five good things

This meme is going around, and just in case you are wondering, I **do** have a lot of good in my life; I tend to use LJ to vent, and this probably makes some people think I'm super-negative all the time. If I want to get into parent-blaming, I could say that I was raised to not brag when things are good, that good things aren't worth commenting on because they are what is expected.

But anyway, 5 things:

1. My husband, deguspice. Seriously, I cannot tell you how happy I am to be married to him, that he was "underappreciated" until I came along. He makes me nuts sometimes, but what married person has a spouse who never makes them nuts?

2. My friends, um-friends, and social community in general. As alienated as I often find myself, this is better than I've had in other places.

3. Spring! I grew up in a place with two seasons: warmish and occasionally rainy, and hot and dry. I appreciate spring a lot more, now that I live in a place with four real seasons. My only complaint is that the seasons I like (spring and fall) are too short.

4. America. I'm not a mindless patriot, but there are a lot of good things about being here. I might well feel the same way about living in a different country, but I'm happy where I am.

5. The Internet. For lots of reasons, not the least that I can do things like write this post.

gee, that's all kinda schmoopy, huh?

friendslists

Thanks to various people who have explained the ins and outs of whose LJs they read. I am one of those rare people who keeps a small enough friendslist that I can actually read it all (caveats: I read *very* quickly* and I skim almost everything I read on LJ.)

There's a bit of etiquette here: if you are going to stop reading someone's LJ, do you tell them (especially in a semi-public manner), or just quietly stop reading? I'd go with the latter, although I have been caught up short a couple of times when I've realized that someone who I thought was reading my LJ is not.** In general, *I* would rather not know if/when people are reading my LJ, and I don't find it insulting if I ask someone whether they have read something of mine, and they say no.

** Best example: after prattling on to someone about my current job for about 5 or 10 minutes, having assumed that he reads my LJ, I discover that (a) he didn't even realize that I wasn't a student anymore (it had been almost 3 years), and (b) he didn't even know that between graduating and this job, I'd had another job. I dealt with it by backtracking and filling him in on these things. I was a little surprised he wasn't reading my LJ, but then I looked at his friendslist later on, and he has something like 300 friends listed, and I am far from anyone important in his life.