Twelve Things that Make Me Happy

Okay, I'm better. Well, those twelve things are still haunting me, but I do have the power to ignore them. So let's try the twelve things that make me happy this holiday season.

1.My husband. Sure, he's an anal retentive little perfectionist, but he does laundry, has a great job, keeps the cars running, makes lists of all the supplies we need, cooks several times a week, and absolutely adores me. I'll keep him.

2.My teens. Neither of them do drugs, smoke, have sex, or engage in any other illegal activity. They both report in on a regular basis, come home on time (for the most part) have good friends, do well in school (except for math, but that's my fault... both nature and nurture:), care about other people, and tell me they love me everyday. And even at eighteen and almost seventeen, not a day goes by that they don't hug me or seek out some kind of loving physical contact with their mama.

3. I SOLD A BOOK! To a major publisher! (A fiction book, because I have already sold two nonfiction books.)

4. I make money writing!

5. Both my Mom and Dad are alive for another Christmas. My dad is 91 and my Mom had a brain tumor and lung cancer this year, so that makes me very happy!

6. I own a home in one of the most expensive counties in the US and we have managed to hang onto it for almost ten years now! (I won't think about how it's falling down around our ears and everytime we go to do something, the water heater goes out or the furnace blows or...)

7. I am fairly healthy except for a reoccuring health problem, being a bit overweight, having high cholesterol, acid reflux, an on again, off again love affair with nicotine and a thyroid problem. Oh, piss it. I'm a mess. A veritable walking time bomb. But I am alive and much better off than many people.

8. My hubby and I are going back to the Sandlake Country Inn bed and breakfast at the end of January for three days! And they saved the very last bottle of our favorite, special vintage, pinot noir for us!

9. I have some fantastic friends and critique partners... They not only make me a better writer, they make me a better person.

10. Mrs. Annie-- my best friend doesn't even cover the relationship we have now. More like sisters without the messy family connection... which is good cause we can bitch about one another's family and have only sympathy.

11. I am a far better writer than when I first started in a critique group with Kristen Painter. She and the others in the group whipped me into shape. Now that I have gone on to other groups, I am always thankful for the advice she gave me.

12. A sense of humor. Where would I be without the ability to laugh at myself? To laugh at my mistakes and my weaknesses? If you only laugh at others and not yourself, you run the risk of becoming self important. Then you get bitter and twisted because others don't pay homage to how important you are. I've done things so catastrophically stupid, it boggles the mind. I have to laugh, because that's all that's left:)