🌸 Just Happy Things. September 19, 2019 11:33 AM   Subscribe

Nearing the end of another week, let's talk about something else that is not related to politics. If you should feel so inclined, share something happy, anything that makes you smile or might make the rest of us smile. We need more of that in 2019. Here's a photo of a flower I took on a walk yesterday afternoon. Sending a smile your way. Be kind to others and yourself.
posted by Fizz to MetaFilter-Related at 11:33 AM (57 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite

I got a sit/stand desk at work yesterday, something I’d been anticipating since May. I am delighted by it. It has programmable memory for heights! It was made by a cheerful guy named Joel, who sawed the legs off my old desk and stuck on fancy levitating ones while I waited!
posted by eirias at 11:45 AM on September 19, 2019 [4 favorites]


First day of recognizable Fall weather here, today
posted by thelonius at 11:47 AM on September 19, 2019 [8 favorites]


We moved into our first house a few months ago and my commute now involves two separate boats and I love it so much. This morning I saw five otters gamboling in the waves off the ferry dock and I thought that would be the high point of my day. But then the second boat was delayed because we saw an entire pod of orcas just hanging out and doing orca things in Puget Sound. And it’s fall and I’m on vacation next week and things are pretty ok right now.
posted by skycrashesdown at 11:54 AM on September 19, 2019 [24 favorites]


I've been spending a lot of internet time on mltshp the last 2 months, where I went crazy and posted over 600 wild images, many of them happy - like this, this, this, this, this, this, etc (and this is just from the last 4 days)...

Also, my move from the USA to Denmark had been smooth & successful & I love my new "Back to Denmark" photo blog
posted by growabrain at 12:01 PM on September 19, 2019 [10 favorites]


It’s cooler here, so my younger cat decided to semi -snuggle with me last night, rather than walking all over me as is her normal modus operandi.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:10 PM on September 19, 2019 [7 favorites]


Just got the prize I was hoping for in my CrackerJacks.
posted by AugustWest at 12:29 PM on September 19, 2019 [11 favorites]


It's so beautiful out. Sunny and breezy with highs in the 70s instead of the typical muggy when-will-summer-end weather we get here in DC in September. It finally feels like fall, and accordingly all the shops and restaurants are bringing out their fall items. This is my favorite season of the year, with my favorite color palettes and flavors and traditions.
posted by capricorn at 12:30 PM on September 19, 2019 [5 favorites]


Ezra Furman is one of my favorite musical artists right now and just recently* released a new album called Twelve Nudes. It rocks.

*OK about a month ago but it just came up on my rotation.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:31 PM on September 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


I took my documents to be officially translated today which is the final step before applying for dual nationality! And just had dinner with a couple I’m friends with who met at one of my meetups 😊
posted by ellieBOA at 12:39 PM on September 19, 2019 [10 favorites]


My lovely cat, Phoebe, is snuggly, opinionated, curious, and very soft. She always makes me smile, and I tell her every day that I’m so happy she waited over a year at the shelter to meet me.

This is a great MetaTalk and I can’t wait to read the responses. Thanks, Fizz.
posted by bookmammal at 12:45 PM on September 19, 2019 [7 favorites]


I’m jet lagged and sick but after a long season working away I am home for a couple weeks.

Having a sit with the ancient dog (a tiny rescue - we thiiink she’s 23 based on the vets best guess when we got her in 2003) remembering the not so old dog who based in the spring, watching the new puppy taste rocks and rub on grass like she invented it.

It’s good to be home where the important things, especially the small an important things, happen. Sometimes happy sometimes sad but always home. And , despite it being Victoria in late sept, it’s not even raining. Yet. Nice.
posted by mce at 12:55 PM on September 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


I feel like I'm in a comfortable pace with my blog and I'm really enjoying it. It's a mammoth project, and yet even when it ends, I've already got several ideas for "then what do I do with it".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:56 PM on September 19, 2019 [6 favorites]


This might not seem happy but it is happy for me!

