Do you start the day with a sun-up smile and your tail wagging? Do you exude warmth and joy to people and small animals with whom you interact? Do you find yourself saying, “Damn, life is good to me.” If so, you might be in the running for the Happiest Doper award.
So tell us, are you happy as a clam, and if so, why?
I might not be the happiest Doper, but I’m pretty happy:[ul][li]I truly enjoy the work that I do, and I get a decent salary for doing it.[/li][li]I’m not thrilled with my current job, but I have leads on 2 others (and a “Plan B” in case they don’t pan out).[/li][li] * Despite the above, my program recently named me Employee of the Quarter.[/li][li]1.5 months ago I moved in with the man I love, and we still like each other.[/li][li] * Related to the above, my monthly expenses just went down by $500.[/li][li] * Also related to the above, I now have an awesome step-dog.[/li][li]I won a fee battle with the property manager of the townhouse that I just moved out of.[/li][li]2.5 months ago I finished grad school, and I’m still enjoying having free time again.[/li][li]My SO and I have season tickets to the local MLB team, and there are worse ways to spend a summer (even though there isn’t a worse team).[/li][li]All of my friends/family members are reasonably healthy and happy.[/li]Life, in general, is good. Every day. :)[/ul]
I live in Japan. I get to go to the beach every day I want during the summer. I get to go to a ski mountain every day I want in the winter. I get to eat Japanese food 3 meals a day.
This all counts toward my chosen career.
What do I win?
Well, I would if I were a morning person. 
Let me get my coffee, though, and I’m good!
Yes, yes, yes. I’m disgustingly happy. I have a fairly easy job that pays me more than I’m worth. I have a wonderful husband I’ve been married to for 14 years. I have my health, all my material needs are met (if not wants), I’ve got wonderful pets, plenty of family that I see about as often as I want to, a home I love, with a garden I’m enjoying.
I woke up this morning to a perfect July day, and after kissing my beautiful wife, I looked into my baby daughter’s eyes as a shaft of morning sunlight woke her up too… she gave me the biggest gummy smile I’ve ever seen, and gave a little chuckle of pleasure.
Honestly, at that moment there was not a happier man in the kingdom. 
Having said that, twenty minutes after I left for work I got a phone call from my wife saying she’d just had to change an explosively disgusting dirty nappy (we’re talking a full bath for baby and hazmat disposal of soiled babygro).
The fact that I missed this happy event served only to increase my sense of contentment and well-being.
checks username
What do I win?
A nice bone, perhaps.
In 42 days my divorce will be final.
I’ll be back to resurrect this thread.
…is she hot?
I’m not one of those overtly cheerful people ramming their good mood down the throats of others, but I’m deeply content with my life. Even on not-so-good days, there is a core in me that is satisfied with what I’ve got and hopeful about the future.
I am deliriously happy with my marriage and still madly in love with my husband after 6 years (2 married) as his sweetheart. We still look forward to talking to one another every day and building our future together. I am exercising regularly, eating sensibly, and losing weight. I feel good about myself and the choices I’m making. We are about to move to the life transition equivalent of Paradise, I’m leaving the old job on excellent terms and I’m going to live in a 900 square foot apartment with a hard wood floor and a 4.5 mile running trail in my backyard. We’ll have less money, but more space – lots of space, a whole town’s worth of space. I see graduate school, I see a future career doing something I enjoy. I love my cat. I’ve learned to be grateful for all the little things that add up to make my life awesome.
IME happiness isn’t something you’re just automatically blessed with. It’s something you have to earn, by being willing to change your behaviors and your attitudes about life, being willing to accept what you cannot change and take responsibility for what you can. Really understanding how impermanent everything is has been a huge blessing – in bad times I remember that my current feelings are going to pass. In good times I remind myself of the same thing–don’t take a single happy moment for granted. The cat, the husband, they will one day die, and it will hurt a lot, but one hurt I will never have is the agony of, ‘‘I was so foolish not to see how lucky I was.’’ I know damn well how lucky I am – and it makes me happy.
Two months ago, I’d have not responded to this in a positive fashion. But now:
**I’m semi-retired and do what I want all day
**I’m still married to a terrific woman, and for the life of me I still don’t know what she sees in me.
**I get laid regularly.
**We have a goodly chunk of money to retire on.
**She just got a $10K raise
**We’ll be pulling the plug permanently next spring
I fall slightly short of clam-happy at the moment since I have a mouth ulcer (right at the back near the molar so I can’t help irritating it whenever I open and close my mouth) and am kind of sluggish since I’m not eating enough due to the pain.
I read one of those Happiness studies that occasionally pops up, and these are the key elements to being happy that I remember:
Holy crap. As I wrote this my fiance just came back home when I thought he’d gone off to work. He bought me some Listerine (if I swish it around it helps for maybe 5 minutes), freshly squeezed juice, and packets of soup so I don’t starve myself for the rest of the day. He also grabbed some extra straws from the juice place so I could use them for the soup. I’m right back up to clam-happy!
I’m also marrying him in 23 days.
The list of movies before the eponymous movie for your name.
See here. There were some I forgot. I’d be impressed if you could rattle off the whole list from memory.
Also, this bit of trivia about the scene was interesting. I figured Jeff Anderson might not have wanted to read that off in front of the kid, but the woman too?
Happy? Sometimes, but more importantly–
I am balanced, keeping mind and heart equal
I am complete when I forget myself
I am receptive to each message of love
I am responsive to all that lives
I am happy singing in the arms of God
Enough, I am content
I am content
(Maud Kennedy)
I’m very happy. I live on Okinawa, about 300m from the ocean. This is my view from my living room. I have a wonderful husband, awesome dogs and cats, great friends. I have a terrific family, even if I don’t see them as much as I’d like to. I’ll be building my dream home in a couple of years on twenty acres we already own, and we should be able to build it with cash.
I work from home, writing and painting. I just finished my first novel and just got my shiny new art website online last night.
I’m young and healthy, and an excellent cook.
Beat that! 
It’s me, because I get to wake up every morning and go to bed every night next to the most wonderful woman on Earth.
I am married to the greatest guy in the world, who apparently thinks I am the greatest too, I work from home making great money and for the first time in my lawyerly life I really like my job, we’re about to have our first kid, and we have great family and friends. I am happier than I have ever been. Certain things could be better – we could own a house already, he could be done with college, we could have already resolved his immigration situation (hopefully soon to be resolved) such that he would be able to travel out of country to see his father whom he has not seen in 11 years – but I/we are really, really, happy.
Hey! Hands off my wife! :mad:
I live a big adventure, have a wonderful wife, routinely frequent live sex shows and have to make a real effort to find cold weather. I’m up there somewhere.
Are these two related at all?
“Sister from another mother” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “brother from another mother”; regardless, we’re kindred spirits. Check this out…
[QUOTE=Misnomer]
[ul][li]I truly enjoy the work that I do, and I get a decent salary for doing it. Me too! And I really like the people I work with and work for.[/li][li]I’m not thrilled with my current job, but I have leads on 2 others (and a “Plan B” in case they don’t pan out). I love my current job. I wish it paid more, but who doesn’t?[/li][li] * Despite the above, my program recently named me Employee of the Quarter. I’ve received the maximum raise two years in a row, plus a promotion.[/li][li]1.5 months ago I moved in with the man I love, and we still like each other. On August 19th, I will celebrate my 2 year anniversary.[/li][li] * Related to the above, my monthly expenses just went down by $500. Uh… our joint income allowed us to buy a new house (well, new to us) that we love![/li][li] * Also related to the above, I now have an awesome step-dog. I’m indifferent on this one. I also have a new Shih Tzu dog, ‘Dollie’. (Plus my dog, Louie. [/li][li]I won a fee battle with the property manager of the townhouse that I just moved out of. I put my house on the market, and it sold in 2 1/2 weeks for about $1000 less than what we asked for it. We found and bought our next house basically over a weekend (except for waiting for the closing appointment).[/li][li]2.5 months ago I finished grad school, and I’m still enjoying having free time again. ** I finished my grad school this summer with a study abroad trip to Rio de Janeiro. My graduation ceremony is July 30th.**[/li][li]My SO and I have season tickets to the local MLB team, and there are worse ways to spend a summer (even though there isn’t a worse team). **Nothing to add here except to say “that’s awesome”. I know about bad teams. I’m a lifelong Texas Rangers fan. Aren’t they usually mathematically eliminated on opening day? 
** [/li][li]All of my friends/family members are reasonably healthy and happy. My mother passed last March, but I’m close to my brothers and sisters. I’m trying to talk them into driving here to Atlanta from Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. We’ll see.[/li][li]Life, in general, is good. Every day. 
I agree. I’ve always considered myself the luckiest man in the world. For everything downturn, something amazing has happened in my life. I’ve been laid off, and found a job that paid better, and I liked more (that’s happend two or three times). My late wife died five years ago this last July 11th. I was blessed enough to find love a second time and will celebrate my 2 year anniversary on Aug 19th. I could go on… Just know that I love my life.[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]