77. Chance encounters

This basically related back to my post on Tuesday, where I shared some wonderful insights and inspiration from a balding Jewish man (his words, not mine) at the cafe I go to in my neighborhood. Random little encounters with people in this city is what makes it so special and I really cherish every opportunity that I have to share stories and experiences with others.

78. Car rides

When I was in college, I used to go for drives whenever I was depressed or bored or lonely. I know this is the “things that make me happy” list so I don’t want to dwell too much on the unhappy stuff, but I will say that driving to me has a soothing aspect that I haven’t found in much else. It seems kind of strange to say that I “zone out” while I’m driving, because that’s not true at all (I’m a good driver!), but there is an element of concerted focus that has helped me work out some issues. When I was in college, there were a lot of things in my life that I felt I didn’t have any control over. I didn’t have very good control of my diabetes and I didn’t have any control over this ill-fated attempt at a relationship with this guy. Driving a car gave me a sense that I had control – I had control over how the vehicle moved, I had control over where I went, I had control over how long I went out on my drives. When I moved to New Jersey, driving around was one of my main past-times, because I didn’t know anyone and didn’t really know what there was to do in New Jersey. I would drive around not only to get to know where I lived but it also gave me something to do, and I enjoyed it. Last week, I had to drive to New Jersey to pick up my contact lenses (don’t ask) and I rented a ZipCar (love of my life) and it was great to just be alone in a car driving. I don’t have that opportunity very much anymore, even though I have access to my fiance’s car, but he’s usually the one driving it. Although I do enjoy being a passenger, it’s hard to look out the window when you’re trying to not drive off the road!

79. Blessings

Usually I try to have a specific example or story to relate to each item that I talk about on my 101 list of Things That Make Me Happy, but for this one, I don’t. Blessings are big and small, they are note-worthy and they are things to tuck in the back of your mind to remind yourself how good you have it. Blessings are tangible and they are ephemeral and they are special no matter what form they take. I am blessed in more ways than I could possibly count.

80. Discovering amazing new blogs

Seriously, there are so many good blogs out there! I can’t even keep up. I am constantly adding new folks to my reader and I am always, always looking for new folks to read. Some people think that I might read to many and to those people I say, Not Possible! That’s like saying you have too many friends or too many people to love. That just isn’t possible. If you’re a new reader or even if you’ve been around for ages, and you have a blog that I might not know about (hint: if I haven’t commented at least once, it probably means I haven’t been to your blog), then please leave a comment to introduce yourself to me and to other possible readers. A lot of people ask “How do you get more readers?” and the trick is to just comment a lot. We won’t know you’re there unless you tell us!

(Only 21 more to go after this! I’m almost there! This is harder than it looks!)