I’ve been struggling with some things lately – a bit of depression, a bit of frustration about the way things are, and a lot of frustration with myself. I just have this habit of looking around me at things and seeing how other people are that I’m not. Other people are more productive than me, happier than me, less frustrated than me, skinnier than me, and just generally better at things. Like – I want to lose weight but I hate exercise and suck at dieting. I keep trying the same ways over and over again (definition of insanity, right?) and it’s just not working for me. I am also not very good at managing my money. And I just generally hate having stuff I “need” or “have” to do and not having much free time, where some people are better at handling this and like being busy. All of this kind of leads to me just generally not being very happy and getting upset pretty easily, like when someone says something that I can even come close to interpreting as criticism. I criticize myself all the time, why would I want it from other people? Usually they’re not really criticizing me, it’s just me taking what they say and actually using it to add to my own self-criticism. At any rate, I need to change the way I look at things. So I’ve worked on a couple of different things today to facilitate some attitude and viewpoint adjustment. One of the things that I remembered that I had that inspired me was The Book of Awesome. Written by the creator of the website 1000awesomethings.com, it’s basically a book of – you guessed it – awesome things. It inspired me to start thinking about the little (or not so little) things in life that just generally make me happy. And I came up with 101 things. It’s actually a pretty solid list, if I do say so myself, and it put a smile on my face and reminded me that when I’m feeling down or frustrated or depressed, there are at least 101 things out there (now I have a whole list to pick from) that can cheer me up and make things better, if not just put a smile on my face. So I thought I would share my list with you, my readers. I know that all these things may not be what makes you happy, but I’m sure there are 101 things out there somewhere that can (if not, you might want to see a therapist), so I encourage you to write your own list and share it as well. Send me a link. So here, without further adieu (and in no particular order), are my…

101 Things that Make Me Happy

1. The orange scented energy lotion from Bath & Body Works
2. The lavender scented sleep lotion from Bath & Body Works
3. Taking a really hot shower and ending it with cold water
4. My two pairs of black yoga pants from Old Navy
5. Hoodies
6. Flip-flops
7. My two wonderful wiener dogs
8. Wiener dogs in general
9. My boyfriend
10. Diet soda
11. Coffee
12. Pizza
13. The banana/blue cheese/ham pizza I came up with from the pizza we ate in Paris
14. Manicures and pedicures
15. My Kindle Paperwhite
16. My iPad
17. Hiking at the McDowell Sonoran Preserve
18. Yoga classes
19. My Bose headphones
20. Spotify
21. The TV show Homeland
22. Traveling
23. My passport (and all of the stamps in it)
24. Blogging and/or working on my blog design
25. Good beer
26. A glass of wine
27. Glühwein
28. Trance music
29. Any music from Armin van Buuren
30. Books
31. Hanging out in bookstores
32. Apple products
33. Starbucks
34. Taking pride in the degrees I have earned
35. Twitter
36. Buying Christmas presents
37. Watching a movie while eating popcorn
38. Seeing a movie in the theater
39. Taking photos
40. Learning new things
41. Meeting new people
42. Spending time with friends
43. London
44. Hawaii
45. Naps
46. My Mini Cooper convertible
47. Multiple Sharpies of different colors
48. Meeting celebrities
49. Jimmy Eat World
50. Belgian fries in America (the ones in Belgium are nowhere near as good)
51. The Thai hummus at Four Peaks Brewery
52. The edamame with chili pepper and garlic at Four Peaks Brewery
53. Sleeping in
54. Going to see a movie at iPic
55. The TV show Big Bang Theory
56. The TV show How I Met Your Mother
57. The TV show Parks and Recreation
58. The Harry Potter books and movies
59. Star Wars
60. The Lord of the Rings movies
61. The Dark Knight trilogy
62. Superman
63. Kill Bill 1 and 2
64. Getting a bouquet of flowers
65. Dark chocolate
66. Peanut butter
67. The cajun fries at Five Guys
68. Sushi
69. Sangria
70. Oliver Winery’s soft red wine
71. Pajama pants from Old Navy
72. Spending all day at home snacking and watching movies in my pajamas
73. When another Mini driver waves at me
74. Bonding with strangers over shared interests
75. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
76. Seeing mountains while driving around where I live
77. Palm trees
78. The ocean
79. McDonald’s (yep, guilty pleasure. I love McNuggets with buffalo sauce and those non-decomposing fries)
80. Cookies
81. Clicking a computer mouse (yep, I like the feeling of clicking on something. I’m a dork)
82. Purple
83. Stuffed animals
84. March Madness when one of my colleges is playing
85. Phoenix/Scottsdale weather
86. Cloudless days
87. Shots of Three Olives flavored vodka
88. Pineapple juice, Three Olives cake vodka, and grenadine (pineapple upside-down cake)
89. Shots of Fireball whiskey
90. $5 pitchers of cheap beer at Giligin’s
91. Date nights
92. New Year’s Eve
93. Cheese
94. Staying in a hotel
95. Las Vegas
96. Disney World
97. Seattle
98. Washington, D.C.
99. Pixar movies
100. Massages
101. Sleepy ween smell (you’ll have to ask Ricky or I about this one)