Jun 9, 2009
What trivial stuff makes you happy?
A guest post by Molly.
I know it seems small, but there are few things I like more than freshly-washed, ne’er-been-walked-upon bathmats.
What are your simple pleasures?
Subscribe to 22 Words
Recent Comments
- Will on How to become a wine expert and other advice for inexperienced wine lovers
- Stephen May on It’s not a slide, it’s a proto-steampunk ghetto park bench for one.
- Stephen May on Who or whom? A clear, simple answer from a professional grammarian
- Stephen May on Elitists in Minnesota town Lino Lakes approve English-only resolution
- Will Adair on How to become a wine expert and other advice for inexperienced wine lovers
Sponsors
Categories
- Arts in General (24)
- Bible (66)
- Blogging (153)
- Brevity (25)
- Constructive Criticism (268)
- Faith (210)
- Food & Drink (54)
- Language (214)
- Literature (104)
- Love (86)
- Miscellanea (286)
- Movies (14)
- Music (155)
- parenting (153)
- Personal (182)
- Questions (255)
- Quotes (41)
- Recommendations (129)
- Sports (8)
- Uncategorized (8)
- Visual Art (27)
- Writing (56)
Archives
- July 2010 (107)
- June 2010 (79)
- May 2010 (89)
- April 2010 (62)
- March 2010 (21)
- February 2010 (25)
- January 2010 (32)
- December 2009 (47)
- November 2009 (63)
- October 2009 (45)
- September 2009 (40)
- August 2009 (40)
- July 2009 (40)
- June 2009 (37)
- May 2009 (47)
- April 2009 (51)
- March 2009 (40)
- February 2009 (31)
- January 2009 (44)
- December 2008 (47)
- November 2008 (54)
- October 2008 (50)
- September 2008 (41)
- August 2008 (45)
- July 2008 (51)
- June 2008 (51)
- May 2008 (66)
- April 2008 (74)
- March 2008 (71)
- February 2008 (19)
Reader Recommendations
Some of the books and music that you, the readers, have recommended here over time:
Twitter Recommendations
Theme based on Derek Punsalan's Grid Focus.
The first peanut butter at the top of a new jar.
Putting my name inside the front cover of a brand new book. Ahhh, the bliss.
I love, love freshly washed bathroom rugs. I washed ours right before we left.
A freshly washed and vacuumed car. All is right with the world.
I agree and my fiance insists that a clean car drives better!
Fresh sheets
I am also a fan of the freshly washed/dried bathroom rugs! LOVE IT!
Also – i like the start-up sound on my Mac when I turn it on in the morning…
+1 on fresh sheets. Actually I just love getting into a “made” bed at night (now that I’m married that seems to happen on a more regular basis), and top that off with freshly cleaned sheets…life doesn’t get much better!
Newly vacuumed carpet in the house. Days like today – cold, low wind, gray cloudy – love ‘em.
New socks
YES! And they facilitate another great thing: warm, dry feet.
The smoothness of unadulterated, freshly sanded wood.
Big towels.
post offices
Freshly ground espresso!
Scraping the curlyque off the top of the butter.
Carolina Gamecocks.
Most Gamecock fans that I know here in Carolina would not describe them as trivial.
Finishing a book, sunshine, and when my little brother still wants to hold my hand.
Grands Biscuits, and buttering/eating that first one when they are fresh from the oven.
Little to no dirt under my children’s (nicely trimmed) fingernails and toenails.
It seems the nail cleanliness is reserved for the time directly following the bath, and after that all bets are off, at least during summertime.
Defluffing the tumble drier.
Freshly vacuumed (never walked upon) carpet and freshly laundered sheets.
complete silence…with the lulling sound of passing cars…Ahh city life!
Seeing the beauty of the group of pines against the blue sky on my drive home at the end a long work week – gorgeous whether and the prospect of the whole weekend ahead. :-)
*weather
I’m being unoriginal but I’d also have to say:
clean sheets
and
clean bath towels
for the same reason. My favorite smell in the world is clean laundry and I love to be enveloped by it!
The damp, sweet smell of freshly cut grass.
fog across the hills in the morning when I didn’t expect it;
lighting a brand new candle and sitting down to read after the house is clean;
hitting a new high in my daily morning glory count once they start blooming (all time record is the high 80′s)
Hey! You have the same tile we do in our bathroom.
My pleasure seems to comes from finding obscure connections with people.
Libraries. Library cards. The concept of publicly shared books and knowledge is, I suppose, not trivial. I’m sure there will be libraries in the new heavens and new earth!
I wanna work in Heaven’s library. I love the smell of a new book.
I don’t know if there is a female version of a “man crush”, but if so . . . I think my wife has one on your wife.
Also, the comment link being at the top of the post threw me for a loop (and it might make the neat pretty fancy new reply feature a bit more messy with confused cross-post commenters, just sayin’)
a full tank of gas
love the new sheets as well, but I’ll go with freshly laundered and dried towel, right out of the dryer, dumped on me. Mom used to do that to me when I was a kid and I still enjoy it at 40!
mail
a cup of hot cocoa..with tons of tiny marshmallows in it, especially the one I get at a place called la Cuchara de Madera (The Wooden Spoon).
Climbing into a made bed.
Starting a new book.
Sleeping during a thunderstorm (unfortunately, my wife doesn’t sleep during them!)
I have a lot more, but I couldn’t classify them as trivial.
Walking out of the barber shop after getting a short haircut
The smell of an office supply store.
The smell of old books.
A sandwich made by someone else.
a big yes to smelling old books and eating a sandwich made by anybody else but me.
A full tank of gas. I feel wealthy.
I too have the same bathroom tile. My true guilty pleasure, though, is that we put heating elements under the tile, so it’s warm and toasty on our toes in the mornings and evenings.
