A long entry in which I don't even mention that I've sprained my wrist

[todayiamadaisy]

When I was in secondary school, my friend Alison and I used to write each other notes that gradually grew into ten-page letters that grew into exercise books. These got so big that they were essentially diaries that took a few months to fill, so we had to go back to writing letters in the interim. I have ten of these book-letters from Alison, kept safely in my cupboard; I haven't read them for quite a while, but they are among my most treasured possessions. I hope she still has her books from me. They are filled with all sorts of teenage girl stuff: stories about what we'd done that day (at least, the parts of the day when we weren't sitting next to each other at school or talking on the phone), paint and laminex samples (we collected them), snippets cut from magazines, random ephemera that came our way and lists. Oh, how we made lists. One of my regular lists was the very Pollyanna-sounding "Five good things that happened to me today" - a small attempt to cheer myself up when I was feeling a bit blue. And tonight I read chrysantza's entry, which reminded me of my old lists. So I've shamelessly stolen her idea:


Twenty Things That Make Me Smile

1. The nectarine tree and the birds on the bird feeder hanging from it that I can see from the kitchen window.


2. The 3-D jigsaw castle I made last year, which sits on a shelf where I can see it every day. I'd love to live in that castle.


3. The sad little "What about me?" beep my printer makes when I forget to turn it off before I turn the computer off.


4. I stand at my front door for the smell of the sea; I stand at the back door for the scent of white magnolia.


5. The "Mr Men at the Fair" laminated poster that hangs inside my wardrobe door where only I can see it. Because I'm seven.


6. The two plaster statues of alsations that someone gave my grandparents as wedding presents and that now belong to me because everyone else thought they were hideous.


7. Also the vivid, tacky and extremely pink souvenir coral my grandmother brought back from a trip to the Great Barrier Reef because "it looked like the sort of thing you'd like." She was right.


8. My assortment of woodwind instruments. I don't play them as often as I should, but I like to know they're there.


9. The Renaissance-style cross-stitch initial A on my bookshelf and the large tin letter Q that sits on top of the piano.


10. The spider that lives in the bathroom.


11. The sweet little pet cemetery that I pass everyday in someone's front garden: one wooden cross by the fence inscribed with texta "In memory of our darling budgie David."


12. The beloved felines, Pinkie and Lysis.


13. Browsing through my too-large collection of craft books and magazines, planning what I'd make if I only had more time.


14. Getting proper letters.


15. My jade seahorse pendant.


16. The quiet satisfaction of a correctly balanced balance sheet. (I no longer work as one, but I'll always be one of nature's accountants, I'm afraid.)


17. A proper dip pen and coloured inks, as well as my recently acquired set of Chinese calligraphy brushes.


18. My tape of Christmas muzak by the Mike Sammes Singers (with Organ and Chimes), given to me by the above-named Alison. Cheese on a ninety minute cassette.


19. Racehorse names. And paint colour names.


20. Ballard Street.

And while I'm shamelessly stealing things, I've pilfered this idea from agatha_s: I've made my own country. It all seems to be going just ducky at the minute, so come for a holiday!