Friday, August 7, 2009

Autobiography 6: A Few of my favorite things

I love a lot of things and the ever growing list is much to big to contain here or anywhere else. Periodically I will make a new list because I love making lists, here's one for now:

• Watermelon, mangoes, kumquats, Croatia, fruit in general
I have always loved eating sweet things and fruit is definitely sweet. On my trip to to Eastern Europe I spent the most enjoyable moments of it gallivanting around looking for fruit trees. My step-mom Natasha understands my love of fresh things and would often make my dad pull off to the side of the road so we could pick pomegranates and olives. (Fresh olives are NOT on this list)

• budgeting, finance books, conferences on money
Something about money and reading about money and talking about money is just titillating. I think a lot of it has to do with how infrequently any of that happened growing up and how little any of this ever happened. I suppose now it is more like a hidden art that I love to learn and to budget and to plan is just exciting.

• taking typing tests and getting paid
While at work one morning one of my coworkers showed me this neat online free typing test and somehow it became really addicting to type things and to try to improve my typing abilities. It also reminds me of just how often I use the back space button, it is definitely my best friend. If I am allowed to use it, I can get pretty good accuracy on things, otherwise I am basically doomed. I also participated in a study where they had us do typing tests and we got paid more for the faster and more accurately that we typed. I got $14 out of a possible $15. Not to brag, but I've got skills.


• going on road trips with good music
There's nothing like an open road with an open bag of snacks and some good music playing in your ears. It's like a movie with accompanying sound track, except, you're IN IT. When I read "Xen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" I remember how the narrator lamented the fact that most people when they go on road trips don't really experience it. He likened driving in a car to watching a movie, although you are driving past things, it is still so disconnected, seen through a square box, without you feeling the wind or the bugs or the proximity of your body to the road. When I go on road trips though, I roll down the window and I let it all in then I blare the music and let it all out again.

• hammocks
One summer when I lived in a house without air conditioning (which has actually happened every summer since I've lived in Provo) I found out that hammocks are a joy. I would go out and sleep in it at night and I loved it. Of course, some how it would always get freezing cold and then the strings would dig into my back. Hammocks though are a great joy, they are like swings, but for adults.


• otter pops
I am addicted. There is no other way to really explain this. I once bought a box of 500 and by the next day there were only green and purple left (I don't eat green and purple). Basically this means that in the course of a day I had somehow consumed at least 450 otter pops. It was amazing. I still don't know how it happened.

• the smell of water on the pavement
Growing up, I loved playing in the rain. There is something very comforting about warm water pouring down over you while you lay down and let it soak all in. Also it means that you can stomp around in the mud and let it squish between your toes and not even worry about it. So now to smell water on pavement brings me back to my childhood and is very nostalgic.

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