January Joy List Update

Monthly I will be posting my joy list and keeping up with what I did or did not do. The lists are mainly for my benefit so I can look back at the end of the year and see what joys I experienced. I decided from now on I will also list unexpected and unanticipated joys that I can look back over the year and appreciate again.





1. Expand my horizons

a. Listen to at least one different genre of music every day (I listen to a lot of jazz and sometimes forget there are other types of music)
I listened to a lot of music daily from each day's genre, but am listing my favorites from each day. This has been something very good that I have done for myself. It has forced me to listen to things far beyond my normal and I am finding some new favorites I never knew existed. (I am also finding some genres I don't care to listen to again, but I guess that was to be expected)

Week 1: Funk "Watermelon Man"  Telugu "Nuvvele, Nuvvele"  Russian Folk "The Boatyr"  Spiritual "Bobby McFerrin Psalm 23"  Baroque "Melancholy Galliard"  Bando "Seis Pies"  Tuvan Throat  "The Reindeer Herder's Song"

Week 2: Salsa "Candela"   RagTime "Sunflower Slow Drag"  Rindik "Angkulngen"  Romantic Period Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" R&B "Me and Mrs. Jones"  American Patriotic "The Washington Post March"

Week3: Opera Aria Turadot's "Nessum Dorma" Gambian Kora Music "Jula Jerkere" Blue Grass "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" Motown  "Sir Duke" Celtic "Down By the Salley Gardens" ,Zyedyco "Cricket Leg "Zyedeco"  Chaabi "Ya Rayah"

Week 4: Kleyzmorim "Turetskya"  K pop "BBoom BBoom"  Yayue Listened to  this __no favorites cause it all sounds alike  Celtic Punk"Drunken Lullabies", Showtunes "Bring Him Home" Sacred Harp Call me unsophisticated but this was just painful to listen to more than a couple of hours. Doo Wop "Little Bitty Pretty One"

Week5: Kid Tunes "Bananaphone"  Hymn, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save"Greek Bouzouki I will listen to this tomorrow

b. Read a biography (not my favorite thing to read)
A Girl Called Renee

c. Try one new recipe per week.

Chicken cutlets  thumbs up
Ham, potato and corn chowder thumbs up
Hot Chicken Salad on Hoecakes so-so
Mexican Drunken Bean Soup 2 thumbs up
Chicken Florentine with Parmesan Sauce thumbs up

d. Try a new beverage (adult or otherwise) each week.
Vanilla Chai New to me. Not substantially different from regular chai.
Licorice tea Really nice and I don't care for licorice at all! It is nice, light and very clean tasting. It is also supposedly very good for us. I will start keeping this all the time.
Som Soda Turmeric From Pok Pok in Portland. I have eaten there several times and love their food, so when I saw this (at The Pig in Birmingham, no less) I thought I would give it a try. It has an earthy taste at first sip then it has a sharp carbonated vinegary taste and finally becomes sweet as it spreads over the mouth. Really good but too expensive to buy except on a very rare occasion. If I were not already a Pok Pok fan I would never have bought it in the first place.
Faygo Rock and Rye Soda  This was a very different tasting drink. I do not normally drink sugar sweetened sodas and this one was very very sweet. It seems to have a blended fruit flavor but has high notes of cherry and an herbal undertone I can't identify. It is almost like a jacked up Dr. Pepper. Won't drink it again.

e. Learn some obscure or arcane fact each week
Hares are born with fur and sight, rabbits are born naked and blind.
Cap’n Crunch’s full name is Horatio Magellan Crunch.
Nutella was invented during WWII, when an Italian pastry maker mixed ground hazelnuts into chocolate to expand the volume of his chocolate rations
Carly Simon's dad co-founded  Simon and Schuster.  
In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel was spending $2,500 a month on rubber bands just to hold all their cash.

2. Be present around friends and family more. Really listen to what they are saying.
I really did try and think perhaps I listened a little better. Maybe not though!

3. Learn a new(to me) song on the piano.
Didn't happen

4. Have guests for dinner at least once.
Some friends of Son3 were traveling from the west coast and needed a place to stay for a couple of nights, so I guess we had guests for dinner and every other meal for a couple of days. I also had overnight guests during our fake ice storm days.

5. Contact some long neglected friend. (Ouch, it hurts to write that.)
Made plans to have lunch with Martha. Haven't seen her for a couple of years

6. Meet someone new.
I had never met one of Son3's friend's brother until he was at my front door. I enjoyed getting to know him and Lake (whom I had met a couple of times before but barely knew) better. 

7. Make something for Christmas next year. (Can be a gift or can be a craft)
I bought some really cool 90 percent off Christmas cards. Can I count that? At the last minute I made some gift tags for Christmas

8. Volunteer somewhere.
Didn't happen

9. Do at least one thing for someone expecting nothing in return. (anonymous would be best)
Took soup and fantastic dessert to a friend following her surgery. Didn't get to do it anonymously though.

10. Make an effort at a more spiritual beginning to my day.
Trying__somedays were successful, some not so much.

11. Get rid of 31 items (one for each day of the month).
I found 30 thing just from my bedroom. I wound up with a nice GW donation of way more than 31 items. 

12. Anytime, when  possible, choose happiness.
It is amazing how choosing happiness really does change everything, even if circumstances remain the same.

13. Watch a documentary.
Watched a documentary about Montbatten's quest to gain power after the marriage of QE2 and Prince Phillip.

14. Go to a movie, with or without popcorn!
Flu outbreak changed my plans for this. 

15. Take the time to watch both a sunset and a moon rise.
Moon rises are easy, I just have to walk out the front door and look to the right any clear night.  Sunrise? Is that the thing most people see a couple of hours after I go to bed at night? 

16. Go to a play or concert
Kinky Boots

17. Take Mom somewhere out of the ordinary just for fun.
Took her to hear a storyteller. Took her to a Choral program

18, Watch the NCAA college football Championship game on TV
Yep watched it and loved it. Roll Tide Roll

19. Have Mom over to eat at least 3 times.
Done and more.

I did add a few extra things as the month progressed, but that didn't mean I necessarily did them.(see number 14)

Now on to February's joys.