Happy

Some things just seem to radiate "happy," even if they're of negligible quality themselves. Think about, say, sprinkles on a dish of ice cream. The sprinkles don't really add to the taste experience. Sometimes, the actual eating of the sprinkles can be annoying, texture-wise. But seeing sprinkles atop plain white vanilla ice cream? Happy!

I can think of lots of things that automatically communicate "happy" to me:

• A sunshiny day


• Seeing my best friend's car in the driveway


• Buying bananas


• Solid-colored balloons


• A new box of crayons


• Handwriting on the outside of an envelope in the mailbox


• Sandals


• Cotton candy


• Ice-cream truck music (though I've only ever bought ice cream from one once)


• Lemonade


• The color orange


• Cats


• Polka dots

I could go on, but you get the idea. When I was thinking about this, I was also thinking about how some of them are quasi-universal: most people enjoy the idea of sprinkles on ice cream, for example. On the other hand, some are more me-specific, like buying bananas. To most people, I'm pretty sure, this is just a part of grocery shopping that they either do or don't do, but it's not a source of happiness, per se. But for some reason, the purchase of bananas makes me happy.

Anyway, I was thinking more about this, and I realized that there are certain people that seem to carry with them the expectation of happiness. Even though they're normal people who are sad and angry and emo in the same quantities as just about everyone else, there is something about them that just sets me up to expect good things. I can't quantify it, but I'm thinking that you'll know what I mean. They're like the balloons and sprinkles in the party of life.

Audience Participation: What makes you happy?