Five Happy Things, Birthday Edition

June 27, 2011 by Amy Sundberg

Today is my birthday! I really love birthdays. I look forward to mine for months every year. And this year I’m prepared with a wider than usual selection of birthday books. So think of me lounging in the sun with one of these titles: Naamah’s Blessing, by Jacqueline Carey; The Wanting Seed, by Anthony Burgess; Flashback, by Dan Simmons (his Hyperion series is genius, by the way. Just saying.); or Bumped, by Megan McCafferty. Decisions, decisions!

To celebrate on the blog, I’m writing a birthday edition of five things that make me happy. In this case, I’m choosing five things from the last year.

1. Blog: First things first. This blog turns one year old later this week, sharing a birthday week with me. I thought that starting a serious blog sounded fun, but I had no idea how much I would enjoy it. Not only have I become a better writer as a result of blogging, but the blog gets me writing (and keeps me writing) even when pretty much nothing else can. I love having a platform to share my ideas and philosophies, and I adore that doing something so fun is part of my job. How awesome is that?

2. New Friends: When I think of all the new friends I have met in the last year, it feels almost unreal to me. To make myself even happier, I’m going to fudge and count my Taos Toolbox comrades in this number as well, even though I met them a year and a few weeks ago (although even without fudging, it’s been a truly amazing year in the friend department). I have been honored to meet and spend time with some of the most intelligent, thoughtful, kind, and interesting people this year. And I keep meeting more!

3. First Pro Sale: Yup, have to mention this, a big milestone in my writing career. I can’t wait till this story comes out, hopefully later this year!

4. Husband and Little Dog: Day in and day out, my husband and little Nala are always there for me. They celebrate my successes and they comfort me through the hard and painful times. They make it easy to be happy.

5. Becoming More Me:You guys have seen some of this here on the blog, with me writing about people pleasing and running the Backbone Project. Happily this is something that is happening even more offline than it is online. After years of plugging away at becoming more assertive, it’s finally happening! Granted, I have a lot more work to do, but I’m making fabulous progress.

There sure are a lot of photos of me wearing a lei floating around....

So there you have it, five things that make me want to bounce up and down, wear bright colors, and sing while I brush my teeth. Here’s to another year featuring more of the same!

Posted in Life | Tagged Amy Sundberg, birthday, happiness, positivity | 18 Comments

18 Responses

on June 27, 2011 at 10:13 am | Reply Jeff P.

Happy birthday! Enjoy your reading.
- on June 29, 2011 at 10:42 am | Reply Amy Sundberg
  
  Thanks! The reading was great–just wish I had more time to get further in the book now! 🙂
on June 27, 2011 at 10:51 am | Reply Karl

Happy birthday!
I’m loving your blog, btw – and you’ve inspired me to give mine a nice reboot!
- on June 29, 2011 at 10:37 am | Reply Amy Sundberg
  
  Hooray! Can’t wait to see what you write about!
on June 27, 2011 at 11:46 am | Reply EF Kelley

Glad you had a good year, Miss Amy. 🙂
- on June 29, 2011 at 10:43 am | Reply Amy Sundberg
  
  Thanks for being a part of it, Eric.
on June 27, 2011 at 12:34 pm | Reply Danielle

Happy birthday!! I’m so glad to have met you too! Enjoy your day 🙂
- on June 29, 2011 at 10:43 am | Reply Amy Sundberg
  
  Thank you! I had a great day. Also, I beat Yony at air hockey. 🙂
on June 27, 2011 at 1:04 pm | Reply ada

Happy Birthday! I hope you will fudge even more and count me with the friends you are happy to have met over the last year, since we actually met at WisCon before Taos Toolbox. I for one am super glad I met you!

Hope today is really fun.
- on June 29, 2011 at 10:38 am | Reply Amy Sundberg
  
  I’m super glad too, Ada! And yes, a year or 13 months, I’m going to call it good. 🙂
on June 27, 2011 at 2:28 pm | Reply Joshism

Happy birthday!

I like the “data party” thing. I’m at the stage of my life where there’s not much my friends can get me that I couldn’t just get myself.

I don’t get excited easily so this is an interesting brainstorming project for me. After some thought, here are 5 things that make me happy:

1) Sharing neat things with my friends/family. If I go on a trip, sharing my photos. If I read an interesting book (and I read about 90% non-fiction) talking about what I learned.

2) Getting ideas. One of the things that got me excited years ago for the game Magic The Gathering was looking at some cards and thinking “this would work nice with this. Then if I had this…” I am unusual in that I have a couple dozen decks. My excitement and creativity had fizzled for awhile, but the recent special release (Commander, for any MTGers reading this) got me excited again and got my creative juices flowing for deckbuilding. While MTG is probably the best example, it’s not the only one. One of my favorite expressions to say when true is “I’m getting…ideas!”

3) Travel. I’m almost 30. Excluding a couple trips before I started kindergarden, I have been to only 8 states (plus DC). Since 2001, I’ve been out of Florida on one trip. The amount of travel I’ve done is a pittance and I know it. So when I get to travel somewhere I’ve never been and see things I’ve never seen, I really enjoy it. Even places I’ve been before that have enough undiscovered can be a thrill.

4) An exciting game of football – watching or playing. The most purely thrilling moments of my entire life (not necessarily the best or the happiest – just the most thrilling) have been big plays I’ve made while playing touch or flag football with friends. Likewise, I’ve be ecstatic about thrilling games won by my favorite team (Miami Dolphins). I was so giddy after one game, a friend remarked “If I didn’t know better I’d think you just got laid.”

5) Not living paycheck to paycheck. I never have had strong aspirations to be a millionaire or otherwise rich. I’ve never been one to spend wildly and frivolously; I have fairly modest tastes. But I longed to be free of the shackles of constantly going “Can I pay all the bills this month? Can I afford to spend money on anything fun?” I was fortunate to keep out of debt but not far beyond it. When I was able to stop worrying about that and that weight was off my shoulders it was every bit as much a relief as I’d hoped it would be.

I’d like to list my significant other on here, but I’m terminally single.
- on June 29, 2011 at 10:42 am | Reply Amy Sundberg
  
  I love these five things! I totally agree that getting…ideas is completely exciting. I love it when information clicks together in my brain in such a way that I realize something new.
  
  Also travel is awesome. Even when I go somewhere relatively close by, I get a thrill. Especially if it’s new to me.
on June 28, 2011 at 6:05 am | Reply mirandasuri

Happy birthday, and congrats on a great year and much to be thankful for!
- on June 29, 2011 at 10:44 am | Reply Amy Sundberg
  
  Thanks! I’m feeling cheerful. 🙂
on June 28, 2011 at 11:31 am | Reply Yolanda Early

Happy Belated Birthday!
- on June 29, 2011 at 10:44 am | Reply Amy Sundberg
  
  Thank you! (I’m celebrating all week. :))
on June 29, 2011 at 10:13 am | Reply Marilag Lubag

Belated happy birthday! What’s your ideal birthday celebration if money is no object?
- on June 29, 2011 at 10:46 am | Reply Amy Sundberg
  
  Thanks!
  
  And wow, that’s a tough question. I pretty much celebrated the way I wanted to this year by throwing a BBQ. But, if I had scads and scads of money… I’d probably pick some exotic destination, like Hawaii or the Bahamas, rent a nice house, and fly some friends there to celebrate with me! That would be pretty exciting. 🙂