Pleasures

How Midlife pleasures may differ:

At my age, it's a pleasure to get up in the morning, after a full eight hours, and not feel like I've been run over by a truck. As you may know, SalGal and I finally quit smoking on October 28, 2007 at 11:59 pm CST. As a result, we are getting re-acquainted with the pleasures that lie therein. We can breathe again. We can make it all the way through a hearty guffaw without winding up at the end of one in a wheezing, coughing spasm of embarrassment, and we don't enter a room surrounded by an invisible cloak of tar and ash on our hands, in our hair and on our clothes. Talk about pleasures! Yes, thankyou, thankyou...we're very proud of ourselves.

I find pleasure in the tiniest things these days, like getting the combination of honey and cream just right in my morning cup of coffee. I like it when the temperature outside is exactly room temp...not too hot or too cold, just right. I'm happiest when I see strangers kissing. That's what I like about countries like Italy, Spain and France. They just make out with complete abandon all over the place. I'm a romantic so I love delicate PDAs.

I feel intense pleasure when I eat a fine cheeseburger...cooked to perfection, with a little grease on the bun and with all my favorite fixins. French fries are superfluous if you get the perfect burger...it's just overkill. I squeal with delight with the first bite theory...that no bite is as good as the very first one...like a small spoonful of Beluga caviar that I let explode in my mouth as I then taste the accompanying goodies of toast points, Creme Fraiche and cold champagne.

I find pleasure in sports when a ball player hits a grand slam or when a golfer gets a hole in one. I scream when the basketball player throws the ball all the way across the court and makes the basket. I like a good endzone dance after the winning touchdown and I love to see a swimmer come up for air after a 100 meter freestyle race for the gold.

A pair of jeans that make me appear to have an ass are a pleasure to wear. It's a pleasure to hear a politician accidentally slip up and say something truthful. What a delight it is to hear Placido Domingo sing Nessun Dorma with that high 'C' at the end. The rush I get when I feel the bite of a fish on the line is beyond pleasurable. I am giddy when I see a cowboy stay on a bull for the full 8 seconds, and there is no greater pleasure than seeing the love between a Daddy and his little girl.

Frankly I could go on and on with pleasures. Hopefully, this makes you think back on some of your own pleasures. Here's hoping you find some new ones today!

KK

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I like guilty pleasures the best. Bourbon and coke. Pate Foie Gras. Regular Lays potato chips. Actors who give it all they've got. Acting class. Garth Brooks. I'm just doing that stream of consciousness thing right now. Life is full of so many varied pleasures it's hard to think of only a few. I like walking barefoot out in the yard and the way the grass and garden smells right after a rain. The sunlight shining through a cat's ear. Pretty shoes and beaded cocktail purses.

Lace pillows
Creme Brulee
Oil paints
Playing Cranium
Cutting flowers from other people's yards
America's Next Top Model
Wearing mother's gold bracelet without her knowing it
Giving Buddy tuna fish juice from the can
Starbuck's Mocca, 2% frappaccino with whipped cream
Watching cowboy Polo with KK in the hill country
Crispy oysters at Jeffry's
Flashy trash movies
Pictures of George Clooney
Pecan pie with vanilla icecream
Turning on the lights at sunset
Pimiento cheese on soda crackers
Peach colored flowers
Big dangly earrings
Hearing a secret
White cotton blouses
Looking at handsome, young men
Chanel #5 skin lotion
Other people's babies
Dog faces