog, or on that blog’s comments–everyone will be able to see and enjoy your likings. And I’ll be able to keep the numbering accurate (secret OCD, c’est moi!)
There’s tonnes, so I’ll be catching up in installments, but feel free to add your likes wherever you want, whenever you want, but do somehow let me where it is so I can like along with you!!
31) The avuncular handsomeness of Joe Biden (because he is on TV right now)
32) the North Shore of Hawaii
33) The iPhone 4S
34) Zumba (yes,I know)
35) Late Night Snack Ice Cream by Ben and Jerry’s
36) The Showtime series Homeland
37) Pumpkin Spice Lattes
38) Great Lakes Swimmers
39) Sally Hanes InstaDry polish
40) MSNBC
41) Ann Taylor (the clothing store)
42) The painter George Bellows
43) Cherry Blossoms
44) Dewey Beach in Delaware
45) Beirut (the band)
46) Wine served in tumblers instead of wine glases
47) The Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, NC
Siobhan O’Flynn in the comments
48) Stuff White People Like (you know the site)
49) Michelle Obama almost in tears listening to Joe Biden at the DNC (what’s up with that?)
50) Lobster rolls (need we say more?)
51) those 20 minutes right before dawn starts when the air almost starts to hum
52) Jesse on Breaking Bad – the unlikely moral centre
53) freesias
54) my dog’s belly spots…
Mo in the comments
55) waffled bacon and breakfast beans at brunch
56) the ferry to centre island
57) long walks with friends
58) flight sales
59) dusting slippers
60) patios
61) troy and abed in the morning
62) trees
63) mountains
64) melvins
65) old movie posters
66) poutine
67) magenta sunsets
68) sneaky dee’s
69) not saying words but still being understood
70) packages coming in the mail
Melanie (on Facebook)
71) fresh peaches
David (in conversation)
72) the term “email hygiene”
Saleema on A Metaphysical Concert
73) Whistling in chorus with somebody else
74) Allongés with milk
75) Making lists
76) Bouncy castles
77) Cream cheese icing
78) DIY nail art
79) Bunting banners
80) Earl Grey green tea
81) Girls on HBO
82) Radiolab
83) Lime and juniper berry doughnuts from Cafe Sardine
84) Finally getting rid of clothes that don’t fit properly
85) Learning how to purl
86) Chocolate with sea salt
87) Red shoes
88) Voting
89) Cakes decorated with fresh flowers
90) LUSH Gorilla perfume solid scents
91) Joanna Newsom
92) Kir Royales
93) Mark Bittman’s bean burgers
94) Vinyl
95) Headphone jack splitters
96) Ataulfo mangoes
97) Margaret Atwood on Twitter
98) Save-the-Date bookmarks from my wedding in all the books I’m reading
Ariel Gordon on The Jane Day Reader
99) Cups of tea my partner makes and sets gently at my elbow.
100) Losing a couple of hours when writing.
101) Cool fall air from an open window when I’m under my quilt.
102) A just-picked apple.
103) A new notebook, cracked open.
104) Good long walks under the trees.
105) Acceptance letters of all stripes. Anticipation of same.
106) Poached eggs and dry brown toast.
107) Screaming on scary rides at the midway.
108) Postcards. (Personal communication of all kinds, in the mail…)
109) Movies/TV with girls-doing-things in them.
110) Stands of trembling aspens, knowing they’re all genetically identical. How they gleam in the sun.
111) Date squares.
112) Poetry. Poetrypoetrypoetry!
113) Pineapple sage.
114) Sleeping in, my daughter watching cartoons downstairs.
115) Literary magazines in the mail.
116) First book launches.
117) Photographs of bad old Winnipeg by L.B. Foote.
118) Six or seven drinks in a row, then a bunch of dancing.
119) Getting to read Shel Silverstein and Dennis Lee’s poems to my daughter.
120) Leaping into cold lakes, almost colder than I can stand.
121) Cotton candy.
122) Clusters of just-emerged mushrooms.
123) The raspberry vacluse cake at McNally’s.
124) Wooden pencils and severe metal pencil sharpeners.
125) Ferns, swaying wetly.
126) Rock-hard nectarines.
127) Sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers. Laughing uproariously.
128) A gin and tonic with a slurry of ice crystals in it.
129) Mapo tofu and a big bowl of steaming rice.
130) Silk sari wrap-around skirts.
131) Singer-songwriters. Battered guitars on their laps.
