Happy Tag

given to me by Ellie

Books that make me happy- these are mainly children's books. But that's fine. These are the most comforting.
Junonia by Kevin Henkes

A little girl goes to a beach house with her family, just like every year. It's her very favorite place, fairytaleish to her. But this year, some of her favorite people- other vacationers that arrive around the same time as her family- are missing due to weather and scheduling errors. New people, strangers, are there too. Naturally, this is very uncomfortable and disappointing for a ten year old who expects certain things from a yearly vacation. Some may say that this is a silly thing to be upset about, but I can tell you, this is exactly how I felt
about change as a ten year old. And eleven year old. And twelve and thirteen year old. I always wanted to recreate the experiences that made me happiest, and that's why I hated change.
Also there is a vaguely spiritual quest for a rare junonia shell. You may like some of the points about that, too.

Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell

As a baby, Sophie was found floating in a cello case in the middle of the ocean when a ship sank. A bookish gentleman took her in and raised her on ice cream and poetry and classical music. They run away to Paris when [some ye olden version of the CPS] insists that a young lady should not be raised by only a man, and that she shouldn't be running around in trousers. Atop a dingy hotel in Paris, she meet a homeless boy who lives above the streets, and knows secrets about the night and birds and rooftops. After making of friends and some exciting espionage, she goes searching for her mother, who was presumed dead when that ship sank. Can you tell I like books about finding things?
Anyway, you don't need magic to have a magical book.

My Name Is Mina by David Almond

these are the musings of a girl who never really fit in. It's made like a journal, a bit of a stream of consciousness. Included are thoughts on birds and death and the possibility of a god and the way people work together. It is full of Extraordinary Activities, like thinking about where your pee goes, and thinking about all the things you're looking at but not seeing as you gaze up at the sky. Thoughts of ghosts and dealings with owls and memories of a school that refused to understand, and another school that tried to understand, but didn't quite work. The book encourages you to think about the world around you and and to be yourself, even if yourself is strange and hard for the rest of society to understand. No one can experience the world quite like you do.
This is my favorite book, but I don't have a physical copy of it right now, so I can't give you a excerpt, as much as I would like to. You will have to just trust me and buy it.

Words that make me happy- not necessarily words that are happy, just words I like.
Pay attention to how these words feel on your tongue. roll them around. repeat them over and over until the music of a single word is etched into your brain. When all meaning is gone from the word, look it up in the dictionary and give it meaning. Sing the word again now, knowing what it means.

temporal

entropy

olfactory

skeleton

cerebral

capacity

cytokineses

Movies-

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Princess Mononoke, I'm drawing a blank on the rest, sorry.

Scents-
Freshly cut grass, old buildings (no not like rotting 70's old building. Older than that. My aunt has a house that's nearly 100 years old and I like the smell of the attic. Maybe lath and plaster has a specific smell? Idk.), Coffee, apple crisp, red wine in soup

Songs- none of these are bouncy or angry songs, as much as I like those, cause I feel like this sort of happy is a calm sort of happy.
Not Today by Twenty One Pilots
Taxi Cab by Twenty One Pilots
Brother by Gerard Way
Just Breathe by Pearl Jam

Miscellaneous
Blankets, piano, creating things, quiet, museums, bricks, ivy. Long car rides with my family in which I drink coffee and sing along to the rediscovered CDs from the glove box, and when I dance around the house with a silly monologue, attempting to make dad laugh so hard he cries.
I am always happiest when I am completely alone. Completely alone and listening to music. Perhaps eating ice cream in the dark listening to My Chemical Romance, or eating cereal in an empty house listening to Metallica, or jumping on the trampoline, looking at the stars, listening to the Foo Fighters. And suddenly falling over laughing because look at those stars! and how could such tiny and insignificant beings as the human race invent a thing so great as music!

I tag Jenni, Star Girl (if you do this sort of thing), and Kirsten and Sylvia

I'm sending our good vibes to all of you.