Six things that make me happy

Esther tagged me.  State the obvious, then tag six more and let them know.

1. (I agree with her) Being Catholic.  Except for that Kleenex thing  - and by way of extension, some of the goofy things Paul said, did.   That was some fall off the horse.  ["no, you don't have to be circumcised to be Christian, except for you two dummies, who as adults need to be circumcised, because I need you to go into the temple over there and preach Christ, and God knows I can't find any Jews around here" (Paul, ya coulda done it yourself, instead of asking guys to get part of their pee-pees whacked off when they were already grown) and all that "women's heads must be covered  cultural crap" that we've been beaten over the head with for almost 2,000 years.  Paul,  take some valium, will ya?]

2. Being born a US citizen.  How lucky is that in the lottery of life?  Millions trying to get in and I had this just handed to me on the platter.  I didn't even have to come across with the pilgrims, but enough of my ancestors crossed - and some of them did within a hundred years after the pilgrims.   And the nice thing is when people take up citizenship here, they ARE "one of us."  I've known more than one person who was born in "country X" but still considers himself to be of "nationality Y" because they don't feel entirely part of where they were born.

3. Education.  I had all the formal education I wanted, and if I want more I can get it.

4. Theatre.  I'd rather sit in a dark theatre and watch people on stage, especially at "Musical comedy, the most glorious words in the English language ♪," I'd  even rather see bad stuff than sit at home and watch a sitcom or almost anything on TV.  To me there's always something to love or hate about it.  I do not love it enough, however, to want to be "properties manager" again.  Oh, I'll help MAKE properties. But not drive all around the fricken town finding the damn things.  I hate shopping too.  The most thankless task on earth next to ironing purificators.

5.  Rain.   The older I get the more I get like good queen Bess II in her love of it.  We so seldom get it here when it comes, it is a TREAT.  I love how everything is crystal clear after it, and if it's late afternoon, and the sun comes out, everything is infused with a golden tinged clarity that is unearthly.  It does after a rain here anyway.

6.  Family and friends.  Because.  They "knew you when" and loved you even before you got your cool.  They even love you when you're being a jerk.  Usually.

7. [I hate the number six.  Always have.  Even before the Exorcist.  And I like odd numbers more than evens.] DOGS.  DOGS RULE.  ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIELS ESPECIALLY RULE.

And now, the lucky six.

1. Tara (now that Stella is well.)

2. Phillip (so this time around he can tag Mac.  And Mac will probably tag Bara.  I hope.)

3. Swiss Miss (anyone who has a cabin with "bear issues" is interesting)

4. Angela. (Because her podcasts are so cool.)

5. Ukok  (because she's so creative)

6. Therese (She was neat enough to invite me down to Australia.  Some day I may take her up on it.  My folks had a blast down there, and it was the one place they were where I didn't get to go due to a work commitment, and I've been jealous ever since.)

I'd tag one of the polo team, but they are so "radio silence" on memes, though Mac (are ya listening?)  can sometimes twist the arm of his hermeneuticalness  enough to get him to come across with one.