In the past few months I've been having more and more intense nightmares. On Tuesday I managed to convince myself to get screened for PTSD to see if I can participate in a study about various ways to manage trauma and improving the efficacy of therapy for people with PTSD, and yay (?) I have PTSD and I can participate in the study and they will help me and maybe I'll be able to get more than two uninterrupted hours of sleep at a time! I went to one therapy session once in the past and found it unbearably corny; I tried to get a referral last year but as a postdoc don't have access to the university's sexual assault resource/prevention services and so was directed to download a mindfulness app. Anyways, I decided that for science I could do the scary thing, so I have.
posted by ChuraChura at 12:59 PM on September 19, 2019 [32 favorites]


Much love, ChuraChura. <3 I'm glad you were able to Do The Thing and that it sounds like it may be helpful so far. Also, fuck that noise about "can't offer medical treatment, sorry, get an app".
posted by capricorn at 1:03 PM on September 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


I did something to my glutes/hips in late June, strained a muscle or something, and it's given me sharp hip pain with every step for the past three months despite various expensive physio visits, but it's finally just about gone, and I'm so, so happy to not be in pain - it's just amazing! I didn't realise how much it was getting me down until it disappeared.
posted by penguin pie at 1:26 PM on September 19, 2019 [5 favorites]


I took an Uber this morning and my driver, Ali, was a nice conversationalist (and I say this as someone who hates taxi conversation usually). It turned out we have both lived in Germany and he switched to speaking German, which we then did for the rest of the ride. Even though he only lived there for a year 35 years ago he was still really fluent. I hardly ever get to practice any more so that was fun.
posted by lollusc at 1:35 PM on September 19, 2019 [7 favorites]


Also, in bigger happy things, I left my bag with laptop and wallet in on the bus on Wednesday, and since I was leaving for an overseas trip today it would have been a more massive pain in the ass than usual. But some lovely stranger handed it in to the driver and it made its way back to me yesterday. Not even the money in the wallet had been touched.
posted by lollusc at 1:38 PM on September 19, 2019 [19 favorites]


I'm eating ice cream right now. :)
posted by unicorn chaser at 2:29 PM on September 19, 2019 [6 favorites]


I made a mistake I'm going to have to live with, and am managing to not kick myself about it too much.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:30 PM on September 19, 2019 [7 favorites]


We're in Houston and my spouse just made it home from work - through the deluge that is Imelda. Now we are both safe.
posted by blurker at 2:45 PM on September 19, 2019 [8 favorites]


I've posted this photo before, but here is our household cat contingent. Within the past week or two they all visited the veterinarian for regular physicals and vaccinations, receiving clean bills of health 😻😻😻
posted by exogenous at 2:53 PM on September 19, 2019 [9 favorites]


Photography makes me happy. Here's a post I made a few days ago about one such very happy photo. Sort of about great sushi, sort of a love story.
posted by y6y6y6 at 2:56 PM on September 19, 2019 [6 favorites]


For no particular reason at all except it seemed impossible and ridiculous to boot, about mid-way through July I set a semi-hard (by which I mean that it's something that I wish/intend to do, hard in the sense that I'm not going to leap off a bridge if I don't do it but it's my intent to do it) I set a semi-hard goal to be at 650 push-ups a day by my 65th birthday, which at the time was about five months out. My younger brother had visited and I told him that I'd gotten up to 80 per day, sets of 20, and there was some eye-rolling, or so it seemed to me, and eye-rolling and/or disbelief and/or distrust seem to be ways to piss me the fuck right off, and to light a fire. So I set toward 100 a day, and then from sets of 20 to sets of 25, and then have moved from there, holding to the sets of 25 and bouncing up as I've been able. I told a man I mentor about one particular good day I'd had and he asked (perhaps eye-rolling, perhaps distrust, perhaps none of those but still) he asked if my hands were shoulder-width apart, and I bristled, because of course they are, except that night I found that I was totally full of shit, and that my hands were pretty dang far apart, and it took the shine off what I'd done to that point, and I pulled my hands back in and suffered considerably because of it, muscles that hadn't been worked hard all of the sudden getting worked very hard indeed and lo, I was very, very unhappy. That was three weeks ago or four maybe, and since then my hand placement isn't always perfect but yeah, they're where they are supposed to be. I figured that if I got out of the month of September at 300 per day I'd be on a good pace -- my birthday is mid-December. Yesterday I cranked out 16 sets of 25, 400 push-ups. I don't know that I can do that today or not but I'd put money on being able to hit 300. What's strange is that the first four sets are totally horrific, very difficult, gruesome, painful, but then things open up and 100-200 are easy as pie, as was 200-300, and on up to 350 also, and then it got painful again, like the last four push-ups in those last two sets of 25's really sharp fire in my shoulders, and totally, completely tapped at the end. I've many times lost track of how many sets I've done, due to being so tired, but last night I took a stone and scratched lines on concrete for each set, and I'm going to do the same tonight, too. I've done the push-ups at various places on the bike ride but have settled in the past month to right at the end of the ride, a really pretty turn-out where I can look across the river at downtown Austin or look just a shade to my left and there is my condo complex, home sweet home these past 27 years; I like to make fun of the ducks, quack at them etc, and I like to look at my beautiful city in the rest between sets, and I like that I'm close to the end of the ride, I like that I can really blow myself apart in the push-ups and not have to worry about having trouble making it home due to exhaustion.
posted by dancestoblue at 3:28 PM on September 19, 2019 [13 favorites]


Had a long overdue vacation last week, just the two of us, in a gorgeous log cabin rental, mostly just hanging out relaxing out on the deck bird watching, reading, sitting in the hot tub, grilling, drinking beer and tequila. It was the most relaxed I've been in recent memory. Like, I mean in many, many years. Really needed it.

