As part of the anxiety-battling agenda, I’m substituting the list of things I have to do with a list of things that make me happy today. At the end of the semester (or the calendar year), many people’s anxieties flare up. We are all constantly on a schedule, afraid we won’t be able to do all we need to do, and the avitaminosis kicks in at about this time, making everybody loopy and irritable.

So here are things that make me happy today:

1. We’ve got our first snow of the season! I love snow. I wish I could live surrounded by huge snow mounds all the time.

2. Our departmental meeting that was scheduled for Friday has been cancelled. I feel like a bad student who celebrates each class cancellation.

3. I’ve been asked to serve as a translator for the preface of the new book by my favorite Spanish philosopher. My name will appear right under his, which is huge for me.

4. I’ve just emerged from a very important committee where I managed to push through some very significant initiatives. I didn’t let senior colleagues intimidate me and achieved exactly what I wanted.

5. N is at his new job right now. He is probably playing table tennis during his lunch break. That’s one cool company if it provides table tennis (and also fresh fruit) to workers.

What makes you happy today?

P.S. I don’t want people to accuse me of bragging again, so maybe I need to show everybody how every point on this list can be used as an anxiety producing device?

Snow – the heating bill will go through the roof, and I need new boots => indigence, poverty, horror!

Translation of the philosopher’s preface – what if I fail and make an idiot out of myself? What if the philosopher thinks I’m stupid? => shame, humiliation, horror!

N.’s at work – what if he loses this job? What if I lose mine? => indigence, poverty, shame, humiliation, horror!