list three things every day that made me happy

Wednesday, November 25

1) The last day of work before a week of vacation… Anticipating vacation always makes the day seem a little lighter…

2) A meeting I had regarding some reconciliation work I’ve been doing seemed to have gone pretty well… The least desirable thing about working with financial data is reconciling between several different sources, and I’m glad I’m almost done with it (or at least I think I’m almost done)...

3) I went for a walk during my lunch break in the Miracle Mile area of LA down Wilshire Blvd, and it seemed like I had walked into the middle of some sort of filming. There were motorcycle cops everywhere and film crew on the streets. It seemed like they were about to film someone driving. I couldn’t tell what movie or TV show it was for… It was kind of cool, but I find so many cops on the street a little unnerving…

Tuesday, November 24

1) Light traffic…. Traffic has been lighter than normal this week… I guess many people have taken the whole week off before the holiday… See the photo I took of a billboard that I thought was cool while driving through Hollywood this morning…

2) I was a little uneasy about the direction of one of the things I was working on was headed, but my boss said she thought it was going in the right direction… That was reassuring…

3) This evening was kind of boring, but at least I was able to get some laundry done…

Monday, November 23

1) I was happy to sleep in this morning just long enough to feel well-rested to start the week but not long enough to make me late to work…

2) I went for a walk in the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles during my lunch break today, and two random people on the street smiled at me and said hello… That was kind of nice because most random people on the street don’t do that (at least not that I’ve experienced in LA)...

3) I had posted a photo that I took on Saturday of a woodpecker on a birding forum that started some debate over which species it was, whether a downy or Nuttall’s woodpecker, or weather it was a hybrid of two species… Anyway, I was able to contact a local expert on rare birds in the LA area who confirmed that the bird I saw was indeed a hybrid… It was just very interesting to get involved in this detailed discussion with multiple people about a single bird…

Sunday, November 22

1) I went jogging this morning five miles… It was my first time running in a week, and I felt pretty good during the first half of the run. However, my knee started bothering me during the second half of the run, and I had to slow down my pace. At least the first half of the run was good… I missing running regularly and hope my knee gets better soon…

2) I have new artwork hanging up on the wall in the dining area of my apartment (see the photo I took)... Andrew convinced me to buy it for $125 off the designer he works for. I hope it was worth it… The rest of my apartment is crappy, but at least I have one wall that looks pretty cool (or at least you may think so if you like the more modern, abstract style of art)...

3) I was happy watching the “Amazing Race” while eating take-out from a Chinese vegetarian restaurant… I hope the brothers win… I had soup since I felt a little bit unwell but fortunately not for long…

Saturday, November 21

1) I went hiking and birdwatching this morning at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area near Sylmar. I had heard that this place was supposed to be particularly good for it, so I went. My initial impression was, with some exceptions (see the photo I took), was that this wasn’t a very pretty place. There also seemed to be too many people walking, running, horseback riding, or doing whatever. However, as I explored the area more, I found some quiet places and spotted a decent number of birds. These are the species I was able to positively identify: red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, merlin, turkey vulture, common raven, black phoebe, lark sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, house finch, yellow-rumped warbler, American goldfinch, rock wren, Cassin’s kingbird, western scrub jay, Nuttall’s woodpecker, double-crested cormorant, American coot, Canada goose, mallard, bufflehead, and lesser scaup…

2) I went out to dinner with Andrew, and we had Vietnamese food (which seems to be our default when we can’t make up our minds about where to go)...

3) I went to the movies tonight and saw “New Moon”, the sequel to “Twilight”... I found the movie entertaining though I liked the story in “Twilight” a little better. Also, I was hoping Bella would choose Jacob… And yes, the theater was full of teenage girls as I had expected… I heard an interesting theory the other day that teenagers are into the vampire and werewolf thing, this idea about becoming something else, because they are in a period of transitioning from one thing to another (childhood to adulthood) themselves…

Friday, November 20

1) Sleeping in a little bit but still making it to work on time…

2) It was a slow and quiet day today, a nice way to end the week (especially since I had very little energy left today)...

