- Tea without sugar. It's very refreshing. And you get the benefit of the pure taste of delicious tea with the added bonus of feeling like a European demi-god or something similar.
- Andrew Bird. Specifically his albums Armchair Apocrypha and Noble Beasts/Useless Creatures--perfect summer music.
- Not thinking a lot of yourself. Specifically this is important when you're trying to hold a funny face your making at someone. If you think a lot of yourself, you'll probably start thinking about how funny the face is, and then you'll laugh at your own hilariousness and consequently ruin the face--probably before the person you're making said face at sees it. And then the whole thing is just ruined. Humility is key in many things, and one of them is pulling off a good funny.
- Walking around in bare feet. For two reasons: the first is that if you do this frequently you'll never have to experience the shame of going for a walk around the neighborhood and getting debilitating blisters on the pads of your feet because your delicate kid glove princess feet can't handle the abrasive friction of asphalt for longer than ten yards; the second is, obviously, that you'll become a hobbit.
- Diana Wynne Jones. One of my favorite authors; she's creative, clever, hilarious, and prolific, which is an excellent combination of traits. If you like reading fantasy remotely, you'll like her. If you like fairy tales, you'll like her. If you like witticism, you'll like her.
- Keeping up with your devotions--even in the summer. I'm dry as bones right now. Le sigh.
- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. If you like mysteries, writing that makes you want to dog-ear every page, drama, Jane Eyre, reading, reading about reading, or reading books that are good, your mind will be blown by this book.
Harry Potter 7.2 Thursday at midnight. I wonder if this will be anything like the first time I saw The Return of the King (that would be embarrassing).
