A Few of My Favorite Things

Sometimes you have to stop and appreciate the little things in life. For some strange reason I have decided to enumerate some of my favorite "little things" here on my blog. Feel free to let me know if you like them too!peeling and eating mandarin orangesrubbing noses with my girlfriendwrestling with a feisty dogthe creepy super-detailed masks in the back of old Starlog and Fangoria magazinesautumn (in particular the first few weeks, the first hints of cool air, the trees turning, the catalyst, the pivot, that feeling of change and relief)checking my email at one in the morning to find a message from someone gushing over my bookspeople being enthusiastic about Halloween, especially kids in elaborate costumes and distant, well-made haunted housesthat feeling of cold pouring down my chest when I drink a bottle of cold water on a really hot daylistening to a woman sing seductively in Frenchriding in the back seat of a Humvee with my squadmates on a training mission on a cool, dry dayin the theater: the hushed, anticipatory period spent watching trailers before the moviewalking with someone through a carnival and listening to the rush-and-clatter of the rides, the murmur of the milling crowd, the smell of popcorn and funnel cakesa notification on Twitter from someone with a kind word to say about my workthe feeling I got when I did really well at the pistol range back in my MP unit in 2006 and the platoon sergeant did an unbelieving double-take between me and my target paper​finishing a book cover and doing something else for a while, and realizing when I come back and open the Photoshop window again that the cover looks boss as fuckthat low burn of adrenaline as I'm preparing to fight a really hard boss battle in a video gamereally good authentic California Mexican foodreally good Italian foodreally good coffeereally good pizzareally good Chinese food (okay, I really like to eat, so sue me)a dim-lit, quiet morning sitting by a window with a cup of coffee, so early that no one is awake, not even the birds, and I have work to do but all day to do itthat feeling of untightening, that freedom and relief, inside my chest when Army drill was finally over for the weekend and I could go homelooking up from something I'm doing, glancing at my girlfriend across a quiet room, making eye contactFerrero Fiesta cakes (chocolate-covered sponge cake soaked in orange liqueur) that have been in the freezerswimming in cool, clear waterthe burn of a well-worked pair of legslying on my side and watching a movie with my girlfriend as she leans back against me like I'm a pillowthe utter exhaustion of collapsing into bed after a long day of hard workhaving "I love you" whispered in my eara long walk in the dark with a flashlight that will let me secretly pretend for just a little while that I'm the protagonist in a horror video gamethe feeling of discovering a fantastic horror novelfinishing the final draft of my own novelhaving friends around to talk to and do things withthe clutching weight of a tiny cockatiel or a lizard on my handa long night playing hilarious games with friends -- card games, board games, video gamesstanding in a big open space, washed by a strong, cool crosswind, staring up at a black sky full of bright stars
And last but not least,
finally thinking of something worthwhile to write a blog post about.