3) I had dinner at my favorite restaurant, the Pita Kitchen, which is in Sherman Oaks and where they make the best falafel… The nearby newsstand didn’t have the latest issue of The Economist, so I picked up the latest issue of Birder’s magazine instead (I didn’t know about this magazine before), which I skimmed as I ate my food and listened to this father criticize his son’s behavior at the table next to mine…

Thursday, November 21

1) I gave myself a haircut this morning before going to work. It had been more than three weeks so I was overdue…

2) It was nice to go for a walk in the Miracle Mile area of LA. There were a few lunchtime catering truck parked in front of the office building there, and one of them sells Korean tacos. The line was long so I didn’t stop and have one today, but one of these days I will…

3) I watched the latest episode of “Flash Foward”. I think the storyline involving the sick doctor and the Japanese girl is my favorite so far…

Wednesday, November 18

1) It was really cold (by LA standards) this morning, so I didn’t run opting instead to stay in bed where it was warm… That wasn’t my only excuse, however. I think I may have injured my knee (the right knee specifically) more than superficially when I fell a few weeks ago because after I ran Sunday morning my right knee was pretty sore for a couple of days… It’s frustrating because I feel the desire to run but don’t want to risk further injury if I’m not fully healed yet…

2) Almond butter and jelly sandwich… I like almonds better than peanuts, so I guess it’s natural I would like almond butter better than peanut butter…

3) Today was just another really boring day, but it wasn’t really a bad day… I guess that’s something to be happy about…

Tuesday, November 17

1) Today was a really boring day and traffic was really bad, but at least I can say that I was happy that a meeting I didn’t want to go to was cancelled…

2) I was bored driving home on the freeway this evening but was entertained by a sign on the back of the truck I was driving behind. There was an arrow with a happy face pointing left with the words “passing side”, and an arrow with a dead face (i.e. sad face with “x” eyes) pointing right saying “suicide”... I thought it made the point pretty clear, pass big trucks on the left side, not the right side…

3) I went to the Thai restaurant across the street to order take-out, and I smiled when the waitress smiled at me and asked me if I wanted the same thing as usual.. I’m that predictable…

Monday, November 16

1) I was really dragging this morning and had no desire at all to get out the door and go to work, but I was happy that it was a beautiful morning (see the photo I took)...

2) I was happy that a meeting I had with the internal auditors was less scary than I was expecting it to be…

3) I went for a walk during my lunch break to the Miracle Mile area of LA and saw a couple of western gulls bathing in a fountain in front of an office tower. I recognized them because of their pink legs. According to my field guides, although western gulls are common at the beach, they are supposed to be rare just a few miles inland. Well, here they were anyway…

Sunday, November 15

1) I overslept this morning but went running anyway. It was already very sunny when I left, and I wasn’t used to that but it was still nice…

2) I went with Andrew to find winter clothes for our upcoming trip to Alberta the week after Thanksgiving. It should be really cold there, and living in Southern California, we’re not prepared for that and thus have to get prepared…

3) We saw some street performers at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica doing some pretty cool acrobatics. Andrew thought they may have been with Cirque du Soliel, which is currently in town…

Saturday, November 14

1) I went hiking and birdwatching early this morning at the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve near Calabasas. It was a really good morning for spotting wildlife although I found it annoying that bikers were also using the trails. These are the species I identified: black phoebe, song sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, house finch, American kestrel, western scrub jay, oak titmouse, acorn woodpecker, California thrasher, California towhee, spotted towhee, American crow, and there were numerous others I couldn’t positively ID. In addition to birds, I saw a few squirrels, two cottontail rabbits, two deer and one coyote…

2) After leaving Las Virgenes Canyon, I drove down to Malibu Lagoon State Beach to see more birds. These are the species I identified: northern shoveler, ruddy duck, mallard, snowy egret, American coot, sora, spotted sandpiper, black-bellied plover, snowy plover, royal tern, Heermann’s gull, ring-billed gull, double-crested cormorant, pied-billed grebe, western grebe, California brown pelican, black phoebe, great blue heron, black-crowned night-heron, rock pigeon, osprey, song sparrow and several others I couldn’t positively ID… There was this young woman on the beach, which was mostly empty, making lots and lots of circles on the sand with her foot. It thought it was a pretty cool piece of temporary “environmental art” (see the photo I took)...

