when i was happy

things that, despite the amount of lit homework i have to bullshit by tomorrow, are making me happy:

1. "samson" is my top played song on last.fm, with 16 play counts. 17, if you include the fact that i'm listening to it right now. that means that it beats out all my other favorites, like "engine driver", "santa maria de la feira", "stop i'm already dead", "lover you should've come over", etc. now that i think of it:

2. regina spektor makes me very very happy, for many reasons. one: she is amazing and amazing. two: she inspires me to write songs, which is really good. in the one week i've been listening to her, i've already written 2.5 songs.

3. the triumvirate and i had a sleepover on friday night and that was fun, quite fun. we all watched will and grace and fell asleep (except harley).

4. the savoy truffle cafe in santa barbara, which i found out about through harley. it makes me happy because i realize that the beatles are still alive and beautiful in all corners of the world.

5. despite the fact that he's dead, vonnegut makes me happy. i'm glad that he lived to be an old man and that we (the reader collective) have had the opportunity to read his brilliance. that makes me very happy. and, of course, so it goes.

6. i'm nearly done reading "the brief history of the dead", which is really good. not as amazing as i had expected (it's nowhere near on par with any Foers or Unbearable Lightness or History of Love or Marquez), but it is a really good book. the story is very interesting and draws me in really tight so that i just can't wait for the next chapter to see what happens.

7. i am working on two stories; both of them include my developing alter-ego, Salem Chatham/Wordsmith (he doesn't have a definite last name). in the first story, he's not so much my alter ego. but in the second one i think he is. like how vonnegut had Kilgore Trout. though i started writing the first story way before he died. but yeah.

8. i went to brents with castro and james. james had to leave, with the intention of coming back, so castro and i whiled away the time philosophizing and examining different constrasting points of view on religion, life, death, love, and all things ephemeral. that conversation made me really happy, because i know virtually no one else that i could have had a conversation that intellectually imbued with thought and power (i say virtually because there are a few others; we just haven't had it yet). it's so illuminating when you can sit and discuss with someone your points of view and have them be so well versed in intellect that you can agree 100% with them while still holding steady to your views. beauty.

9. the weather is perfect.