Things That Make Me Happy

I took pictures of things that make me happy yesterday. I recognize the irony of "things" making me happy, but since I can't take pictures of the moments that make me happy, I have to take pictures of the things that represent the moments. I am not so spiritual that I don't also love THINGS, too...but I hope that it is the quality of the THING that I love...a color, a shape, a smell...an esthetic quality?

These are my Joseph's Coat Roses. Joseph lives next to the garage. His flowers start off in little red buds and then change between red and yellow and orange as they go through their bloom cycle. I love these roses because they are pretty, they represent the beginning of summer, they have survived in my yard!

This is my Itty Bitty Buddha. I love him because he's so tiny and so cheerful. He regularly disappears behind piles of papers on my desk, but then reappears to remind me to stop and breathe and to find some joy.

This is a little book I bought from the tibetan monks at the Kenton County Library the other day. I like pretty books. I made paper for a while in my crafty life, and I like that this is made of handmade paper by Tibetan Refugees living in India. I hope that I was able to help someone with my measely contribution, and I hope the person who made it was happy to be doing something pretty.

These are the germs who live on my desk. The red one is Necrotizing Fasciitis, alias Flesh Eating Bacteria, alias Streptococcus pyogenes. He has a knife and fork. The little lavendar one is Epstein-Barr Virus, aka Mono. She has pretty eyelashes because she wants to kiss you and give you her disease. I love funny science jokes. We science geeks are some of the funniest people I know, but unfortunately we usually only understand each other.

I made this hat. I love making things. I love the repetitiveness of knitting and crocheting and sewing. I love spinning wool. I spun the wool in the purple and green stripes in this hat. I also love making stuff up as I go along. I don't know if anyone will ever actually wear that hat, but I had a good time making it. Wouldn't it be cool if lots of people loved my weird hats and wanted to pay me alot of money for them? Of course, then I would probalby hate to make them.

I love driving through the cut in the hill and across the river in the morning. I love living in Kentucky, and I love working in Cincinnati. I'm not so thrilled with my job right now, but I think that's more about me than the job. But that's another post. I love seeing the sunrise over the hills and the river. I think the river is cool because it represents a force of nature, a place for recreation, but also a place of commerce and industry.

I like coming to work in the morning. I like to listen to books on tape or WNKU. I feel like I am getting a fresh start every time I cross that river and swoop through the Lytle Tunnel and up Reading Road. It makes me feel like a grown-up, like I'm going out to DO SOMETHING.

I am sucking at my job right now, I can't seem to do any experiments right and I don't know why. So actually GETTING to work isnt' always such a great thing, but COMING here is good. And it will get better. I know this because I've been beating my head against the wall of science long enough that I know that there are portholes along the wall. Although if I get fired for spending all of my time on facebook and blogspot, the portholes might become fewer and farther between....