3) I went to my brother’s university this evening to see a play that he was stage managing and also in which he had a small role. The play was Frederico Lorca’s “Blood Wedding”, and it was very well done. My brother had gotten me free tickets, but I would say this student production was better than some for which I had paid a decent amount of money. After the play, my brother gave me a behind-the-scenes tour of the theater and introduced me to some of his friends and teachers…

Friday, November 13

1) I was happy to leave work at the end of the day. Today really sucked…

2) I had dinner at the Pita Kitchen in Sherman Oaks, which is my favorite restaurant and where they make the best falafel, while skimming the latest issue of The Economist... I had fun eavesdropping on a conversation from a guy and a girl sitting at the table next to mine who had apparently not seen each other in some time. They had thick accents, Russian maybe but I couldn’t tell and anyway they were speaking English. The girl was telling the guy about her trip to the Burning Man festival this past summer…

3) I was happy to kill this evening skimming through books on the Civil War in the nearby Borders bookstore before going home…

Thursday, November 12

1) I ran this morning, and I didn’t have to force myself to do it. The routine seems to be falling naturally back into place. However, my pace is still slower than normal as I’m trying to take it easy to make sure my knee is fully healed…

2) It was a really busy, stressful day… I was happy to make time to go for a walk during my lunch break… I can usually focus better if I can get out of the office for a while during lunch…

3) I stopped at a taco stand after work, and while I was waiting for my order I was happy to see a little kid there cleaning up after himself, discarding his own trash and wiping off the table where he was sitting… It’s a shame to say that such a sight is more rare than it should be…

Wednesday, November 11

1) I ran first thing this morning, trying to reestablish the routine I fell out of a couple of weeks ago… It was mostly dark, but I did get to see a few Canada geese flying overhead and I heard that lots of killdeer were around though I didn’t get to see any of them. Also, I saw Kevin, the owner of the vegan Vietnamese restaurant I go to, riding by on his bike. He’s always training for something; we waved hi to each other…

2) It was the birthday of one of my coworkers, and I was riding in a car with a couple of other coworkers, a man and a woman, to go to the restaurant where we were going to have lunch. The woman asked the guy who was driving if he was a safe driver. He said he thought he was. She said she heard a study that 90% of people say they’re safe drivers when asked… Well, this guy was definitely not a safe driver, contrary to his assertion. I had to hang on for dear life, and I almost got car sick. I’m happy I survived…

3) I was very happy for light traffic today (see the photo I took of this billboard in Hollywood that I think is cool while I was stopped at a gas station). It was one of those holidays that I don’t have off from work… I wonder how many people really think about the significance of Veterans’ Day. I made some effort to think about it though I’m not sure I fully appreciate it…

Tuesday, November 10

1) I was happy for overcast weather during the drive home late this afternoon. It was a nice change from the morning commute when the sun was streaming in my face…

2) I was happy to get a phone call from my brother. He’s stage managing a play at his university, and he was telling me about all the stresses involved in that…

3) I fell asleep shortly after 9 PM, a couple of hours earlier than usual… I was so exhausted for some reason…

Monday, November 9

1) I slept in a little late this morning, waking up really tired though I seemed to have gotten a decent number of hours of sleep. Though I slept in a bit, I’m happy I still made it to work on time…

2) I was very busy today and still didn’t finish the project I was working on but am now pretty close to being done… It just felt like a productive day…

3) I checked my blood pressure today, and it was 122/70, which I guess is not bad…

Sunday, November 8

1) I ran this morning for the first time in two weeks since I fell down and injured my knees… I wasn’t really into it today, but I forced myself to do it anyway… It wasn’t too bad, but my right knee was sore after the run and I had difficulty walking up stairs the rest of the day, so I may not be 100% back yet…

2) I showed Andrew this picture and asked him what he thought about it. He asked, “So, when was that picture of you taken?” I said, “That’s not me! It’s Matt Damon.” I shouldn’t be too impressed, however, as he only halfway pays attention to the things I show him…

3) I was in Jamba Juice and the girl making my smoothie asked me if I was doing anything interesting the rest of the weekend. I unethusiastically said no, nothing at all. She said she didn’t know how to respond to that or to continue the conversation. I seem to have that effect on people as I totally suck at making small talk. At least we shared an awkward laugh as she said she was just joking…

Saturday, November 7

1) Early this morning I went fishing with Yuan at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in the San Gabriel Valley (see the photo I took)... It wasn’t that serious a fishing trip, and in fact, we probably did more birdwatching than real fishing. Watching the birds, Yuan said that any fish we would catch would be due to pure luck because we’re not serious. Referring to the birds, he said that they don’t have a refrigerator full of food and if they don’t catch fish they don’t eat, so obviously they have more incentive to be good fishers… It was just nice getting caught up again while spending the time outdoors and then over breakfast at a Chinese restaurant…

2) I spent some time this afternoon at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve not far from where I went looking for birds. I saw several turkey vultures near the river, I was able to get closer to these birds then I ever have been before. Though these aren’t necessarily the types of birds that I want to get that close to, it was very interesting…

