Halloween

Moonlight caught
The cat's eyes as
She walked alongside
Children, pillowcases
In hand, begging like
Hobos
For chocolate.

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Real Butter
• Missing the morning traffic rush
• Good driving music
• Dreams, especially the kind where I wake up and none of what I remember makes any sense
• Milk cows
• After a haircut, the feeling of having my hair off of my neck
• The scent of Thanksgiving dinner as it cooks
• Raccoons
• Relief after a headache
• Going to the dentist. Being told I have no cavities

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Keeping my balance while the personal trainer shows me new exercises, then watching my husband do the exercises when I'm too tired to continue
• The pile of men after the Phillies won the World Series
• My husband emptying the trash. He's such a sweetie :)
• Squash
• Pente
• Marbles
• Watching other people cook
• Warm towels, right out of the drier
• Fairy tales
• The Monster Mash

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Learning about wine
• Wanting to someday master the art of using chopsticks
• The hum of the furnace
• Jack and the Bean Stalk
• Water guns
• Opening the mail and not having any bills
• Easy Mondays
• Calzone
• Gummy Bears
• Staple guns

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Reminding my husband that he's older than I am :)
• Sending letters to friends
• Hot tea
• That Halloween is almost here
• Finding out that a good friend of mine just got engaged
• Writing
• A well crafted character, like Hannibal Lector
• Pente
• Going to an ethnic restaurant and not being able to pronounce what I ordered. Asking the waiter to repeat the name of my dish three times so that I could repeat it, only to forget the word once my delicious food arrived.
• Dreams

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Fabric softener
• The picture of my in -aw's cat trying to get into the bell of my husband's trombone
• Living in a free society
• Sweatshirt weather
• Food that clears out my sinuses
• French toast
• Freshwater pearls
• Vacation
• The loop on carpenter jeans where the hammer fits
• When road construction is finished and the new road is smooth and ready

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Trying new food
• Looking for something I've been wanting to buy, then finally finding the item online
• Brainstorming
• The echo in a large church
• Stained glass windows
• Honey bees
• The show, "Survivorman"
• Polished rocks
• Bubble bath
• Good driving music

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Making up after a fight
• The scent of my mom's perfume
• Wall calendars with fun pictures
• Remembering when I was a child, thinking that elbow grease was something one could use to cook
• Macaroni and cheese
• Dill pickles
• Baby powder
• Pay day
• Laser printers
• Waterfalls

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Garlic mashed potatoes
• The hum of a healthy car engine
• Rocky road ice cream
• Cashews
• Double rainbows
• The ability to breathe after being in a high altitude, after coming back down from the mountains for example
• Double dates
• The scent of fur trees
• Cats batting at Christmas ornaments on the tree
• Fake fangs for Halloween

Untitled

my facial expression
when I used an expression
that in the north is innocent
but elsewhere in the country
means something racially charged.

and the friend who politely pulled me
aside
to tell me of its meaning

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Ribs
• Sweet corn
• New car smell
• Antique shops
• Needing to complete a task and having the right tools to do the job right
• Arrowheads
• Fossils
• Cities that have a vibrant downtown
• Redwood trees
• Eagles

Wow

I just returned from a trip to the Smoky Mountains. My conclusion is that everyone should see them in the autumn while the trees are changing colors at least once in one's lifetime. There is no way that pictures I took will be able to do the sight justice. I may put them up on the blog once I've had a chance to veg from the trip.

I smiled a lot during the trip. Other than the driving that my husband and I crammed into a weekend, I had a blast.

Ten Things That Make Me Smile For Today:

• Splashes of color along hundreds of miles of landscape
• Carvings of black bears
• Cherokee, NC
• Panning for emeralds
• Being a tourist
• Creeks
• Seeing the stuffed teddy bear, wearing a shower cap, in an old basin in the shop.
• Letting my hubby drive
• A comfortable bed in the hotel
• Stopping alongside the road to take pictures, then pulling the burrs out of my pants from the ditch.

