the corner room

I admit this might be the cheesiest post ever. But, you see, I’ve been going through The Sound of Music, scene by scene, in my mind, singing the songs to myself in my head. One of the most famous of these, “My Favorite Things,” just keeps coming back: “Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes,/ Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes …” The theme of the song is pretty basic: when you are feeling sad, just think of some of your favorite things and you’ll feel better. Simplistic, I know, but I decided to try it once, after the song had been stuck in my head for days. And, well, it worked. I felt better, at least for a little while, and I’ve tried it many times since with the same result. So, cheesy or not, here goes: a few of my favorite things (CFS or no CFS) …

taking the train, any kind of train, anywhere

the smells of my dad’s studio: plaster, wet clay and Murphy’s Oil Soap

that scene in Double Indemnity where Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck meet at her home to discuss life insurance, but instead end up discussing her anklet and the speed limit

Nina Simone’s version of “I Put a Spell on You”

playing Scrabble with my mom and grandma in East Otis, MA

Mike’s Elvis impression

Gilmore Girls

the fact that I am (almost) always healthy in my dreams

Scott Franzke and Larry Anderson calling the Phillies games on WPHT

the smell of warm rain (and being out in it)

when you open an old paperback and find, stuck in its pages, the relics of the last time you read it: ticket stubs, postcards, receipts, scraps of paper with notes that don’t mean anything anymore written on them

the blue blue Minnesota twilight sky

Indian food

new socks

the ending of The Age of Innocence

going to the movies alone

walking the streets of New York City, my favorite place in the world