There were quite a few fun interactions with local wildlife, but one of my favorites involved a squirrel, a mushroom, and sausages. There was a huge pine tree overhanging the deck, and whenever I lit the grill, a squirrel would come check out the action. The first time this happened, it hung out in the higher branches, then traveled up and down the trunk, going about its business.

So I talked to it gently while I grilled the sausages, and eventually it came down and sat on the lowest branch. At that point, it was holding a beautiful mushroom it had found somewhere that was almost as big as its head. I started talking about what a beautiful mushroom that was, and how tasty it looked, and I might just have to steal that mushroom from it. At which point the cheeky little devil jumped down onto the deck railing and walked right up to me to show off its mushroom. I admired the mushroom appreciatively and did not attempt to steal it. After a minute or so, the squirrel was satisfied with my obeisance and returned to its tree.

It's possible that there exists somewhere a video of this encounter, that ends with clear audio of me saying "Dr. Doolittle can kiss my ass." But alas, even if this alleged video does in fact exist, I shan't be sharing it here. The squirrel refused to sign a release, having heard through the grapevine that Doc Doolittle is quite litigious.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:48 PM on September 19, 2019 [19 favorites]


Wishbone Ash: Blowin'Free. I don't know exactly why, but this song always makes me smile a happy smile.
posted by coppertop at 4:20 PM on September 19, 2019 [2 favorites]


Yesterday I got to watch Boy the BRKP goof off during his sport's practice and learned that his preferred method for entertaining himself during dull moments is to pretend to be a mime.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:44 PM on September 19, 2019 [5 favorites]


On the plus side I went to two consultations today for a cosmetic procedure and then booked my appointment for next week! It’s something that’s bothered me for over 15 years, and it feels really good to take care of myself. I don’t know if anyone will ever notice (probably not) but I will feel better for it :)

On the down side my car isn’t starting. But roadside assistance is on its way, and I feel lucky to have it. Plus it’s a nice night to just sit and chill outside for a little while.
posted by Mouse Army at 6:11 PM on September 19, 2019 [2 favorites]


I spent last weekend on a camping trip around Utah and it was amazing. Zion was beautiful, Bryce Canyon was beautiful, and the campground I choose practically on a whim was the best way to end each day. Cedar Breaks National Monument is so quiet compared to the big national parks, after long days of experiencing these amazing but crowded parks I’d roll up to my campsite and set out on a little hike to the scenic overlooks. The hills had the last of the wildflowers, deer wandered by, and it would just be me for a bit staring out, reflecting on everything I’d been lucky enough to experience that day.

Also the east side of Zion is excellent and I am so glad I stopped in as I was heading home. This world is amazing and I’m grateful that I got to experience a little bit more of it.
posted by lepus at 6:23 PM on September 19, 2019 [8 favorites]


I woke up for an early morning (11 am for me, but in the car by 9:30) meeting today and it was 40 degrees outside!

My meeting was out by Lake Champlain and I took a nice long over-the-mountains indirect drive home. The leaves are just coming out but there isn't that "look at the leaves!" traffic. I don't mind the traffic a lot, I know it gives us a less-stagnant economy, but it's nice to get the roads to myself sometimes when I am sight seeing.

Convinced landlady to turn on the furnace tonight, something she would prefer not to do until Nov 1. WARM.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 7:02 PM on September 19, 2019 [8 favorites]


Last night, for the first time in a year, I slept for six hours straight. Next week is my last week in a department run by a weak, bullying, toxic man. I've made a lateral move to a group who's HoD I have known for over a decade and deeply respect. I'm looking forward to the days where I don't wake up exhausted and frightened. Where all I need to do is work on code and make things work again.