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Mountains
• Electric and acoustic guitars
• Muffins
• Kids climbing trees
• Waterfalls
• Grilled cheese sandwiches
• Peanut Butter
• Caves with stalagmites
• Hummingbirds
• Random statues-- last night I saw a huge elephant statue in Crossville, TN

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Mentos
• Good drivers
• Gold fish
• Lemonade
• Skittles
• Black cats
• Pop (soda) in glass bottles
• Rootbeer floats
• When the police officer behind me turns off on a different street without pulling me over
• Nachos

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Carmel
• Brainstorming
• Giant Squid
• Home runs
• Free samples
• Snow forts
• Sleeping bags
• Toffee
• Sword fights in movies/plays
• A steamy shower

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Deer
• Stamps with fun designs
• Home cooked food
• Light Traffic
• When the price of oil falls
• Elephants
• Sticky Notes
• My pillow
• Violets
• Cold pop (soda)

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Singing Birds
• Kudzu
• When I handed the cashier my library card by accident rather than my grocery saver's card.
• Balancing my checkbook and coming up with the same figure as the bank says I should have in my account.
• Four leafed clovers
• Fool's gold
• Fun Calendars
• Picnics
• The Mountains
• Beavers

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Warm sweaters
• Tail gating
• Fleece
• Golf pants
• Cinnamon roles
• Pudding
• Fun cookie jars
• Alphabet soup
• Hammocks
• The giant Superman statue in Metropolis, IL

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Flash Fiction
• Doughnuts
• Leap year babies
• Strawberry shortcake
• Foot rubs
• Getting a bonus
• Watching kids jump into piles of fallen leaves
• Boardgames
• Knowing that I have the cure to hiccups in most instances
• Fun refrigerator magnets

Then Things That Make Me Smile

• Rebate checks when they come in the mail
• Caterpillars
• Rainbows
• Back rubs
• The Mississippi River
• Singing
• Being barefoot
• The Public Library
• Vanity license plates
• Divinity (the candy)

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• The new car smell
• A light breeze
• Seeing hot air balloons in the sky
• Fridays
• Vacations
• Piglet from Winnie the Pooh
• Realizing that there is no towel hanging near me after I take a shower, yelling for help, and then having someone (usually my hubby, or my mom when I was younger) save me by bringing a towel.
• A white Christmas (as long as I'm not the one driving in the snow)
• The Flintstones
• Thanksgiving

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Hamsters
• Being taken out to dinner
• Seeing the water periodically drained from fire hydrants
• Ehlmer's glue
• Silly putty
• Finding out someone has an interesting middle name
• Girl Scouts
• Diamonds
• Frog jumping contests, usually at the county fair
• Candy at the store the day after Halloween or the day after St. Valentine's Day

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Kites
• Kittens
• Penguins
• A lazy day at home
• Honey
• The first hard frost of the year (I have allergies)
• Duct tape
• WD40
• Cuckoo clocks
• Scare Crows

10 Things That Make Me Smile

• Fried chicken
• Bubble bath
• The music of the ice cream truck
• Garlic bread
• Fireworks
• Music from the 80s
• Toe socks
• Seeing a couple holding hands
• The Wizard of Oz
• Owls

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Indian Summer
• Harvest Moon
• Mums
• Music Row in Nashville
• Postcards sent from foreign countries
• Reconnecting with old friends
• The shoe in Monopoly
• Airplanes in the night sky. Remembering when I was a child, thinking they were UFOs
• The smell of the ocean
• Warm chocolate chip cookies

Haiku

the symphony concert
little girl in the front row
as she conducts on her own

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• The northern lights
• Lilacs
• Drinking grape juice, but managing not to spill any on my white shirt
• Groundhogs
• The loosening of my rings when I lose weight
• Fresh pineapple
• Cotton balls
• A sunny winter day
• Pin the tail on the donkey
• Flannel blankets

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• My hubby's clean shaven cheeks
• Silk scarves with a fun pattern on them
• fresh fruit
• crepe myrtles
• fudge
• Burt's Bee's Wax
• Watching people walk their dogs
• The Loch Ness Monster
• Alligators
• Seedless watermelons