Things that make a Lori happy

• People named Sam Burkman.

• Songs that make me instantly calm, entranced, or happy when listening to them, such as: Duncan by Paul Simon, That's the Way by Led Zeppelin, The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin, anything on the Blue album by Joni Mitchell, She Talks to Angels by the Black Crows, Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright, One Man Guy by Rufus Wainwright, When the Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin, Waste by Phish, Old Man by Neil Young, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, and Hotel Yorba by the White Stripes. On a side note, if you have a song stuck in your head, Hotel Yorba is a particularly good song to think of to clear the other song out.

• Puns and witty remarks.

• The movie Almost Famous. It makes my heart happy, like I'm hanging out with an old friend. If people don't like that movie, I highly doubt they would like me. I also feel a comparable feeling when watching Lord of the Rings and When Harry Met Sally.

• How my husband smells. When Sam hugs me or when we are cuddling and I can smell him. Sam naturally just has such a wonderful smell about him and it always makes me happy and comforted. That may be a weird thing to say, but the statement stands.

• Taking a piece of writing that is merely mediocre and turning it into something that is well-written. I also get a kick out of explaining grammar to people, especially spanish grammar.

• Recognizing movie stars or b-list actors and remembering what films they have been in. I go absolutely mad if I can't place a face.

• Learning and singing a guitar song for the first time. There are some songs that I love so much, they feel like they are friends of mine; so when I can play them and it sounds good, I get a whole new connection to the song. It's such a cool feeling to pick up a guitar and be able to play a song that, until that moment, you have only ever heard the original artist play.

• Finishing something I painted and it turns out as well as I had hoped it would.

• Discovering connections between my favorite musicians. For instance, I didn't think that Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin had any connection at all. Then I found out that Jimmy Page's favorite musician was Joni Mitchell. Things like this lead me to believe that if Joni and Jimmy like each other, and I love both of them, then they would love me too if we were to meet.

• Well-written children's literature. A.A. Milne, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and Roald Dahl are amongst the most impressive authors of all time in my opinion.

• Raisinets.

• That feeling when I'm playing piano, and it feels like my hands know what I'm doing much more than my head, and the music just flows out. Or that moment when my hand just pops up and hits a high accent note. I have no idea how it knew how to get up there, but it does and it rocks.

• Holding hands or cuddling with my husband as we fall asleep every night.