Dear friends,

I don’t have the energy or the willpower to come up with a post that’s very deep or full of fascinating content. Exam season is well upon me now and that always turns me into a bit of a misanthrope; I allow myself to mope about the house and eat unhealthy things and wear sweatpants all the time and leave the dishes for someone else and sometimes ignore people.

Luckily, I do have the objectivity of spirit to realize how ridiculous I’m being, and I can easily laugh at my sometimes-pathetic behaviour. That being said, I’m using this writing as a study break (i.e. procrastinatory tool), and as a principle of laziness, most of this post will consist of a point-form list.

I thought I might make a list of things I find wonderful. Think of it as my sort of personal version of ‘The Book of Awesome,” except much shorter. I did wonder whether Mr. Pasricha had any sort of intellectual property claim on making such a list, but then I realized that Julie Andrews made a list of her favourite things in the Sound of Music long before Mr. Pasricha wrote his book and that made me feel reassured. Please note that I will not include the obvious such as “skating” or “my family,” etc.; as the title suggests, this is meant to be a long (but non-exhaustive) list of those small, unimportant things that just happen to make my day a little better, in no particular order. I also apologize if much of it pertains to food. Here it goes:

-       Tempo’s Concerto Hour of Power every Thursday at 10:00 a.m. – I love my CBC Radio.

-       Peppermint tea

-       “The Prophet,” by Khalil Gibran

-       Soups, stews, chilis, etc. – They make the belly warm.

-       Minesweeper – I’m an addict.

-       Urban Herbivore’s sweet potato & date muffins – This may sound unappetizing, but I assure you that they are delicious.

-       Dvorak’s Cello Concerto

-       Chocolate! – In most forms, though I must hand out honourable mentions to 1. Ritter Sport Knusperkeks bar, 2. Lindt ‘Les Grandes’ hazelnut bar, and 3. Chocolate-covered pretzels. I’d also like to point out that ‘chocolate’ does not include white chocolate, which in my opinion doesn’t deserve its name given that it has no cocoa and is one of most vile substances made by man (this last part might have been slightly hyperbolized).

-       Peanut M&Ms – So delicious they deserve their own entry separate from ‘chocolate.’

-       “Cien años de soledad” (One Hundred Years of Solitude) by Gabriel García Márquez

-       Modern dance, in all forms – José Limón, you are a genius. I do enjoy watching it, though here I’m mostly referring to the part where I get to dance.

-       The movie “Airplane!” – The best kind of humour.

-       Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto no. 2 – Heavenly.

-       Root vegetables – They are all delicious in my books, but I’m especially speaking of sweet potatoes, parsnips, and beets.

-       Joni Mitchell’s music

-       Cornbread – So underrated.

-       The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show

-       Beaudelaire’s “Le spleen de Paris”

-       Curry and roti – Comfort food at its finest.

-       Liszt’s “La Campanella” – Incidentally I also love Paganni’s violin concerto no. 2, whose last movement served as an inspiration to the piece.

-       (Oatmeal) chocolate chip cookies – Felix and Norton, I’m looking at you, but all are delicious. Note that the restriction on ‘chocolate’ above applies here as well.

-       The word ‘brouhaha’

-       Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s  “Rimas” – My favourite poems.

-       Long car trips – So long as they are accompanied by good music (and great people).

-       Nut butters – This nearly classifies as an addiction. Peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, (yes) nutella… All are better when eaten from the jar with a spoon.

-       Seinfeld

-       Keith Haring – His art, not the man (whom I never met).

-       Philip Glass’ “Einstein on the Beach”

-       Giant salads

-       Quoting “Finding Nemo” – A near-daily activity.

-       Catching the green light at Carlton and Warden by my house – The consequences of not doing so include a 3+ minute wait.

-       Pie – Apple (crumble), lemon-meringue, pecan, tourtière…. Yes!, tourtière counts too!

That’s about all I’ve got… I assure you that I could make a much longer list on this same topic, but I’ll have to leave it for some other time.

As the blade turns,

Paul