A Few of My Favorite Things

The Sound of Music premiered on Broadway fifty years ago (November 16th, 1959), but I discovered it again for the first time last week.

The little J-dog was busy playing trucks when I popped in the DVD, but as soon as Julie Andrews came bounding over the horizon and opened her mouth to sing, his little head swiveled around like a periscope.

What is that exquisite sound?

Who is that beautiful lady . . . and why isn't she my mother?

He planted himself directly in front of the TV and gazed on with rapt attention for a good half hour.

Me, I was riveted by the fairytale plotline, the boundless optimism, the yodeling . . . and Captain Von Hawt, whose smokin' good looks had somehow evaded me for these past thirty-six years.

So in honor of the Sound of Music's fiftieth anniversary, here are A Few of My Favorite Things:

1. Coffee (touch of cream, no sugar)
   
2. Sushi
3. The Daily Show
   
4. Lithuanian folk songs
5. My attached garage
6. The iTunes Store
   
7. Leonard Cohen lyrics
   
8. Built-in bras
9. The Star-Spangled Banner (straight up, no soul)
   
10. Cosmic signs
    
11. Musical harmony
12. Reading in bed
13. White linens
14. Lost
    
15. Chamomile tea
16. Aveda Inner Light dual foundation
    
17. The combination of buttered movie popcorn with Skittles
    
18. Hot showers
19. Good lip balm
    
20. Lavender lotion from L'Occitaine
    
21. Striped tights
22. Black boots
    
23. Cinnabon
    
24. Cabernet Sauvignon
25. Guinness beer
    
26. Christmas Eve
    
27. Tylenol PM
    
28. Jello pretzel "salad"
29. Order and symmetry
30. Airplane Coke
    
31. The sun on my back
    
32. Abba
33. Geico caveman commercials
    
34. The smell of pipe tobacco
35. Foot rubs
36. Comments
    
    
37. and The Sound of Music, of course.
    
    
    

The Lowdown on the Wrapup

P-Dawg and I went on a weekend spa getaway to celebrate our anniversary.  Timid spa virgins no longer, we signed ourselves up for massages and seaweed wraps.  I thought they'd roll me up in some wet leaves and twenty minutes later I'd be skinny, but that's not how it went down.

First I almost kicked the massage therapist's teeth out when he tried to exfoliate my feet (I'm very sensitive), and then a smelly, wet paste made out of ground up seaweed was smeared all over my bod-day - kind of a shocker when you're expecting to be swaddled in something more akin to a fig leaf.  (I am from Ohio.)

Next, the P-Dawg and I were individually folded, burritolike, in some butcher block paper and a layer of warm thermal foil.  Then we were left alone in our respective mud cocoons for about twenty minutes to dwell on the various itches that developed the minute our arms were incapacitated. 


"P-Dawg?"

"Yep."

"I have a facial twitch."

"A new one?"

"No. Will I die?"

"Someday."

(Time passes.)

"P-Dawg?"

"Right here."

"I really have to see a man about a horse."

"Me too."

"We oughtn't have pounded that mineral water."

(A few minutes are spent staring at the ceiling and listening to Enya.)

"P-Dawg?"

"Yep."

"I actually didn't realize it was going to be mud."

"Me neither."


"Do you think our bod-days are really being detoxified?"

"Nope."

"Well, crap. I was sort of counting on being a dress size smaller after this."

When all was said and done, I may have lost a pound or two of water weight and my skin was as smooth as a baby's butt for a solid week, but I'm not sure it was worth it on account of the ick factor.  Plus, I gained it all back when we went out to dinner that night, so it was kind of a wash.

And therefore I give seaweed wraps, as a general category, a solid "C" rating.  But I give our anniversary getaway weekend an "A+."

Nine

9-9-00


"And you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."


-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet