- Your sheets to come out of the dryer so you can immediately put them on your bed and climb in while they’re still warm. Even if it’s 2pm and you have no intention of sleeping, do it just for the feeling of lying there, wrapped in a fresh, spring-scented, static electric cocoon.
- A friend at a bar when they’re already 20 minutes late and you didn’t feel like going out anyway, but you came because you know that when they finally do show up, all the little stresses of the day will evaporate, and you’ll melt into an easy, comfortable, tipsy, private murmur of friendship that’s worth risking a weekday hangover for.
- A table at your favorite breakfast place on a Sunday morning after a late night when you know it will be crowded and there will be a long wait, but you do it anyway for that perfect moment when you get to go home with a belly full of high-calorie deliciousness and go back to sleep.
- Your period. Even though it’s kind of miserable, any discomfort is offset by the immense relief that, once again, you are not pregnant. It doesn’t matter if you’re on birth control, or if you’ve even had sex. No matter how many precautions you take, there’s always that tiny fear that somehow, against all odds, you got knocked up. There isn’t a woman alive (unless, obviously, you’re actively trying to get a baby in you) who doesn’t feel a brief, glorious moment of relief when period day rolls around.
- The best sale of the year at your favorite store. Make it your business to know when that is, and then make it your business to save up a little extra to splurge on something that will serve no purpose other than to make you exceedingly happy.
- Getting to meet your favorite band after a concert, even if it means hanging out for 2 hours after the show ends. The older we get, the fewer moments we have where we get to feel a genuine, fluttery, breathless excitement. There are few things in adult life that will make you feel like more like a wonderfully giddy 13-year-old than standing around outside a tour bus waiting for a 4-second interaction with someone you admire.
- The perfect pair of black boots. There is no one definite set of criteria, but you know it when you find them. To call that moment life-changing would not be too much of an overstatement.
- The perfect haircut, while we’re on the topic of appearance. It might take decades of trial and error, but once you find the ideal ‘do, stick with it. Maintain it. Great hair – and overall great style, and being a great person in general – is not about keeping up with trends and changing yourself to suit them. It’s about figuring out what feels more comfortable and complements your natural strengths most perfectly, and then owning it.
- The realization that there is no perfect person, or perfect love, or right or wrong times. The realization that each person and relationship is complex, and flawed, and even if you could understand them fully, they’re changing all the time. The moment when we truly make peace with that, and really accept it, and even embrace it – that’s the moment of fulfillment. That’s what you wait for. You just take the rest as it comes, and as it goes.
- The season premier of your favorite show. You are not to be spoken to for the next hour, seriously, OMG why are you even still talking, it’s on.
- A coffee order. It doesn’t matter how crowded Starbucks is, or if you’re going to be 15 minutes late to work – you are in this. You are committed, no matter how long it takes, or how many amateurs who don’t know what they want are in front of you. You came in for a very specific thing, and now that you’ve set your sights on it, you will very likely die in the street without it.
- An apology. Even if you know it’s eventually coming, you can’t rush it. Real apologies stubbornly refuse to me hustled, cajoled or coaxed. You can’t force a person to reach a place where they have the calmness and perspective to seek forgiveness for hurting you. It comes when it comes – a smart person doesn’t push, doesn’t force it, but is ready when it’s offered.
- Your favorite part of a song. Everyone in the vicinity is required to be silent and listen for 5 seconds before it happens, and are not to say a goddamn word when you sing along and possibly do a little dance.
