The VSL Poltroon: Things That Make Me Happy

This is about Things that make me happy. I don’t mean things like health and warm weather and the sound of rain falling on the living room window. No. I mean Things, things you buy with money, and that exist in the corporeal world. Things I have, that I bought, or that someone bought for me. Money can’t buy happiness? Yes it can. I buy things with money and they make me happy. It’s that simple.

So here are some Things that make me happy:

1. My Sony Discman – this was a birthday present from my wife 3 years ago. It sits in my

bedroom and I use it before I sleep. It remembers where I left off, even if I stop in the middle of a track. And it plays regular CDs and MP3s, so how could I not love it.

2. My desk. This is my spot. I don’t have an office; the desk is in the basement where the kids

have their desk / computer set up, but that doesn’t matter. This is my spot. It is an L-shape secretary’s desk and it has a pull-out thing for my keyboard and one drawer and on my left I have…

3. My boom box. I bought this in December of 2006 at Sears, and buying it was an adventure

unto itself, but I got it, and I have it, and it plays regular CDs, and MP3s, and cassettes, so what more could I want. It has a sub-woofer which I have not used since we moved, because I can’t quite figure where to put it, but that’s ok, I’m happy.

4. My coffee cups. One is a straight black cup, on which my wife painted the Batman logo, and it

could not look more genuine, and the other is a Conordia University cup that I bought myself not long ago, and I’m not sure why but it makes me happy.

5. My Sony Walkman. Ok this is all about music so maybe this should be on my other blog. But

whatever, I have 3 of these, walkmans (walkmen?). One is in the kitchen plugged into a pair of computer speakers, another I take with me when I walk at night and when I go to work and come home from work, and a third one has not yet been opened. I bought all three on eBay.

6. Shelves. We bought these shelves 2 years ago when we moved into the house that we so

recently moved out of, and they are shelves meant I think for CDs or VHS tapes, but I use them for music tapes – cassettes – and it is the first time that all my cassettes have a place to live. So that makes me very happy.

7. My plants. Some I bought for various places that I’ve worked and they came home went the

job went south, some I got for my birthdays. I like them. That’s all. They all live in the kitchen now.

8. My Concordia bag. I borrowed a bag with a strap from my sister when she was here two years

ago and I said boy I need to get me one of these. And I did but it broke. So I got another and it broke. These bags were very cheap. So I didn’t know what to do. Then I found this one at the book store at Concordia University, and it wasn’t so cheap, about $15, which seems like a lot for a bag with a zipper and a strap, but I got it, and it’s good, and I use it, and it has its designated function in my life, and it makes me happy.

My Batman keychain. Surely I don’t have to explain this one…