132) Carrying my daughter on my shoulders.
133) Thin metal Korean chopsticks.
134) Rainbow chard, cooked down with ginger and garlic and soy sauce.
135) Rockpicking.
136) Second book launches.
Man, you guys are amazing–we are off to such a good start! I’ll post some more tomorrow and hopefully then we’ll be caught up–such an onslaught of goodness!!
September 6th, 2012
1000 Things We Like, 2012: The Third 1000
As I said in the previous retro post, I started listing things I like and exhorting my friends to do the same in Fall 2002. It was so much fun making that community list (boy does it take a village if you want to get to 1000) that it happened again 5 years later. And, now, to celebrate the decade anniversary of 1000 things, dare we go for 3000?
I’m in. Fred, one of the best likers I know, is in. Are you in? If so, feel free to add to the list–either in the comments section or on your on own blog, with the link in the comments. If the numbering gets screwed up (it always does) I’ll fix and repost–promise! Your list contributions can be as personal or as general as you like, but do make’em specific as possible–name the band you like, don’t just say “music”–we’ll need a lot of specificity to get to three grand! It’s ok if your likes disagree with someone else who previously contributed to the list–if for example you write summer and someone else already wrote winter! We don’t have to *all* like *everything*–just submit it as a thing that one *can* like!
I think I’ll start the list off with things that I didn’t know about–or actually didn’t exist–the last time we did the list, in 2007.
1) The way iPads reoriente from portrait to landscape when you twist them–how do they know?
2) Crowd-sourcing
3) Pancake flats
4) Shopping for Japanese paper
5) Dancing at my wedding
6) When you sleep on your side and your cat sleeps in the small of your back
7) The Book of Awesome (this idea’s big enough to share)
8) Cherry coke zero
9) Sometimes being good at my job
10) Massaman curry
11) Publishing a book
12) Running into friends in random spots in the city
13) The red-sand beach(es) in PEI
14) The monorail in Tokyo
15) The dollhouse at Windsor castle
16) Teaching high school (for brief stints)
17) Tart frozen yoghurt
18) Interval training (I’ve tried it before, but I finally like it now)
19) Fun (the band)–especially the “inspiring” songs
20) Plum Points (sigh–embarrassing)
21) Nostalgia
22) My brie baker
23) Lonely cat cuddles
24) 30 Rock
25) Roots leather bags (actually worth the $$–who knew?)
26) Going on a book tour
27) Being able to say, “I’m going on a book tour.”
28) WordPress
29) Having my own YouTube channel
30) Teeny tiny lizards
Enough for now, but there’s more–so, so much more! What do you like?
September 4th, 2012
1000 Things We Like, retro edition (back in 2002…)
Youthful RR once wrote…(note I have not edited this for spelling errors, weird expressions, or other silliness–preferring to preserve my young self as I once was):
“I read a book (the title of which escapes me, damn and blast) in which the 12-ish-year-old daughter of the family is working on a list with her best friend, entitled “1000 Things We Like.” That seems like such an enormously positive endeavour, just wreaking of good karma, I’m gonna try it. Feel free to join in in commentsland. Contribute as many things as you like – if we actually reach 1000, I’ll be so excited!! Only rules are 1) Be specific (name an album or song, not “music” – we need every detailed item we can get to get to 1000 and 2) No sneaky negatives like “People who don’t put their bags on the seats on the train”. Ok, let’s do this! (it’s just gonna be again, isn’t it?)
1) Oven-dried tomatoes
2) Allan Cross and the On-going History of New Music
3) Blogs in general and mine and a few select others in particular
4) Hallowe’en costumes
5) Diet, caffeine-free soda
6) That new Madonna song (sorry, Fred)
7) Fred
8) A Place
9) Punch Drunk Love (so good, but very disturbing. Don’t go expecting Billy Madison Two)
10) *Nsync
11) Squirrels
12) Houseplants
13) Chocolate
14) Typing
15) Daylight Savings Time
16) J.D. Salinger books
17) Getting better at something that’s hard
18) Cats
19) Lists
20) Company
21) Naps
22) Heaven (the concept, of course, but here I mean the film. Film not movie, but I still recommend it. Very good, very surprising)
December 15th, 2010
Reverb 15
Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010. (Author: Patti Digh) (www.reverb10.com)
Ok, here goes–no particular order:
–L dressed as a bee with Homer Simpson mask on top
–North Bay Saturday night, -10 C, girls in tank tops running down the sidewalk
–blood red jellyfish in PEI
–K’s gorgeous dining room at Women’s Writing Salon
–Josey Kitten hiding behind the drier cord
–working late and sort of liking it
–the afternoon I spent writing at the airport (and riding the monorail)
–N making little animals out of squished up Tootsie Rolls at D’s birthday party
–running down a hill with the Divine Miss M, then running back up and running down again
–when M and I found the oatcakes at Second Cup in Halifax
–walking around a corner with F and suddenly, blammo, the White House
–finally meeting my penpal of 13 years…for brunch
–this really pretty salad I made one day when I was working from home
–this really good talk I had with my brother one night while I was making dinner
–Grand Beach in Winnipeg, and the discovery that it’s strangely like Florida
–the really fluffy cat I saw on Thanksgiving night
Whew–hey, that was fun!
