20x11: Things I like

In completely random order:

George Elliot’s Middlemarch; “Good Idea/Bad Idea” from Animaniacs; NPR; driving long distances to arrive somewhere awesome; the idea of shopping sprees; Will Arnett; Paradise Pizza; salads with croutons; William J. Vader III; the dog from New Jersey voice; The National; watching P.C. play video games

Parks and Recreation; Willow Brook park; breakfast food for dinner; breakfast food for breakfast; particularly bacon; copyediting; showing that simple things are often complicated; coconut-scented hand lotion; Joe Biden’s hilarious out-takes; London; Los Abandoned

Aziz Ansari; those gingerbread cookies Laura makes; friend Jenny; Dujiangyan, China; the Oxford Tube; allowing myself to watch the Harry Potter movies even though to evangelicals they’re evil; allowing myself to listen to the Harry Potter books even though to evangelicals they’re evil; Jim Dale’s reading of the Harry Potter books; swings; fresh flowers on the table at a friend’s house; Washington, D.C.

Swimming at the Lion’s pool when I was little; Chuck; reading Agatha Christie novels on long train rides; lamps; mirrors with nice wooden frames, particularly ones that look kind of retro; fitted sweaters that can be layered; Stuff White People Like; writing fun stuff on my blog; pretending my opinions are of grand importance; the quirkiness of making lists of stuff you like on your personal blog; friend Carl

The Simpsons; carving stamps; memories of 7-11 Slurpees; watching movies with friends in my dorm room; watching movies with friends in my apartment; having themed parties, such as the “T party”; Edwards key lime pie, from your grocer’s freezer; pepper-jack cheese; pointillism; friend Becca; e-friend Jason

Chester, England; my old car Betty; hatchbacks in general; velvety sofas, such as the purple sofabed; velvety sofas such as the gold loveseat; eject buttons on DVD player remotes; watching endless hours of TV until I feel I’m a part of the characters’ lives; when someone editing my writing tells me something I already kind of knew but hadn’t dealt with yet; chocolate Vitasoy; memories of eating spinach quesadillas in Thailand, with English Breakfast tea, every morning in Chiang Mai; knowing DVD math

Fried fish; the story of how I learned some Chinese; knowing some Chinese; friend Carmen; friend Vivian; friend Apple; when the DVD logo bounces exactly in the corner of the screen when the player is on screensaver; that scene in The Office where the whole office is waiting for the DVD logo to bounce exactly in the center of the screen and Michael thinks they’re having a great meeting; riding in a red wagon with my family to Laura’s house; quoting the old Ames “two-day sale” commercial where the man says “I was holding her weenie…and poof! My Doris was gone!”; going through the entire Bill Nye dialogue on being a fathead with my fathead brother

The smell of laundry dried on a clothesline; clean flannel sheets; clean flannel pajamas; holding hands with P.C.; calling people “cheater” instead of jerk or other rude terms; the theme music to NYPD Blue; having AAA; saying “release the Kraken!” whenever we open the Kraken brand rum; biscuits; Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream; the memory of walking the streets in Belgium

Star Trek: The Next Generation; reading my horoscope from Rob Breszny; getting packages in the mail; the Elaine painting; quoting Strong Bad; super-local music; Tilly and the Wall; friend Heather; letterboxing; my awesome winter coat; hating New Jersey

Lots of pillows; my $3 winter boots from the Goodwill; Where the Red Fern Grows; Garfield without Garfield; the Allen and Craig show on youtube; Matt & Kim; eating cookies; the “yesterday’s bread” rack at the Bristol Stop & Shop; the Acme Steel sign visible from the New Britain Stop & Shop; flatbread; calling it “Fartford”

Star Trek: Voyager; owning an extra DVD player so I can keep one at work for overnights; space heaters; River Raid, the Atari game; pineapple, particularly a quarter of a pineapple on a stick; chef’s coats on chefs; swimming at the YMCA when I was little; Fifties Television by William Boddy; putting a candy cane in hot chocolate; looking at the blue and green Christmas lights on my tree; buying half-price wrapping paper in bulk after the holiday

Queer studies; brownies with coconut; brownies without coconut; Caroline in the City; knowing something about football; Battlestar Galactica (the new one); King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry; banter; verbing words; Calvin and Hobbes; those VH1 “Remembering the [X]ties” marathons (mainly the ones about the 80s)

Cranberry sauce, jellied; sleeping; the weird things introduced to me by Nigel Frith, including the Pangeia room; coconut Vitasoy; inventing new types of purses; President Obama; jasmine tea; yogurt; talking with my friends on the phone until we run out of things to say; talking with my friends on the phone until we can barely breathe through the laughter; quoting “Behind the Laughter”

Diet Dr Pepper; tuna subs from Subway with lots of onions; saying “for reals”; ironic cross-stitches; peanut-walnut milk; cilantro; T-shirts from thinkgeek; 30 Rock; the idea of living in a box truck; the idea of living in a schoolbus; the fact that I just typed “schoolbux” by accident

Big Bang Theory; Judith Halberstam’s thoughts on horror as described in Skin Shows; being good at helping people move; my grandparents; making mix CDs; my students from Academy of Hope; saying “that’s what she said”; staying up really late; sleeping until 10 a.m.; talking to myself when I’m alone; singing loudly along with certain songs in the car

Teamwork; the episode of Reading Rainbow with the song “Teamwork” starring Levar Burton; regular Doritos; falafel; Amsterdam Falafel in D.C.; libraries; the way the Parks and Rec staff have a vendetta with the “punk-ass book jockeys” at the Pawnee Library; the way food tastes when it comes from a concession stand at a baseball game; heckling; Patton Oswalt; cleverness

Raw almonds; milkshakes; Jim Gaffigan; pretending to shout “apt!” when relevant; panang curry; the way so many people on TV and in the movies look like friend Jeff; arranging things in the fridge or car with Tetris-like efficiency; crab meat; being proud of something a friend has written; So You Think You Can Dance; ironic viewing of Gidget movies

When people admit that they’re wrong (when they are); the Best of Craigslist listings; Mad Men; crocheted blankets from the Goodwill; Cool Whip; hard-boiled eggs; the yeariversary plans to visit a different state capital on every yeariversay with P.C.; volunteering for things I care about; taking the bus in foreign countries; The Office; unresolved sexual tension between work partners in sitcoms

Designating my boyfriend “Prince Certainpersonio” on my blog; calling my boyfriend “buttface” in real life; bringing P.C. donuts for breakfast when his day at work is terrible; Lewis Black; Valentine’s Day horror movie marathons; using a tray for eating in the living room in front of the TV or elsewhere; Tina Fey; Amy Poehler; Adam Baldwin in all his roles so far; taking long walks; smart people

Watermelon flavored things, including a drink made by blending watermelon with just some water; warm cardigans; Carebears; taking frivolous things seriously; friend Emily; ironic use of yearbook clichés such as “reach for the stars!”; Joseph Gordon-Leavitt; Persuasion, the movie with Ciaran Hinds; chocolate-covered gummy bears; chocolate-covered frozen bananas; the word “satchel”