O'joy! O'rapture!

Happiness is...

+ A Canon Rebel T3 at last arriving on my doorstep. Three years of scrounging and saving all income but for church offerings. Playing grueling hours for gigs, doing odd jobs, raiding old piggy banks... and at last Jackson {just 'Jack' for short} is home. Yes, I did name it. Why Jackson? 'cause it's a Rebel. 

+ God sending a brief and refreshing rain right after Jack arrived, providing stunning first photo opportunities for me! The sky was beyond gorgeous. I snapped pictures like a maniac, delighting in the satisfactory snap of the shutters and squealing out "Jack's got a little voice!" as it dutifully endeavored to focus on each new object presented. Jack and I shall be great pals.

+ Petrichor: The smell of earth after rain.
+ My sister coming home between semesters. It's her birthdays today so, HOPPY BIFDOG! When you finally get here I will have to show you everything I've learned so far about Jack! So, be warned. I'm about as crazy happy over this camera as Little Brother is over his fish. I'll remember to restock the tea, too, before you get here, 'cause last time at Christmas we plowed through at least four boxes of that stuff. I know you are really fit and healthy running all those marathons down there in the sunny south and you want the whole fam to run a 5k while you're up here, but seriously... please don't make me. I'll be puffing like a punctured blowfish by the 1/2 mile marker.
 Aside from that and Mum nagging us kids to get trotting so we can be all primed for your arrival {Pass the Easter clearance jelly beans, would'ya}, your coming is greatly anticipated. xoxo

+ A totally spiffing couple of rides today with my Pink Horse{my Roanie} and Porkpie{The Black Pony}.  Porky could have been sweeter, but really I don't think she enjoyed being all softened up with a nice curry and then getting thrown into the real Tabasco, i.e. getting a saddle slapped on her and being generally worked into a lather. Ah, but it was good for her. We learned things.

 Roanie was her usual amazing self for me, which seems to disappoint Da, for when he used to take her out he thought her leaning toward the wrong side of the scatter-brain/dump-the-rider-and-bolt scale. I think she just doesn't at all enjoy the hackamore Da likes so well.

+ Happiness is very much the relief of finishing the piano recital alive and in one piece. After weeks and weeks of working on Farewell to Ireland, a song a grade or two higher than my playing ability, hacking and arranging it almost out of recognition in order to have it memorized by the concert date, wigging out the last couple of days, and generally wearing my fingers down to nubs on my brother's keyboard {which has earphone jacks so I could practice well past 10pm} -- at last all trials are past, for it is over. Apart from a few stumblings and the time my foot slipped off the peddle making a noise like the gates of YouKnowWhere slamming shut, it all went rather well. It was with a sigh and a grin that I stepped off the stage and back into the anonymity of the audience, to continue watching similar terror-stricken fish waltz up and do the same, likewise relieved and amazed that it had gone as well as it did and they were yet alive.

So that is happiness for today.Turns out I'm quite jovial. If jovial is in fact the word I'm looking for....

 Well, anyway...

Toodles, my good friends!

-Gwyn