To keep my sanity, I began to cook really elaborate pastries. This is my first entremet! I made it a couple of weeks ago. I'll be doing another this weekend.
posted by lemon_icing at 7:06 PM on September 19, 2019 [18 favorites]


I’ve gotten off my last anti-anxiety drug and after a few days of mild depression the fog has lifted. This will be the first time in over two decades that I haven’t been on any psychiatric meds. Or rather, the first time in over two decades I haven’t needed psychiatric meds. They helped me when I needed them, but it’s time to utilize my coping methods without them. I’m scared but also excited. Wish me luck!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:16 PM on September 19, 2019 [15 favorites]


I just enjoyed the Monet video from the blue with my 12 year old daughter. She really liked it too and we had a sweet little moment together. So grateful when that happens.
posted by gryphonlover at 8:21 PM on September 19, 2019 [4 favorites]


The Yankees clinched the American League East Division title. Yeeha! October baseball is near!
posted by AugustWest at 9:37 PM on September 19, 2019 [2 favorites]


It's delightfully chilly tonight and I have a slice of pumpkin pie.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:47 PM on September 19, 2019 [6 favorites]


It's finally getting warmer!
I rode to work every day this term, even through epic winter rainstorms. I feel very proud of myself for that.
posted by freethefeet at 1:34 AM on September 20, 2019 [4 favorites]


We just returned from a vacation to Scotland which was wonderful all around. While there was a ton of great stuff about the trip, I'll share the happiest thing that happened to us.

We were on Islay for several days, and on our last full day there we decided to go see the American Monument. It's a stone tower in the far southeast corner of the island, dedicated to the victims of two troop transport sinkings just off the coast. It's in the middle of a nature conservation area, so there's a short hike up a hill to get to the cliff where the monument stands.

As we approached the monument, we started to notice the silhouettes of some other people as well as... some other shapes. I pulled out my binoculars to see, and discovered that there was a herd of cows milling around the monument! We made our way the rest of the way up the hill and encountered a bunch of very docile Highland cows munching on the grass right next to this big stone tower.

I took a photo after they had wandered off some, but they continued to stay precariously close to the cliff edge. They seemed to know what they were doing, though. It turns out that the RSPB (which manages the conservation area) uses the cows to keep the grass trimmed.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:43 AM on September 20, 2019 [7 favorites]


lemon_icing, what a beautiful pastry! How does the assembly work? It’s hard for me to piece together how you get that one layer totally enveloped by the other in a pastry hug.
posted by eirias at 5:43 AM on September 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


I've noticed that I've been writing this whole year off as a bit of a treading-water wash. I started a new job in March and started hating it by April, and had already decided to hold off on any big travel or any big financial moves until next year anyway - because I will be completely debt-free by next Memorial Day.

But I've recently started to not only be okay with that - I've started to kind of lean into it. Because next year I turn 50.

I actually started planning my birthday observance last month - my birth date coincides with Mardi Gras, and I decided a while back that that obviously meant I should head down thither. I put the call out to my friends to see if anyone wanted to come with, and finally snagged a couple; we were a bit too late to all get a place together, but they have some pretty particular requirements and I'm more freewheeling so we've gotten two separate spots, each of which sounds amazing (they're at a spot in the Quarter with a hot tub, I'm at this gorgeous space in the Bywater that's two blocks from a winery that has backyard barbecues and live jazz daily).

But I'm also starting to lay the groundwork for 2020 to be a whole year of retrospection and new growth; I'll have the money for it finally, and I'm starting to build the gumption. And all of that makes me finally okay that this year was kind of meh; it wasn't "meh", it was fallow.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:00 AM on September 20, 2019 [7 favorites]


Love the idea of a fallow year!
posted by ellieBOA at 7:11 AM on September 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


For she's a jolly good fallow
For she's a jolly good fallow
For she's a jolly good fallow
And so say all of us!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 7:20 AM on September 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


One of my best friends got married last weekend, and despite some small crises everything worked out, the wedding day ran on-time, and it was a lovely celebration of two people who love each other very much. It was really wonderful to spend an entire weekend with some of my closest friends , I can't remember the last time I laughed that much.

And, I am happy that it's over. Being a bridesmaid is a LOT of work (and is also quite expensive), so that's all off my plate now, yay.

Second happy thing : My therapist left my office (her fellowship ended, nothing bad), but I was paired up with my original therapist, who was out on medical leave but has returned. This is a good thing. She is great at calling me out on my BS, which is something I kind of need. The other therapist was good at validating what I was doing and how I was feeling, which is helpful, but not as good as "yeah, you have some unproductive patterns of behavior, let's work on recognizing those, seeing where they come from, and then work on adapting them".
posted by Sparky Buttons at 8:45 AM on September 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


I have lived alone for chunks of my adult life and this time around, for almost nine years, and I've started to feel like maybe I don't like it as much anymore. This week, on a Wednesday, I got to wake up with someone, as I do get to do from time to time (usually weekends), but I've been super stressed and tired from big work projects and it just hit me exactly right. So sweet.
posted by wellred at 9:37 AM on September 20, 2019 [4 favorites]


For some reason The Spinners' 'It's a Shame'* was going around in my head the last week. Looked it up and listened to it properly a couple of days ago - I recommend it - it'll make you happy.

