Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

It's not often that a television show makes me pause in consideration. Having a children's cartoon prompt deep introspection is even more rare. Still, despite all odds, my inner "hmmm" was engaged during a recent episode of Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer. For those who are unfamiliar, Dora is a cute little girl who goes on adventures with her friends Backpack (a backpack), Map (a map), and Boots (nope, not a cat, a monkey!). Usually, Dora has to take something somewhere for some reason. For example, Dora may have to take a magic flute across the river, over the moutain, and to the little boy who needs to play it so his crops will grow. Anyway, you get the picture and how normally it doesn't require too much analysis.

However, this "deep" episode dealt with happiness and, specifically, things that make someone happy. So, after Dora explained that her flute and playing it made her happy (not the magic one, that was another episode), and asked me (well, she was looking at me) what made me happy, a new character "Grumpy Troll" came up to her and adamantly said there was nothing that made him happy. When Dora pressed him further ("Are you SURE Grumpy Troll, nothing makes you happy?") he finally said that there were in fact 3 things that made him happy. The next thing you know sweet little Dora and her entourage are off on their adventure to find Grumpy Troll's happy things (for surely, a troll should not be grumpy...) and I was left still trying to answer Dora's question.

Sitting there unable to come up with a specific thing that made me happy (emphasis on "thing" there...this is not a depressing post, it's easy to come up with people/places/ideas that make me happy) was surprising. I mean, most of us have "things" that bring us joy, right? After more than a few more frustrating minutes of mentally scanning lists of possibly joyful "stuff" I finally came up with my happy list. Still, I'm thinking my initial inability to think of anything places me firmly in the "Grumpy" category. And on that note, let me present Grumpy Tiff's 10 Things that Make Her Happy:

1)Warm liquids (tea, lattes, cocoa, chai, hot tang, hot toddy)
2)Accents
3)Down-filled comforters
4)Gigantic flying swings (the death-defying ones at fairs)
5)Authentic Maryland Blue Crabcakes
6)Kittens and Border Collies at any age
8)The ocean (is that a place or a thing?...if it's a place, it can't count...)
9)Roller-skating (again, I'm not sure if this counts as a thing...but it's not a person or a place...so it must be?)
10)Spongebob Squarepants' song "The Best Day Ever"

So, my ostensibly less grumpy friends and family, what 10 "things" make you happy?