And one day I showed my adult son the luxury of putting the first footsteps on the newly laundered, fluffy throw rug in there.
Large trash sacks. We recently ran out of trash bags, I didn’t want to buy more, so we’ve been using grocery-store plastic sacks. Whenever I get a larger one somewhere, it really is a big blessing! I’m so happy about the extra blessing of a little bit larger trash sack! I love it!
TV, getting the center cup for communion.
The first sip of coke from a can. I usually pour the rest into a cup with ice, but that first sip…delicious!
Agreed!! That pleasant “burn” on the back of your throat. So terrible for you, but oh so delicious!!
The fragrance of lilacs,….
from vases all over the house.
oh, the lilacs! This spring’s wet, warm weather made them soooo fragrant. It’s dizzying, almost!
Open windows, blowing in fresh, spring air on a beautiful day.
Hanging out clothes to dry on the same type of day…and the way they smell afterward.
a perfectly ripe mango
or should it be perfectly ripened mango?
Word nerds, help me out.
You will be happy to know there is no should.
Both are grammatical, though "perfectly ripe" is more common than "perfectly ripened."
You do know that by answering that post you essentially called yourself a “word nerd,” right?
Oh well. I’m happy to put any nerdiness I may have to work for my readers.
Although keep in mind that for Abraham, everything is grammatical, so he might not be the best one to ask.
I fully agree with you Molly. I love a fresh washed rug with no foot prints in it!
Wiffle ball
the first sip of coffee in the morning
Absolutely. With a silent house. It’s breathtaking.
The smell of a new book.
Ooey Gooey Butter Cookies
Pale pink peonies
The smell of Lowes or Home Depot.
The sound of rain through an open window.
Fresh warm laundry straight from the drier.
Laundry right out of the dryer. I don’t care if it’s a sheet or a towel or a blanket, I love to wrap it around myself while I fold the rest of the laundry :)
Eating the biggest strawberry in the package. Although, I now have 2 other people who I usually give it to instead.
An uninterrupted afternoon with a book.
P;ease define “uninterrupted afternoon”– I’m unfamiliar with the term… :o)
A new pair of socks – “Ahhh…”
Sleepin’ on fresh-out-of-the-dryer sateen sheets.
Mmmmmm too many things to list but….
.First sip of a iced non-fat latte
.Waking up to a cloudy, cool day (won’t happen again this year in Texas until October)
.Sitting quietly and listening to the buzz of the sanctuary just before church starts
Standing barefoot for a few moments after dark in snow on the back deck, while it’s snowing.
Old Vine Zindfandel
The first day of wearing a new pair of jeans
A blizzard that “shuts down” normal everyday activities
An unexpected “snow day” (when I was teaching)
The crackle, smell, and light of a campfire
newly painted toenails :)
The smell of freshly cut grass
Clean sheets
(Neither of which happen around here as often as they should.)
Two kids down for naps. Hot cup of tea.
I love to check to see if the tub of butter has a perfectly untouched swirl at the top….
kissing the bridge of my kids’ noses
the smell of said kids the morning after a bath
my bed and associated pillows w/ old, loved pillowcases (clean or not, although clean is sure nice!)
my husband bringing in the Sunday paper
the morning after we host Thanksgiving…
usually nothing I “need” to do,house is spic and span, a cup of fresh coffee and leftover pie for breakfast-trivial pleasure+!
Looking when one of my kids say, “Daddy! Look!”
I couldn’t agree with you more, Molly!
Summer is throwing me off, so another trivial thing: the smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree recently placed in its stand in the living room. I also enjoy the smell of massive amounts of freshly turned earth, especially when combined with a waft of diesel fumes.
Oh, I keep a list. It is longer than 22 words; I will spare you. But a few:
* “The Trifecta of Readiness” (full gas tank, full refrigerator, empty laundry basket)
* Pilot BP-S fine point pens, in purple ink
* Full-contact Labrador Retriever wrestling
* Jacaranda trees
* Marching band drumlines
crunching newly fallen leaves underfoot.
using a new pen; even just visiting a stationary store delights me
- Cute shoes
- Iced raspberry mocha (no whip, skim milk)
Cans of coconut cream flavour coated peanuts.
i love cleaning out the lint that has accumulated in the dryer.
I love this post.
Reading everyone’s comments makes me feel happy inside.
I’m getting a warm, fuzzy feeling from just reading everyone’s comments! I keep imagining all of these things for myself and it feels great.
-The Clearance section at Half-Price Books
-Going to the mailbox
-The lines on the carpet right after you vacuum
-The smell of a baseball game
-A unique twist at the end of a chapter
-Laughter
-The first divot in a pint of ice cream
-Candlelight
-Songs that get stuck in my head
(I guess I delight in “trivial” things.)
the smell, look and feel of an old musty bookstore
Peppermint lip balm
The smell of freshly cut alfalfa
A skein of fine yarn
A good find at a thrift store
1. Coca-Cola in a glass full of small pieces of ice.
2. Sleep for two hours on Sundays afternoon.
Had to submit one more:
- The word “Gadzookery” (It’s real, I promise – http://tinyurl.com/l3eb2f)
Acquiring lovely teacups and saucers
Wandering through Anthropologie
The breeze from my ceiling fan
Cutting Playdough with scissors (such a satisfying texture!)
I have a thing for stationary.
A brand new inky black pen writing on thick, spongy, pure white paper. I love how it sucks up the ink.
New socks. Old buttons.
Holding my coffee cup in my hands – I love how the warm china feels, a brand new spiral notebook, the quiet sound before morning.
Clean sheets and new contact lenses
The color contrast of a flock of birds flying across a clear blue sky. Even better if surrounded by bright green trees and grass.