*Co-written by a 10 year-old Stevie Wonder.
posted by Kiwi at 9:49 AM on September 20, 2019 [4 favorites]


Yeah, that's meant to be 19 not 10 year old.

Though even 10 wouldn't be particularly outrageous for him.
posted by Kiwi at 11:09 AM on September 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


I've hit my goal of meditating for 10 minutes per day every day this week, so I got that going for me.
posted by Fierce at 11:58 AM on September 20, 2019 [4 favorites]


After almost ten years together, Mrs Molerats and I are finally leaving apartment life and renting a house at the end of the month. It has a yard and a fireplace!!

We have always lived in dense-area apartments with an anxious dog. I am most excited about an entire yard for her to run (and pee) in without constant monitoring for who/what is headed our way...
posted by nakedmolerats at 12:22 PM on September 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


oh thank you, eirias! The trick is freezing the layers. The pecan brownie base and coffee & white chocolate cremeaux is made day before and frozen hard. On assembly day, lay down brownie base, pour in chocolate mousse, squish in cremeaux, pour more mousse. Then chill so mousse will set. If anyone wants recipe, let me know and I’ll post it.

Pastry hug! i am totally stealing that phrase.
posted by lemon_icing at 12:41 PM on September 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


Just finished the first week of a new job. I wasn't in the market for a new job but an old co-worker talked me into interviewing for a job working for him and less than a month later I'm in a new better paying job. It's a little dizzying but feels good.
posted by octothorpe at 6:04 PM on September 20, 2019 [6 favorites]


I’m currently in a very nice holiday cottage in Dracula’s UK home for the weekend with friends and because three of us were driving up from the south-east and going near my parents, I had the never before held ability to ring my mother and say I was in the area and could drop in. Which led to my mother calling my siblings (who live in the same town) so I got to see them all unexpectedly, which I really appreciated because being a non-driver, I don’t get to go back up to t’north without it being A Thing involving planning! Trains! A lack of spontaneity! etc.
posted by halcyonday at 12:16 AM on September 21, 2019 [5 favorites]


This morning, my roommate took a short video of my cat Ishka demanding snacks.

I keep watching it over and over even though Ishka herself is sleeping not three inches from my hands as I type this.
posted by sciatrix at 9:28 AM on September 21, 2019 [5 favorites]


A year ago I started seeing a financial counselor through a free program with the city. I told her that my biggest goal was paying off my debt. We met monthly, with her helping me go over my budget and my debt payoff plan, politely-but-firmly encouraging me to also pay attention to my retirement and politely-and-slightly-more-firmly encouraging me to also have an emergency savings plan.

My most recent appointment was yesterday, and while I was there we discovered:

* I am only 8 months away from paying my debt off completely.
* My debt has been MORE THAN HALVED in that past year.
* My credit score has gone up EIGHTY POINTS in that past year.

She said that at this stage, I can be pretty much considered a "success story" at her center, and we don't need the monthly meetings any more, since i'm just going to be sticking with my payment plan and chugging along.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:36 AM on September 22, 2019 [10 favorites]


Testing a new-to-me html tag: "details"

Summary Goes Here
"Details"

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:05 AM on September 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


I had a great week of community this week. Our washing machine broke a week and a half ago, and it was lovely to realise just how many people I knew locally, who would be willing to let me use their washing machine if I'd needed to.

Last night I went out to borrow a spanner off a friend in order to install a "new to us" "free off the internet" washing machine, and got dinner and a couch too.
posted by kjs4 at 7:14 PM on September 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


A good friend is finally off the course of meds they were taking to wean off habitual use of an opiate, and they had a very good day today.
posted by davejay at 12:01 AM on September 24, 2019 [3 favorites]


Oh, and my son's excellent freshman year GPA has been surpassed by my daughter's GPA for the first time ever; she struggles in school more than he does and this was the result of a major effort from her, not any slacking on his part (they are the same age at the same school.) Couldn't be more proud of them both (their grades are much better than I ever achieved in high school.)
posted by davejay at 12:05 AM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


Saturday afternoon I sat and listened while our Anna's hummingbird sat on the end of a dead branch on the cherry tree in the courtyard and sang his wheezy reedy song over and over. Which was wonderfulness.
posted by y2karl at 8:32 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


I might be in love (shhhhhhhh) and I'm adopting a dog on Sunday (a gorgeous girl called Journey).
posted by rue72 at 1:01 PM on September 25, 2019 [3 favorites]


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