On the Lookout

As some of you know, I have the practice each day of lining up five episodes of happiness for myself for the day. I plan them out in the morning so that I'll be sure to pay attention to them when they appear.

Today, however, I only could come up with four:
1) lying in bed for fifteen extra minutes under the snug warm covers with Snickers purring next to me
2) writing a page on my chapter book - even on a university teaching day!
3) walking through the inch of radiant new-fallen snow for a mile and a half before I get on the Skip to go to work
4) attending the Pops concert at Fairview High School tonight, where Gregory will be performing with Jazz 1.

But what could be my fifth? I'm planning to enjoy both classes that I'm teaching today - Mill's replies to various objections to utilitarianism at 11:00, the second half of Part Two of Rousseau's novel Julie at 2:00, but neither one is a guaranteed good time. My 11:00 class has been quite quiet lately, and that particular bit of Rousseau's novel is a one of the duller ones (except for his hilariously scathing description of Parisian opera - but can I fill up fifty whole minutes discussing that?). I'm observing two classes by faculty nominated for a faculty teaching award, at 9 and at 10, and it's always a treat to watch spectacular teaching - but one of the classes is in calculus and the other is in chemical engineering! I'm attending a lunchtime talk, but it's by a graduate student in another department, and it might be wonderful, but it might not. I'll see my mother this afternoon, and it could be a sweet visit, but also likely to be bittersweet.

So right now I don't have a fifth episode of happiness lined up!

I decided that this means that my project today is to find a fifth episode along the way. I'm going to be on the lookout today for one unexpected source of happiness. I'll report back and tell you what I find.