The Inexpensive Road to Self-Discovery

Today was the "Favorite Things" send off. Susan if you see this- don't read it! ;)

I've been looking around my house, racking my memories, taking extra long at the grocery store, and reading old journal entries, trying to figure out what the heck are my favorite things. The catch- they have to be things I can put in a box and mail to someone.

August 28th: Hoping to have original, creative, maybe even exotic and impressive favorites that I can wow my swap partner with. By September 22nd: I had realized I can't afford jewelry or vacation tickets, and settled for quirky and well-intended.

The results of a kind of disappointing scavenger hunt- a list of my favorite things (that I can put in a box) in the order I thought of them:

1, 2, 3 and 4) Chocolate. Very boxable. Very favorite. I couldn't decide which was my absolute favorite, though.

5) A little book of Mad Libs- for the nerd in us all. No- really, because I remember them helping me remember sentence structure, and one of my favorite things right now is home-educational tools, especially those disguised as games. An odd materialization of this particular joy in my life- maybe. We tried one at home, and laughed at least as much as we groaned. I highly recommend doing at least a few with your spouse. Nothing like a little word disassociation to shed some light on that weirdo. "I love our computer lab at school. It's so fuzzy! Every morning after navel class, our teacher George Clooney takes us to the lab so we can work on cool projects like finding out what flying squirrels eat for breakfast."

6) A book of Sudoku puzzles. Before I even heard of these I was most enthusiastic about the video game my brother let me try, "Brain Age." It felt great to stretch my deteriorating brain muscles, turned almost completely off since college, (to which Zach will quickly attest after my most recent brain fart. "Why don't you guys borrow our space heater?" offered as a solution to the chilly mornings without power. Yeah.) Anyway. One of my favorite things is not being stupid, so Sudoku went into the box.

7) A Secret Platinum- Vanilla Chai. Yes. Anti-perspirant. After much deliberation I realized I love it when someone (in my family) says I have a scent. One of my favorite things is being all nice and clean (you don't savor it as much until regular showering is prevented and replaced by regular feedings, do you) and my honey saying I smell so good. He likes his sweetheart smelling like food. I also love it when ordinary, humdrum things we have to deal with every day come in sparkly packages- (see "deteriorated brain.")

8) "Better than Bouillon." The best kept secret of Molly Mormon. Thanks to one of the most incredible ladies in the world, who came to help when the babies were born, I know the secret to the perfect pot roast. After seeing my amazement when she described how to cook a pot roast, she took pity on my ignorant self, went to the store, bought me my own jar, and some oven bags. We had just bought a new jar, but when I went to get one for my swap partner, they were on sale! I didn't know they had chicken, too?! We are well-stocked on bouillon. One of my favorite things is finally getting that durn recipe right. This stuff is like the magic you stick in, so the dinner makes itself. Please nobody tell me the magic is fat and salt.

9) Last, but not least, Burt's Bees Lip Balm. This covered a few of my latest favorites. I just read "The Secret Life of Bees," and have inducted it into my bookcase of fame. I also love the whole Bee-line. (hee hee.) I'm not proud of it, but the lip balm is not my favorite Burt product. It was just the cheapest. So I abandoned "quality" and went for "quantity." Now you know.

My point? No point, really. I'm just hoping to hear what everyone would put in their favorite things box.