I have an honest to god Union Infantry officers sword from the US Civil War. It’s not only my coolest, but the coolest among my friends who also collect swords. My kids have grown up being able to hold and examine this piece of history whenever they asked.
Picking it up is like touching history. I do not know its provenance, but imagining is a fun mental exercise.
I also have a very plain, rusted sword given to me by my father in law. He found it in his hundred year old Cape Cod barn. Again, provenance unknown.
I teach psychology, a field which I adore beyond reason, to community college students, which fulfills my socialist need to bring educational opportunities to the masses. I tell my students “I get to talk about psychology, and you? Have to listen!”
I decide which courses I teach each semester. I set my schedule each semester. I decide which department chair duties I want to do, and which I want to farm out to others in the department (for which I compensate them out of my pool of chair compensation).
It’s heaven. Something I need to remind myself of when things get difficult.
I can’t choose just one thing! Here is my list of things that are better than everyone else’s!
Oliver sniffs my hair before bed very loudly and then gives me kitty kisses on my forehead.
Joey crams his 16 lb self into shoe boxes (and on one occasion, an empty Cheerios box) which is possibly one of the cutest things a kitty can do.
My boyfriend is sexy, attentive, funny, exciting, kind, and wonderful. He makes me really, really happy.
I can have orgasms just by thinking really sexy thoughts. It doesn’t happen often, maybe once or twice a year, but if my thoughts wander over to my last good romp in the hay and I don’t reign them back in I can orgasm without being touched by myself or someone else. It is a handy thing to be able to do, really.
I have the best vindaloo recipe I’ve ever eaten, and I’ve eaten at a lot of nice Indian restaurants. It’s really a collaboration between my wife and myself, I came up with the tarka and pre-browning of the meat in it, and my wife has fine-tuned the tomato/meat/potato ratio and came up with the awesome technique of cooking it in a pressure cooker. It’s one of the best foods ever.
My Dad was married to my Mum for 60 years and never looked at another woman.
He didn’t have looks or money, but he spent time with me every day as I grew up.
I’m glad I had him.
It’s pretty low to rip on someone’s dad just because his values are different than yours, especially when they’re talking about how much they love him - an exceedingly rare situation in this day.
You spoiled me on good cheesesteaks, too. I’ve been looking for a decent once since the last you cooked at a dopefest.
Do you have any idea how many HORRIBLE cheesesteaks there are in this world? Well, I’ll tell you: not nearly as many as there were before I tried to find just ONE MORE good one.
I haven’t had a good cheesesteak in … five years? It’s been horrible. I actually applied for jobs in Pennsylvania just to take a job where I’d be bound to get a good (even decent, as opposed to flat-out bad) cheesesteak just once more in my life.
Reminds me of my (well, the family’s) Hitler Youth sword and helmet. It’s back with my parents. Those two items, along with some other things my memory is fuzzy on, got left behind in my grandmother’s house after its Nazi occupation ended.
My ski riser – only a 4 and a half inch connection with the ski, which greatly reduces the flat spot caused by release bindings on a shaped ski. I designed it, and no one else has anything that even comes close, so it is the one thing that I have that’s better than everyone else’s.
My in-laws are fantastic. They’re like surrogate parents to me–amazingly generous, would give me the shirt off their back if it even seemed remotely possible that I might need it. They’re fun to talk to, patient and understanding, and all-around wonderful people. I am not at all surprised that my awesome husband has such awesome parents, but it’s definitely a major bonus. Nobody’s in-laws are as good as mine.
