Happy Things

• A Gmail phone conversation with a friend in the country next door, and realizing that I wouldn't be in this part of the world if it weren't for that particular friend's domino influence through others on my life
• A $6 or $7 Christmas tree! Can you even find them that cheap at WalMart? Granted it's only three feet tall, but it's three feet of sparkling rice lights and ball ornaments, three feet of happiness!
• Finding white chocolate mint Hershey's kisses, Reese's Christmas peanut butter cups, candy canes, and other Christmas candy in the local store. I didn't buy any of them, but it's a comfort just to know that they are there. (I thought about decorating my Christmas tree with candy canes, as I have in the past, but a quick mental calculation hinted that the candy canes would be more expensive than the $1 set of ornaments I found.)
• Finding blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries in the store! Again, way too expensive to buy, but definitely cheering. Where am I?! I'm not sure I could buy blueberries at home at this time of year!
• Another lights Christmas tree taped on my wall. This is becoming a tradition, folks! This year I got a little fancier than last year . . . after a few more years of this, I'll be ready to decorate a house and win awards! (Ha!)
• Having shopkeepers in the local souk greet me in Arabic. I think that's a first, and it's still a little unnerving, because they shouldn't think that I know Arabic.
• The prospect of old friends moving close!
• A quick G-chat with Tara! And realizing that she must be in a home that has internet now, which means that I'll be able to chat with her more regularly!
• A clean apartment
• Freshly baked pineapple pumpkin muffins and bread (from fresh pineapple and pumpkins)
• Productivity
• An inexpensive bedside stand
• A keyboard!!! Inaugural song was the one whose words Great-grandpa Morrison wrote!
• E-mails from Gretchen about ordinary life
• Anticipating new clothes arriving tomorrow, ordered from the tailor two weeks ago. These are the things that I wear outside every day, and they are expensive, so this is a Big Deal!
• When the traffic isn't heavy around town. (There are some intersections that need some serious lights or roundabouts.)
• My Arabic teacher telling me that she would like to be a student in my English class
• Loving my students. I missed them over holiday!
• Meeting neat people who share the same goals from around the world, people who just happen to be passing through my out-of-the-way city.