Kelly @ Dare to be Domestic has given me the Happy 101 award!

I love Kelly and her blog because I feel like her life seems kinda what my life would be if I didn't have Jake.  Well, except for that whole living in Northern Alabama thing.  I don't know if I could make it down there.

You know that song New York, New York?  And how if you can make it there, you can supposedly make it anywhere?
I beg to differ.  Anyone can make it in the big city.  There is a little something for everyone and everyone can contribute a little something.  Jobs and apartments and houses and rec centers and social programs and services and big hospitals and a million people to pick your friends from and colleges and public trans and taxicabs and people whose job it is to sweep the streets and point you in the direction of whatever it is you're trying to find and free admission Sundays at the museums and 1000 different kinds of places to search your soul or worship or just catch a free tai chi class in the park and a billion stores and a million restaurants and thousands of vendors and and and and lots of stuff.  Once you leave the City Proper, you've gotta have mad skillz to keep afloat.  You need a car and bug spray and you need to figure out how to fit in with the locals and you have to go to Sears and pick out a lawn mower.  Do you know I've never mowed a lawn or shoveled a driveway?

I'm a princess like that.

One time I kicked the snow off my front steps so the mailman wouldn't slip.

I'm a gem like that.

I have a hard time making resolutions that are listable, so I think I'll list 10 things that made me Happy in 2009.

1  Of course Jake.  Everyone says that their kid makes them happy.  But now he really makes me truly thrilled and joyous, before I just loved him and that sort of made me happy.  He is finally at an age where it is a pleasure to hang out with him.  I hate the baby years, but now he's my best little buddy.  He's wildly hilarious and witty.  Seriously.  He keeps me in stitches.  He's also very sweet, and thinks that I'm the most beautiful thing he's ever seen and the best mommy ever and he tells me that I make his heart happy when I hug him.  That makes a girl feel good.  Plus he's so damned beautiful that he makes my heart melt.  I know that shouldn't really matter and I'd love him even if he was an ugly little creepster, but looking at him takes my breath away.

Usually.
Sometimes he looks like a filthy little Wal*mart brat.  Sticky fingers and juice stains down the front of him and a rotten old milk mustache and snots in his hair.

2  Dave makes me happy too.  He doesn't get a lot of press on here, mostly because I don't really want to write the story of his life for him.  He's on Facebook.  I'm on Blogger.  Nary the two shall meet.  We got married ten years ago and it feels like those ten years have gone by in ten minutes.  That's gotta say something.

3  My birthday.  I had an excellent birthday this year.  I turned 33.  I like being 33.  I have faith that 34 will be even better.  Then maybe 35 will be the best yet.  I like getting older because it means that I'm accomplishing life.  That's no small feat.

4  My health.  I didn't have any surgeries in 2009.  I haven't been able to say that for quite some time.  You know it's bad when your anesthesiologists give you track marks that you have to hide from your boss and you lie and say you are taking a vacation day when really you are spending all day long at four different doctors in two different hospital systems.  Maybe three.  Is Hahnemann part of Pennsy or Jefferson?  I'm not sure.  While I was going through all that crap with my eye and my face and my nose and my vagina I didn't think it was such a big deal.  Turns out I was just coping by blocking everything out and swimming through the deep end of life with my eyes closed.  I realize that now.  I didn't then.  We are all lucky we all got out of that alive.  I could've ended up in a very different place than I am right now.  I sort of lost it for awhile.

5  My family.  I grew up in a laid back WASPY environment.  That's not a winning combination in most cases, but I turned out okay despite a pretty fair amount of total shit that was thrown my way.  I wouldn't say I'm over it, but I can definitely say that I'm a better person for it.

I'm a better mother for it.

6  Blue Moons.  The lunar phenomenon.  Not the beer.  I'm not so much a fan of the beer.
Blue Moon:Allagash White::
RC Cola:Coca Cola
There's one tonight.  When you step outside to see the fireworks, look up.
I don't know what it is about a blue moon that makes me all electric inside.  If the moon can hurry up and get big things started and done in a month's time, I should be able to too.  It's like a firecracker under my ass or something.

7  The left side of the country.  Geographically.  And politically.
I've been to California twice in the last five years, Colorado once, Nevada twice.  I'm thinking Red Rocks for 2010.  I think that would be a good followup to the Tahoe trip.
I don't know if I could ever live out there, but I sure do like to visit.

8  The right side of the country.  Geographically to the far right.  Politically to the leftish right.
It's a great place to live and breathe and raise your kid, here in the Cradle of Liberty.  When I first started blogging and I was a totally Mommy Blogger because the only people who read were people who wanted news about Baby Jake, my tagline was "Rocking the Cradle of Liberty".  It's a fun thing to do, run around this town with the boy.  I like that my City is part of the cast of characters in my life.

When you hang out here, you hang out with Sally, Jane, Billy, Joe, and Philadelphia.  It's somewhat awesome.

9  My job.  It's frustrating, but at the end of the day, I don't have to look very far to see measurable change in people's lives.  That's really something.  It gives me a reason to get up and hit the desk running.

10  This dumb old blog.  At the beginning of last year, I promised myself that if X amount of people followed me on Google Reader, I'd shut it down and write a book because even if half the people subscribed to my blog bought my book I wouldn't feel like a total failure.  Now I'm 2 subscribers away from that number and I think I'm taking back that promise.  I like it here.  I like this medium.  I like the feedback.  I like the outpouring.  I like that there is no rules.  No red tape.  No deadlines.  I don't like that Blogger took away spellcheck.  But I like everything else.

I like you guys.
You guys make me happy just by being you and being here.