The Happiness Tag

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

First off, I would like to extend belated well wishes to my Canadian friends on Canada Day, my Hong Kongese friends on Establishment Day, my American friends on Independence Day (or Treason Day as I saw one UK based friend post), and early well wishes to my children’s stuffed animal friends on Teddy Bear Picnic Day (apparently this is a real thing on July 10th).

I’d like to apologize if I missed anything else in these first two weeks of July. If I did, I would love to hear about what it was and how you celebrated.

Speaking of celebration, the lovely Diana Wallace was kind enough to let me know that I’d been tagged in one of the best sort of online games – The Happiness Tag. For those who are unfamiliar with Diana, she is the author of Myths in the Mirror, The Dragon Soul Trilogy, Melding of Aeris, Sunwielder, the Bone Wall, and the Sorcerer’s Garden (all available on Amazon), as well as being a busy grandmother to boot, so I am more than a little honored that she’s found a way to squeeze reading my writing into what spare time she last left.

Now onto the game. The rules are simple:

List:

  • 5 Things that make you happy
  • 5 Songs that make you happy
  • 5 Bloggers that make you happy… (Let them know that you have nominated them).

5 Things that make you happy

  1. Mentally storing away all those goofy things my children say or do now which I completely intend to use against regale them with later, especially in that distant future when they start bringing dates home. Case in point, while visiting my dad this weekend, my eldest son asked me to help him change his clothes. Now, he is more than capable of getting himself dressed (although his fashion sense needs some work), but for some reason he was most insistent that I lend a hand in the process. When I asked him why he wasn’t able to do it himself on this particular occasion he replied, “Because I am on vacation.” Clearly by Kiddo’s logic, mom obviously doesn’t have the same vacation benefits package and should consider renegotiating her contract. Oh, Kiddo, payback is going to be so much fun.
  2. Friday Night. We are a household built around routine and my Friday Night now comes with the expectation of pizza, a beer or two, and the parade of ‘awesome’ moves also known as the family Dance Concert (I tried teaching Kiddo that the word was contest and not concert, but he is rather determined that his version is the proper one and, well…, see #1)
  3. Dinner with friends (aka the best kind of Saturdays and/or Sundays). I love good food as much as I love good stories and it’s even better when you can share both at once.
  4. This is a two-parter. A) Stumbling on a book I don’t want to put down and B) actually having the luxury of time to do just that.
  5. Terrible, eye rolling, groan worthy puns. A bear walks in to a bar and over to the bartender. The bear says, “I’ll have…” and the words trail off. After an uncomfortably long wait, the bear finishes, “… a beer.” The bartender immediately fills the order, but while handing the bear the glass says, “Here you go sir, but may I ask, why the large pause?” The bear cocks his head, looks at his paws and says, “I don’t know, I guess they’ve always just been that way.”

5 Songs that make you happy

  1. “Safety Dance” by Men without Hats (See List 1, #2) 
  2. “Saturday Night” by the Bay City Rollers (See List 1, #3)
  3. “Birdhouse in your Soul” by They Might Be Giants – “Istanbul” and “Particle Man” were also strong contenders, but I decided I could only pick one song by a single artist.
  4. “All I need is the Air that I breathe” by the Hollies – This song was featured near the end of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, which is also one of my favorite movies and is such a beautiful scene (don’t click on the link if you haven’t seen the movie) that I can’t help but smile to hear it now.
  5. “Lava” from the Pixar Short of the same name and by James Ford Murphy, Kuana Torres Kahele, and Napua Greig. This is always the closing act of our family’s Friday Night Dance Party as it gives us all a chance to settle down before the kids go to bed. Even better, LT typically sings along and it makes me tear up nearly every time to hear him say “I lava you,” while pointing at me (this may also be why he gets away with so much).

5 Bloggers that make you happy

  1. Bun Karyudo – who would have know that a man with a bag for his head could be so funny
  2. Betsy Kerekes of Parentingisfunny – because it is. It really, really is.
  3. Mark Petruska of Mark My Words – Bonus points to Mark for using a pun in the blog’s title.
  4. Ally Bean of The Spectacled Bean – We Allies need to stick together.
  5. Geoff Le Pard of TanGental whose posts “defy categorization,” but never fail to entertain me.

This particular list could have kept going well into next week, so I guess it is a good thing I was limited to only five. For those of you who have been tagged, please do not feel at all pressured to participate in the tag game. This was just my way of saying how much I’ve enjoyed all of you and hope that others might click on the links I’ve embedded in this post and do the same.

 

34 thoughts on “The Happiness Tag”

  3. Love the bear pun. I must remember that one. Here’s another bear in a bar story, based on a real town in CA called Barstow. Strap yourself in for this one.
    A bear walks into a bar in Barstow and asks the bartender for a beer. The bartender says, “I’m sorry, but we don’t sell beers to bears in bars in Barstow.”
    “Give me a beer!” the bear demands.
    Again the bartender says, “We don’t sell beers to bears in bars in Barstow.”
    The bear slams his paws on bar and says, “If you don’t give me a beer, I’m going to eat that woman on the other end of the bar!”
    The bartender shakes his head and repeats, “We don’t serve beer to bears in bars in Barstow.”
    The bear is now furious. He gets off his barstool, ambles to the other end of the bar, and gobbles up the woman. Then he comes back, all frothy at the mouth and with bloodied fur. “Now,” he says, “Give me a beer!”
    The bartender puts both hands on the bar and leans toward the bear, his eyes fierce and says, “We don’t serve beer to bears in bars in Barstow! Especially not bears on drugs!”
    “What?” says the bear. “I’m not on drugs.”
    “Yes you are,” says the bartender. “That was a bar bitch you ate!”

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      2. Kiddo tapped my shoulder the other day and whispered that he now knew what the f word was. He leaned in and whispered, “it’s fat, but I know not to call anyone that.” Yes, dear. Yes it is. Now never speak of it again.

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      1. Which puts me in mind of one of my fav poems by Roger McGough, from his Sporting Relations. Cousin Daisy. Cousin Daisy’s sport is standing on Street corners. She contracted, with ease, a funny disease. Notwithstanding.

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  5. Thanks Allie! Although I’ll probably run out of time to take up the happiness game (I almost always do with challenges), I very much appreciate the mention. It was funny seeing Men Without Hats’ Safety Dance again. It is the the only song of theirs I know. I’d never seen the video before. It looks so hysterically 1980s-ish. I was 15 when it was released, so I remember those wavy hairstyles very well. I’m very happy to be able to say I never had one myself, though. 🙂

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    1. 🙂 I don’t always participate in these challenges, but I couldn’t turn this one down. I was in a good mood all day just from writing about it.

      Lava is such a wonderful song!

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  8. Aww…thanks! I love this post. Friday nights are the highlight of my week, too – and they’d better have pizza and a tasty beverage or four. I’ll have to do this one myself!

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    1. Same here. I keep the on a drive with me at all times, on the hard drive, on the cloud, and a printed photo book. My kids have no escape from the epic embarrassment that awaits them.

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    1. It’s incredibly hard to stay in a bad mood after watching it. I walked around my house the rest of the day making the big S sign. The hubby asked what I was doing and all I could answer was sss aaa fff eee ttt y.

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