3) I went to the movies this evening to watch “Where The Wild Things Are”... I liked it quite a bit. Most films aimed toward children seem to follow a set formula and have some sort of moral or tidy ending. I liked that this film didn’t exactly follow that format. It was a little bit dark (but I don’t think too dark), and there was no perfect ending. Even the boy’s make believe world was invaded by the imperfections of real life…

Friday, November 6

1) I woke this morning and panicked a bit when I saw that the clock said it was 7:30 which would make me obscenely late on a day I had to be early… I was relieved when I realized that this clock hadn’t been moved back an hour yet so I wasn’t so late after all…

2) I was just busy today but was glad that I’m almost done with this urgent project I’ve been working on…

3) I had dinner at my favorite restaurant, The Pita Kitchen, which is in Sherman Oaks and where they make the best falafel, while skimming the latest issue of The Economist...

Thursday, November 5

1) The barista in Starbucks named Patrick asked me if I played video games. When I said no he told me that it was strange for a guy with glasses to not be into video games… I’m happy I don’t fit all the stereotypes…

2) I left work later than normal tonight and afterwards stopped at a taco stand to buy tacos to eat for dinner… When I left the counter after paying for my order, the lady behind me looked at me strangely and pointed at the counter and said “Tu cambio”. I realized that I had almost walked away without picking up my change. I smiled in embarrassment and thanked the woman for letting me know…

3) I was under a lot of pressure today working on a project deemed urgent… It was no fun and tomorrow will not be much fun either, but it was nice to forget everything for a while tonight while watching the latest episode of “Flash Forward”...

Wednesday, November 4

1) Traffic has been really bad this week since the time change… It’s miserable, but at least it gives me a chance to admire southern California’s lovely fall foliage (see the photo I took from my car sitting in traffic and yes I’m being a little sarcastic… This place in the photo is actually where I run though I haven’t been running in over a week but will get back to it this weekend)...

2) Someone told me that what I was wearing in one of my photos made me look like Matt Damon… No one had ever told me before that I had in any way resembled Matt Damon…

3) I went to the mall after work today to “window shop” but didn’t see anything at all that I liked… I went to the Apple store and finally got help figuring out how to get music videos to play on my iPod. I just had to change one of the settings, and it was so simple I felt dumb…

Tuesday, November 3

1) I’m still sort of screwed up from the time change. I went to bed last night unusually late hoping that this would force me to sleep an hour later and help me adjust to waking up at the new time… It didn’t work. I was still awake by 4 instead of 5 and tired from too little sleep but yet being unable to fall asleep again. I’m happy that I somehow managed to function productively today despite my sleep-derprived state…

2) There was an urgent assignment that was thrown on my lap today for which I have to momentarily drop the other stuff on which I’m working. I was kind of perturbed by that and uneasy about the assignment, but by the end of the afternoon I was happy that there seemed to be more structure to it…

2) Eating Thai take-out from the restaurant across the street… I’m just too lazy too cook…

Monday, November 2

1) I was walking in a parking lot coming out of a convenience store this morning when a woman, while walking toward me going into the store, smiled at me and told me “Buenos dias”...

2) I killed some time after work hanging out at this outdoor mall near the Miracle Mile area of LA called The Grove and Farmers Market… I had dinner at the Singaporean restaurant there (see the photo I took; I didn’t have any good photos ideas recently)... I hadn’t been there in a while…

3) This evening I posed as a “model” for an art class, a figure drawing class… This was an interesting experience that I had never had before…

Sunday, November 1

1) I remembered to move the clock an hour back. Though I woke up at 4, an hour earlier than normal, I was able to fall asleep again for another couple of hours…

2) I went on a bird walk in the Sepulveda Basin with a local chapter of the Audubon Society. It was very fun and informative…

3) I spent the afternoon looking at condos for sale in West LA and in North Hollywood… I’m just looking casually now to get ideas, but buying a place is something I’m thinking more seriously about now…

Happy November, by the way…

Saturday, October 31

1) I went for a hike today at Malibu Creek State Park (see the photo I took)... It was a different experience this time because I went with the primary goal of birdwatching, and I did get to see some species that I hadn’t seen before. I had been here many times before but was previously focused on hiking longer distances at faster paces…

2) I was kind of startled this afternoon when I saw this guy walking at a crosswalk who looked like he had been in a horrible, bloody accident and then I remembered that it was Halloween, and it all made sense…

3) I had dinner with Andrew and his friend Mark at a Mexican restaurant in Silverlake called El Conquistador. It was kind of fun because all the wait staff were dressed in costume and the owner, who ordinarily dresses outrageously, was even more funky than usual…