2. Lilacs--Preferebly boomimg in huge lavender, pink and white bunches, so many that the bushes are weighed down with the blossoms and the air is perfumed with them.
3. E. Nesbit's books--All of them. I haven't yet found one I didn't love.
4. Flannel sheets--I grew up in Michigan, so I'm still trying to keep warm, even in (relatively) balmy California.
5. Calvin & Hobbes--Aaargh! The greatest comic strip of all time, bar none (even Doonesbury isn't quite as good...sorry Gary) is gone...my civilization would be crumbling, if it weren't for the big anthology books. Still, no new C & H means that I went through a nasty withdrawal. Worse than from coffee, even.
6. Jones New York jackets--Their petite sizes fit me so well, it's almost as though they were made for me. And they feel great and look even better.
7. Cheap sneakers--The kind they sell at Target for about $3.99. They look like Keds, they feel like Keds, they last as long and they're so cheap I can have 'em in several different colors.
8. Computers--Of course. How else could I have a Page O'Happiness?
9. The Net--See #8 above.
10. Sushi--The most perfect food in existance. Mmmmm. My favorites are saba (mackerel), kappa maki (cucumber roll), hamachi (yellowtail), maguro (tuna), and salmon-skin maki. I also like ama ebi, but that's mostly for the shock value of the stir-fried shrimp heads served on the side. They can be great way to make a first date the last one!
11. Books--Just try to pry me away from a book I'm engrossed in! And bookstores can be fascinating places to spend a few hours...or days! Among my favorites are Jane Austin, Mark Twain, Douglas Adams, Shakespeare, Thackery, A.A. Milne, Zola (although I havn't read much yet)... plus, I read lots of children's books, especially picture books. If you can find it, check out Rebecca Caudill's A Pocket Full of Cricket--a great story and neat woodcut-style artwork, too.
12. Hot tubs--Hey, I live in California now! Besides, they feel good and have much more room to swim around than an ordinary bathtub does.
13. Legos--O.K., I stole this one from Greg's list. But he's right. By the way, have you seen the Lego Home Page yet?
14.New boxes of colored pencils--I can't draw worth a darn, but when I look at a fresh box of sharpened pencils, I feel like I could really accomplish something this time...
15.Crayola Crayons--Memories of childhood, and millions of colors. Almost better than the colored pencils.
16.Roses--I like peach ones best, and I hate yellow roses. Reds and pinks are wonderful, as are white ones. I hear rumors of roses that are so dark red they look black, but I haven't seen any.
17. Ben & Jerry's ice cream--Particularly their Reverse Chocolate Chip or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavors. Even their frozen yogurts are terrific; I like the Chocolate Fudge Brownie best.
18. Honeydew melon--But only when it's ripe and sweet. Oh, this is what fruit is supposed to be!
19. Ragin' Cajun restaurant--It's in Hermosa Beach, California, about 400 miles from where I live, and it's worth the trip. Plus, the owner, Stephen, is soooo cute! Best gumbo in the world, except for that one time they burned it.
20. Beaches--Preferably sunny beaches, with good surf and lots of
palm trees and cold drinks.
21. Black high-heeled ankle boots--They look good, can be worn with
almost anything, and make me feel (and look!) taller. Plus, they're kinda
sexy.
22. Pixie Stix--Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar and food coloring...plus a bit of ascorbic acid. They'll always remind me of Nicole, too...and I miss her.
23. When Harry Met Sally--O.K., so it's not the greatest movie of all time, or even close. But I like it a lot, and this is my list.
24. The Princess Bride--The book, not the movie. The movie is o.k, but I really hate Carey Elwes' mustache (the rest of him is o.k.!) and the book has lots of fabulous stuff the movie never even mentions. If you prefer the movie, you can get a copy of the script, if you'd like.
25. Silk--It just feels good.
26. Potatoes--They taste great, you can cook 'em about a million different ways, and they made Dan Quayle look even stupider. The perfect vegetable.
27. Skiing--I just learned how and I'm a groupie already. It only took two weekends and I'm talking like this: "On Sunday I skied Red Dog and Squaw Creek, as well as the Mountain Run! We all got totally soaked because it was snowing pretty hard, and it turned to rain for a while. But we had lots of powder and only a few icy patches..."
28. Strawberry Jam--My mother makes the best strawberry jam in the world. It's wonderful on hot, fresh sourdough bread...Mmmmmm-Mmmmm.
29. Chanel No. 5 Perfume--...or cologne or eau de parfum or powder or...etc. It's my favorite scent. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a scent file on the World Wide Web. Or perhaps that's a good thing...
30. Lancome mascaras--Since we're on the subject of cosmetics, anyway. These look wonderful, go on really easily, don't clump and last forever (which is a good thing, because they cost an arm and a leg!).
31. Black turtlenecks--Sweaters, shirts, it doesn't matter. They're the primary staple of my wardrobe. If you had a civilization without 'em, I'd have nothing to wear.
32. Dixie Black Voodoo Beer--I'm not much of a beer drinker (and I think I may have gotten the name a bit wrong), but this stuff is delicious. Best with the spicy stuff at Ragin' Cajun (#19), of course.
33. Van Gogh--A few years ago, I went to Paris and saw the Van Gogh room at the Musee d'Orsay (#37). I've always liked the reproductions of Van Goghs I'd seen, but the real thing just blows away even the best copies. Oh my.
34. Pepperidge Farm cinnamon swirl bread--You can't get it in California. Every time I go to Michigan to see my folks, I pick up a couple of loaves. It's soft and very cinnamony and has NO RAISINS in it! Yes!!!
35. Omnimax movies--Makes I-Max look like a TV. No kidding. The one I went to was at the Cite de Science et de l'Industry in Paris. I saw a film about the Earth, dubbed into French. I think it was Big Blue Planet in English. It was pretty neat watching footage of the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake of '89 with all the emergency broadcasts and police radio chatter dubbed into French!
36. Rollercoasters--Especially the ones that fling you upside down. Top Gun at Paramount's Great America is one of my favorites. I want down to Magic Mountain in L.A. a while back, and rode the Viper, Batman, Psyclone, the Ninja and some other ones I can't remember the names of. Batman was nice, but Top Gun still wins. The part where you go over the water is too cool to beat, plus for Top Gun you can wait for the front seat if you're willing to spend the time. On Batman, you can't do that. Bummer. I also went on Space Mountain at Disneyland (it was quite a weekend!) again. I'd forgotten how much fun it is...so now it's on my top list again. It would win if it only looped the loop a few times.
37. The Musee d'Orsay--THE best museum I've ever seen. It's where they keep the Impressionist paintings, as well as a lot of other stuff. There's even a scale model of the neighborhood around the Paris Opera, which is displayed under a glass floor, so you can walk around above it. If you're going to Paris, you have to go here.
38. Artichokes--With mayonaise is best. One of my favorite dinners, when I'm not terribly hungry, but want something really good.
39. Saturday afternoons--The world would be a better place if there were three or four Saturday afternoons per week, instead of only one.
40. The Staten Island Ferry--You can go to Staten Island for only a quarter, and they'll take you back to Manhattan for free. Best at dawn, partly for the view of the sunrise and partly so you can walk up to the Fulton Street Fish Market afterward and watch the amazing scene there.
41. Candles--Everything looks better by candlelight. I have about 25 pairs of candlesticks (and enough candles to go in all of them), so I may be biased.
42. Photographs--Frozen moments in time. It's great to be able to visit events again and again. Perhaps if I were younger, I'd list video instead, but for me, my personal and family history is captured in photographs.