A Few of My Favorite Things... As promised, my top ten list for this week will include my favorite things. This doesn't mean my favorite song, my favorite movie, etc. It means the random things in which I take pleasure. This has been quite a tour de force in self-exploration. I had to really dig deep within myself to figure out what it is that I truly love and appreciate about life. Here goes: 10. Hats. I'm a hat girl. I have 'em all...newsboys, trilbys, baseball caps, cowboy hats, santa caps, fishing caps, players, collettes, and spays. And I wear them. That is the key. You can't have a collection of such adornments and not adorn. 9. In the same vein, I have a proclivity for collecting and wearing scarves. However, this does not extend into what the French call "foulards". That is to say, no silky, gauzy neck scarves for the summer. ONLY long winter wrap around scarves that keep me toasty...even indoors. 8. There is something both eerie and peaceful about a solitary late night drive through the desert. It took me a while to figure out that it was a favorite thing, but I love the night, I love to drive fast with no traffic around and I do enjoy being alone so there it is. 7. The soft tickling of grass under my feet and between my toes. I definitely live in the wrong place for such a favorite feeling, but every time I see a healthy blanket of green, I feel compelled to take off my shoes and indulge myself 6. I live for stormy, dark, nippy, grey, foggy days. Again, living in the wrong place for that. Perhaps that's why I love them so much. 5. Oh how I melt at the sexy sounds of a muted trumpet. And yet the the soulful resonance of a clarinet makes me question my choice for #8. Let's just leave it at really great sensual jazz melodies. 4. The smell of figs. It's absolutely the best perfume in the world. Yes, fresh baked bread, chocolate and rose petals are all nice, but nothing compares to that of a fig. 3. Breaking the rules once in a while. This is a tough one to explain. It doesn't mean breaking the law or anything that drastic, but it means doing something naughty or being unexpected. For example, laughing when you're not supposed to. I would always laugh in church. I would have terrible fits that I would have to stifle but I look back on it now and I get a kick out of such instances. But what I really mean by this is being myself. People look at me and expect one thing and if they were to stick around to observe the "real" me, they would get something quite different. I know I come off as youthful, classy, refined, serious and aloof. And perhaps I am those things, but I'm also a pretty chill chica who can cuss like a sailor when angry, listens to hard rock music, and can burp like nobody's business. So my 3rd favorite thing is not fitting into the box. 2. My blanket. I sleep with my childhood blanket. I cannot be without it. I had it the day I came home from the hospital almost 32 years ago and I will have it until the day I die. Just call me Linus. 1. I had honestly thought my blanket would be my first favorite, but I re-evaluated my choice and I have to go with....dreams. I love dreaming. I don't care if it's a good dream, a bad dream, a sexy dream, a scary dream, a recurring dream, a dream about the past or a dream about the future. It can be about something that has happened, something I fear happening or something I wish would happen. The thing about them is that no matter what they are about, they always reveal more about to myself. If it's a great sexy dream, I can savor it for days to come. If it's a tragic depressing dream, I can breathe a sigh of relief that it isn't real. I know that this is further evidence to the fact that I'm an escapist, someone who prefers a chimerical world over the practical world. But it's what keeps me going. I'm a pragmatist by day, so my nights are spent in fantasy. So, there it is, my top ten for the week. The lists, I'm sure will become less profound and more frivolous.