Recipe for Happiness

Dear Diary,

I couldn't wipe the grin off my face this morning, so I thought I'd write down the ingredients in case I want to try this dish again!

1. Obtain a new toy that you've wanted desperately for a long time. (In this case, a new Macbook![acbook...acbook...acbook!]. It was courtesy of the Parent Company, and like many things T-bone and Mama Citta Aperta have given me over the years, how do you ever say thank you for something like that, which they really didn't have to do but they did? As another example, giving me life.)

Enjoy it with the awareness that new-toy-based happiness can be fleeting and furnishes diminishing returns as the body adapts to the gadget high, so be sure to really relish in it while you can. Really get up in there and roll around. Marvel at the simple, unspoiled beauty. Hold it in your hands, caress it, feel the possibilities shoot through your veins like lightning bolts.

2. Before you go to bed, ask your sweetheart to help you get up in the morning, no matter how much you resist. Human intervention wake-up (even tickling) is head and shoulders better than electronic beeping wake-up.

3. The next morning, if possible, have this sweetheart make a pot of coffee just because you ask.

4. Take a warm shower in a sunlit bathroom.

5. Have a job that is flexible enough that you don't have to rush out the door. Drink your coffee while lounging on the bed with aforementioned sweetheart. Include tasty breakfast.

6. If at all possible, let it be a Friday, and let the weekend be full of a variety of pleasant plans, but not so many that there won't be time to relax and do nothing in particular. (These activities include making gumbo and watching a movie about summer camp; wine and sandwiches; a housewarming party with long-lost but well-loved friends; and trying, as you do most weekends, to convince F-Money to make biscuits and gravy for Sunday breakfast.)

7. Borrow an album of music that you haven't heard before but that the lender is pretty sure you'll like based on your music preferences. (I used M.Ward, but adjust to taste.)

8.Let it be a sunny, mild day with a nice tender blue sky. This is most potent after a string of gray and wintry days in which you began to despair that the sun even existed.

9. Get in the car, put in the CD.

10. Drive. Savor. Reflect on the notion that this is it. This moment is your life.