August 7th, 2010
Rose-coloured reviews *The Book of Awesome*
I got The Book of Awesome as a gift, but I was already aware of it because Fred pointed it out as very similar to our penta-annual (that’s the word, right?) listing of 1000 Things We Like. I was happy to read the book to help fill the time until Fall 2012, when we do the third thousand!
Neil Pasricha’s book is based on his blog, which is very close to our concept except a) it’s all one guy, not a collective liking team (as far as I can tell), and b) he writes little blurbs about how the good thing works or, often, the bad thing that is avoided/thwarted by the good thing.
This is a happy-making project and it works: I smiled a lot remembering simple pleasures like the unsafe playground equipment of my youth, the chip crumbs in the bottom of the bag, and the cool side of the pillow. I was also fascinated by pleasures I’ve yet to experience: guess who’s going to be staying up for a while trying to catch someone laughing in their sleep?) Pasricha has a frat-boy prose style you don’t read very often (at least, I don’t), and it’s charming although repetitive and I don’t *really* think he had to manipulate each entry to end with the word AWESOME (yes, in caps!)
In truth, I probably went at this book wrong–I think it’s some sort of coffee-table or occasional book, something you are supposed to dip into, scan, flip around in. I did try to do this, sorta: I kept it by my bedside and tried to read one awesome thing before I went to sleep each night. This was actually an excellent idea, a really good way to go to sleep cheerful, though perhaps a little terrified of all the things that can be done with fast-food. But I am not a dip-in reader, and I would sometimes crack out and read 15 or 20 awesome things in a row, and get to a giggly hyper place not at all condusive to sleep. Finally I just gave up and started reading it on the bus, my ideal reading environment. Which led to it being my second-ever bus book conversation (the other was Special Topics in Calamity Physics).
So I wound up reading it pretty much straight through, and getting a little obsessive about stylistic quirks that probably should have been ignored. Like, Pasricha clearly has a persona of a goofy suburban everydude who likes to eat and commutes to an office job in a car. This comes out in his voice, and the things he chooses to write about: cars and food and childhood and…there’s a lot about food (which made me happy; I like food too and am actually eating curry while I type this). But someone (an editor?) seems to have made a rule that the book be for everyone, and that Pasricha not use too many examples from his personal life.
So all the entries are written in the second person (“You’re lovin it lots!”) and the gender of pronouns often flips back and forth within a paragraph, which made the author seem not inclusive but MPD. And even though he was clearly mocking those who relish finding the last of a particular item in their size at a clothing store and much more sincere in his love of the Man Couch (apparently, a couch in mall stores where women can leave their pouty partners while they shop), he keeps on trying to be all things to all people. There’s even an entry on getting into clean sheets with freshly shaved legs–yes, that is actually an amazing sensation, but how would *he* know?
The best of these entries are actually the most personal. There’s a really really really sweet one about halftime orange slices when you are a kid playing soccer, which isn’t about orange slices at all but about his awesome mom. I’m pretty sure it would be worth the purchase price to just photocopy this entry and give it to your mom for Mother’s Day. And an entry towards the end about a friend who had passed away sort of anchored the book and made clearer its purpose.
Of course, it goes without saying there are no intellectual pleasures on this list, not even ones like, “When a frustrated crossword doer mutters a clue out loud and you happen to know the answer.” This is about more basic, visceral stuff than that–when you get the nacho with the most toppings, when the batteries in the remote control work a little longer than they should, when someone gives you a really solid hug. Those things deserve to be celebrated, and the inclusiveness of this list does show how similar we all are in the end. And that made me feel pretty AWESOME!
Buy the book: