H-A-P-P-I-N-E-S-S

Angeline is one of my best blogger friends. She's wonderful because she's the greatest mom ever. She's got the prettiest children. She writes fine and psychedelically and her blog brings me so much amusement. She's also super because she's requested me a fun post. She's assigned me to write about 5 things that make me happiest. That'll be a piece of cake!!!

Before I get started on that, I owe some explanations why I have been a little away. Firstly, I was enjoying my last days of vacation. I had to do it. I have been taking 15-day vacations yearly since 1998. 15 days are never enough to me. I'm a type B person. I am a confessed lazy-ass kind of individual so, to me vacation means a lot. Workaholic? Are there workaholic folks around? You sick people! Excuuuuuuse me. I'd rather lay on a hammock under the shade of palm trees drinking some cocktail listening to birds chirping... You, Angeline, can consider that my number 1 thing that makes me happy: it is called life. And this little thing called LIFE goes by as fast as a whip.

Another reason why I took a break from blogging came from Bulb's assignment. He'd tagged some of his fellow bloggers to write a sad and shocking story so that Sassy would get a little cheered up. The cause is fair. I've been working on my textS for days. TextS??? Yeah. I came up with two unfinished posts. I may publish both of them. Yet, I've been having a great deal of difficulty at the conclusion part. That is because it's utterly troublesome to write about depressing things - at least for me! I take writing seriously. I may not be keen on it but I often exercise it and hope to achieve a high level on this practice. And this is the thing number 2 that makes me very happy: GOOD WRITING.

I miss vacation already. During those days I had nothing else to do besides resting my wounded toe, petting Tibby, having hot breakfast served while I was still in bed (thanks Roberto), and other good stuff... I also watched movies, many movies, mainly psycho-thrillers. I like other genres too. I am very fond of documentaries, biographical, and silent flicks - especially burlesque comedies. (Speaking of "silent movies", I haven't forgotten that Saucy also assigned me to post something about this topic: "I WILL, SAuCY"). Actually, I love comedies in general. I love jokes, sarcasm, funny events, hilarious posts, t-shirts, stickers - but I peel them after reading... The bottom line is I care for laughing. I laugh, giggle, crack up for any single reason. I laugh at flat tires. I laugh when I'm drunk, and when I'm sober too. I laugh at the pope's preaching. I laugh at Britney Spears's voice. I laugh at meals that end up saulty. I laugh at my own face. I laugh at snobish and pretentious people. I laugh at losers. I laugh when I lose. I laugh at this. I laugh not only because laughing is the third thing that makes me happy, but also because LAUGHTER (3) is the best tool to intelligent reasoning.

I had been away from my own spot, but I've been reading all my favorite blogs. I know that I don't sometimes leave a comment but I read them regularly. Rain or Lori once said that reading a post and not typing a comment is the same as reaching an aswering machine and not recording a message. Excellent comparison! I just don't like being repetitive and I often run into opinions and suggestions which I share and they were previously posted by other reader. Nah! There is no need to rewrite thoughts. I praise originality. Don't like copies. I don't like manufactured ideas. I respect archetypes but I hate stereotypes. I hate fashion for instance. It is not necessary to own a 2006 Escalade just because a celebrity so and so has it. Buying Nike sneakers is lacking individuality. Being unique is a hard task these days. When I get to meet one-of-a-kind folks like my blogger friends... wow, that makes me happy. Simply see for yourselves that one blog is just not like the other one. Number 4 thing is right there: all my FRIENDS: blogger ones, msn ones, orkut ones, real life ones - ALL OF THEM. They are true and original people. All of them are special and very much peculiar.

Sad that my vacation is over. I am back to teaching and running this school that I really love. My 15-day break was quite short but I can't complain. I had the best time although the toe accident. 2005 is also over. It was an interesting year. It's hard to define it but the word 'interesting' pretty much says it all. That was the year when I got a pet for the first time in my life. I admit that I love Tibby to the bones. Last year, I lost my grandpa; I couldn't visit my parents again; I returned to my German language studies. Love love love languages. I got the best students. I taught the best and the worst classes. Serious teaching is based on love. Teachers who don't love what they do are just fooling everyone. In 2005, I also went through depression (Lori gave me great support on that during those times! Bulb helped too!) I almost got divorced (some readers will be surprised, especially my students, since nothing was ever mentioned about this issue). I had even thought of changing my life completely. Thanks to I-don't-know-what, this is all over. Now I know that taking the chance of "changes" would have been the worst decision. I would have lost the number 5 thing that makes me the happiest person ever. I would have given up LOVE. "What 'love' are you talking about, Laila?". L-O-V-E! I could have wasted this love: love for being a fullfilled professional; love for treasuring living things; love for knowing creative and inventive minds; love for being who I am; love for the place I come from; love for making good use of technology... I would have killed the love that lives in and with me.