Things that Make Me Happy

As the winter rages on here in Michigan (thanks Puxatony Phil for nothing), my mood deteriorates. There is nothing to do. I feel unsettled, blah, logy (a new word Scottie is using meaning sluggish) and just downright pissy. So as I try to cheer myself up, I decided to think about what makes me happy. Here we go (in no particular order) -

1) Sangria at Dominick's - even though a gallon costs more than a movie for 2, it makes me think of warm weather and the U of M students being gone for the summer.

2) Vacations - I love the planning, organizing and executing a vacation. It is time to start planning our Buenos Aires trip that is in a couple of months. Florida in 6 weeks is already well planned out.

3) Putt -putt - It just rocks! My goal is to play the semi-pro course with the longest fairways at Disney World in a few weeks. Did I mention that I am obsessed?

4) Dinner and Drinks Outside downtown - just don't stick me under a buggy tree, but the people watching is out of this world!

5) Baseball - spring training here we come! I miss you Derek, I miss you Tex, hurry back Swisher! I might be a little stalkerish in Florida, but I will get your autographs!

6) Wine Tours - going from winery to winery in Traverse City, singing "Papa Don't Preach" at Madonna's Dad's winery and eating way too much cheese!

7) NYC - We weren't there for JCI last year, but we will be this year, so I need to find the latest and greatest things to do. The city that never sleeps makes me crazy happy!

8) Flip-flops and Tank Tops - my summer uniform - need I say more?

What I don't like? Snow, Cold, having to stay indoors, no sun, all typical characteristics of Michigan winter. All things that have occurred in the last week in old Ann Arbor.

With it being Valentine's Day weekend and all, I probably should say my husband makes me happy, my family is cool, all that mushy stuff. While they do, I said I was focusing on Things that made me happy, so sorry you did not make the list! There will always be another list!

Random Thoughts from 2009 - Day 7

Putt-putting is a passion of mine. Tom and I have a family membership to the local mini golf place because we are regular customers. Course #3 is our favorite, we dislike holes #17 and #18 and we hate it when non-serious players slow us down. We seek out putt-putt courses when we travel. We found and played the only one on Maui in the scorching heat as we continued to aggravate our already burnt skin. We dragged Jaime to the course at Put in Bay where we learned navel history about Admiral Perry and I am on a first name basis with many of the courses in Myrtle Beach, where we used to go every fall of my childhood. They even had a course for 75 cents at the campsite we stayed at, so my sister and I golfed every day like we were Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenston. The hardest course I have ever been to was in London, Ontario. Fay, and I and our exes played a putt putt course with Par 5s and 6s. Are you sure we are not at St. Andrew's course? There were no borders, there were sand traps and again it was like 95 degrees. Definitely, a game not to forget. Disney World has awesome courses - Winter Wonderland, Summer Wonderland and Fantasia. I am ready for the mogul course in March when Tom and I head to Florida!

Kooky museums are also lots of fun to visit! The weirder the better. I have subjected my friends to the Call of the Wild taxidermy museum in northern Michigan, the surgical instruments museum in Chicago and the Kim Chi museum in Seoul. For God sake, who eats kim chi much less goes to a kim chi museum? Realistically, do we even know what it is? Tom and I braved the ghetto to go to the Christmas Story house in Cleveland, Molly and trekked to lower Manhattan to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum for our women's study class and I have even been to a Sake Museum. We'll have to see what pops up this year on the most interesting list!

Now if there was only a putt-putt museum, I think I would have died and gone to heaven!