My Love List

I was inspired by She Likes Purple's post regarding her "love list" to create one of my own - the only rules are that you can't include a single person you know on your list. The exercise is meant to strip away everyone who defines you and figuring out what you (not your partner or mother/daughter/sister/friend love). So here it goes:

• I love sitting by a fireplace on a cold night with a mug of hot chocolate and warm socks and all the lights in the house turned off.
• I love being at the beach at the end of the day when everyone is packing up to go home and you are just enjoying the quiet that comes as the sun begins to set.
• I love a clean and organized desk at work.
• I love getting my hair blow-dried by a professional.
• I love the morning after I clean my closet as I stand there picking out something to wear to work in an organized environment.
• I love a new pair of heels - the kind that gives you power when you place them on your feet.
• I love the anticipation of something I've been looking forward to.
• I love traveling on an airplane with no carry on luggage except my purse, a trashy magazine and my Ipod.
• I love the smell of a baby's head.
• I love going to an website and putting everything that I love in "my shopping cart" and seeing how much it would cost. Exercises like this make me realize that I don't need everything I want (especially since I can't afford $7,65 wort of shoes on Zappos).
• I love Easter jellybeans - not the brand names such as Starburst and Jelly Bellies - I'm talking about the no-name kind that you can get from this homemade candy store on Route 17 in New Jersey - the kind of jelly beans that all taste the same no matter what color they are.
• I love the smell of Irish Soda bread baking (ironically, however, I hate the taste of it).
• I love chopped salad, no matter the ingredients, because I hate having to cut up a salad on my own (cutting lettuce and/or greens pisses me off).
• I love cupcakes - any flavor, any kind.
• I love getting dressed up for an occasion in an outfit you've been planning for weeks.
• I love looking around a candle-lit room and people enjoying themselves and their loved ones.
• I love taking an outdoor shower after a long day at the beach.
• I love autumn - I love the sound of leaves crunching under your feet as you walk along in weather that is just cold enough to wear a sweater and in the air you can smell someone lighting their fireplace for the first time.
• I love hearing cheerleaders during a football game.
• I love long dangly earrings.
• I love the sparkle of diamonds.
• I love Fridays with the potential of an entire weekend laid before you.
• I love drinking a cold beer on the patio after a long day of yard work.
• I love it when my house is just cleaned, there are fresh flowers on the dining room table and coffee table, and the candles are lit. Especially if we are awaiting company.
• I love walking along a boardwalk at night while chewing on salt water taffy.
• I love the smell that my Chicken Elegant recipe gives off while it cooks for three hours in the oven.
• I love having a clean car with a full tank of gas.
• I love hearing stories of people that have overcome tragedy in their lives.
• I love fountain Diet Pepsi.
• I love walking through the Texas State Fair and people watching while licking the grease from a funnel cake off my fingers.
• I love laying by the pool at the end of the day and feeling the clean, tight feeling on your skin that only comes from a day in the sun with sporadic dips in a chlorinated pool.
• I love redecorating a room to give it a new look simply by rearranging knick-knacks.
• I love clearing off my Tivo.
• I love the look of cherry cabinets in a sleek new kitchen.
• I love a lightly toasted bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese.
• I love clearing a row of symbols in the on-line Alchemy game.
• I love spa socks and rubbing my feet together in the softness.
• I love watching a show/movie that makes me laugh so hard that I cry.
• I love the smell of a recently cut lawn (but I'm deathly allergic to the cut grass).
• I love freshly manicured nails before any chips have occurred.
• I love a long drawn out lunch over sushi.
• I love falling asleep on a warm (not hot) summer's night with the widows open hearing the crickets (or when I lived in NJ the ducks) in the distance.
• I love the weak feeling in your knees when you get off the treadmill after a long workout.
• I love hearing songs that bring back vivid memories from the past - like that song that you danced to with your friends from high school while you all screamed the words at the top of your lungs (feathered hair and leg warmers optional).
• I love sailing across clear, blue water.
• I love the twinkle of little white lights.
• I love a crisp white blouse that fits you perfectly.
• I love walking through Manhattan on Memorial Day weekend when the rest of city left for the three day weekend elsewhere and you have the streets to yourself.
• I love eating a hot dog and drinking a cold beer at a baseball game. Extra credit if your team wins.
• I love finishing a really good book - the kind where your dread to have it over grows as the pages diminish.
• I love hearing a really good joke - one that requires a bit of thought or a leap of logic to get the humor.
• I love dusk.
• I love a well made mojito.
• I love really dark hardwood floors.
• I love the feel of a ponytail swinging behind you as you walk.
• I love stone-ground wheat crackers with Boursin Light cheese spread.
• I love it when I follow through on obligations and don't postpone/cancel plans or appointments.
• I love Thanksgiving and everything that comes with it.
• I love ice-skating and that weak feeling you get in your ankles after a long day.
• I love really bad storms - the kind that make you huddle in your house but aren't bad enough to hurt anyone or destroy anything.
• I love the sauce from tikka masala on top of white rice.
• I love little white gloves and patent leather mary janes on little girls (even though I screamed when my mom dressed me in the same attire).
• I love sand-covered tan feet.

That was a great walk down memory lane since many of my loves come from meaningful moments in my life.

And I have to share my favorite quote from Kristin Armstrong and the article that inspired SLP's post:

If your husband asks what you think, tell him. If you have a preference, voice it. If you have a question, ask it. If you want to cry, bawl. If you need help, raise your hand and jump up and down. I spent five years juggling kids, travel, cooking, smoothing. I never once said that I couldn't do it on my own, or that I was just plain tired. I became a prisoner to my own inability to say uncle when life squeezed me too hard. The warden was pride, and I remained in maximum security.