My favorite things

My creation
Originally uploaded by dorachan1

So, I bent and combined the rules on this one. Instead of ten things, I have twelve. And instead of getting all the photos from the first page of flikr searches, I also included some from Google images. All the same, I hope you enjoy, and shoot me back a link of your favorite things.

Engaging behavior. Jane Austen wrote that the best company is, "the company of clever, well-informed people with a great deal of conversation." I happen to love cozy, seated conversation with people who listen as well as they talk. Let's curl up on a comfy couch, with maybe a fire or a nubbly-warm blanket throw, and forget the the rest of the world as we create our own.

Touching. Giving and receiving neck, shoulder and back rubs from friends. Walking hand in hand or arm in arm. Thai massages from Pho Siam. One of the most thrilling feelings is to feel the soft touch of an innocent and trusting child. I think the desire to connect physically leads me to my next favorite thing ...

Dancing. I love to watch it, do it and teach it. Youtube is my personal entertainment system. SYTYCD is my favorite tv show (that and BSG). I could watch Emily Hoffberg, Tatiana Mollman, Todd Yannacone and Kyle Redd for hours on end. I absolutely love dancing with good leads ... take me by the hand and let's create something new and wonderful on the dance floor. John Lindo and Patrick in Paris. Ned and Eddie at Sonny's place. His Vickness, eVincerator, Lance, Terminator, and countless others from Lindy Groove. JD from New York. I love to teach others to dance. My best students have been JoNg, Friend, Matt, and White Boy. Lindy, Salsa, Balboa, Blues, West Coast Swing, Nightclub Two Step, Tango. It's the three-way connection with the partner and the music, and it can be magical.

Music. I'm so thankful to my parents for all those years of music lessons, despite my past grumblings. I confess that I'm not very good these days. I have yet to finish learning Clair de Lune by Debussy. But I love being involved with music ... playing, singing and listening. Last year I went with a bunch of friends to the Messiah Sing-a-long at the Disney Concert Hall; and decided that it was such a magnificent time that it deserved to be a yearly tradition.

Words. In college I bought a journal at Seagull Book, and filled it with words I found ... new ones that I had to look up, favorite old ones, funny sounding ones, and foreign phrases that had inserted themselves into the English language. Acolyte, alacrity, bombast, bete noire, curmudgeon, caprice, dualism, eclat, ebullient, fiat, fey, genial, gauche, halcyon, histrionic, etc etc. I revere the written word.

Stories. Tell me a good one. Great if it was created in someone's imagination. Even better if it's from real life. I would like to meet Ira Glass. Someday I would love to get my grandmother's short memoir translated into English, and help my parents write their own personal histories. Favorite authors include Jane Austen, Atul Gawande, Allen Say, Alexandre Dumas, L.M. Montgomery, Mary Roach and some of Orson Scott Card.

Letters. As much as I love email, I miss the good old days of writing, stamping, and sending letters. I have a stockpile of letters in my treasure box from friends and family over the years. Letters written while I was an ocean away on vacation. Letters to encourage and inspire. Love letters. And letters to just chat. Care to contribute to my collection?

Helping. Helping others makes me feel good. Whether it's providing active listening to a friend in need, providing nursing care to critically ill children, or making someone feel welcome in a crowd, I like to help. Or maybe it's that I like to find a need and fill it. Or maybe that I like feeling needed and appreciated. Don't give me too many props for this though, because I'm not quite as altruistic as I wish I were.

Creating. Sewing, knitting, writing. Making useful and beautiful things with my own hands. Someday I'll learn to crochet.

Traveling to intriguing new places. Really, it's as much about the people as it is the place. Fascinating sites (Iguazu Falls, Versailles, Angkor Wat) are usually what draw me, but it's the people who make it memorable; those who I travel with, or those that I meet along the way. Earlier this year I went to Paris, France for four weeks in the spring. I rented an apartment two minutes' walk from Notre Dame, took French lessons in the mornings, and explored the city in the afternoons. Met some wonderful people along the way and discovered Paris on my own terms, without the hustle and bustle of previous journeys into the world. I hope to repeat this type of adventure ... Guatemala, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Portugal. I seem to do pretty well with Latin-based languages and cultures.

Chocolate. The most phenomenal chocolate I've ever tasted is Green and Black's organic milk chocolate. I was searching for a sushi restaurant for a blind date, and found a foodie-place with a chocolate shrine. What a treasure. My most plebian chocolate predilection is for Sixlets. Also good are those milk chocolate truffles that come in the red bag. It's not just the taste. It's the texture as it slowly melts in my mouth. Also good are rich hot chocolate flavored with chiles, or Spanish-style hot chocolate.

Planning: I like to plan things months ahead in my Franklin, make to-do lists, anticipate, and finally enjoy. I keep thinking that I'll someday get an electronic organizer, but I really just love the look and feel of paper, and writing with my silver bullet quad-point pen.