Susan Senator

This might make me see like a dork (and who says I’m not?) but sometimes I just feel very full of the little things in life that make me happy. I call them “Keys to the Universe. I list new ones every few months. The following are my current no-fail, dependable things in my life that always do what I hope they’ll do, and they either are not expensive or not fattening. They are not my favorite things; that is a different blog post. No, they are my best-performing things, good ideas, satisfying products.

1) Flowers from Stop & Shop. They cost just a few dollars but they last two weeks and they are gorgeous!!
2) Changing my part to make my highlights last a little longer.
3) Manicure from BeBe Spa in Washington Square in a pale color: really lasts a week.
4) Sunkist Diet Orange soda. Tastes like you’re drinking a lollipop, no calories or carbs
5) Reese’s sugar free peanut butter cups. Just like the real thing but for 5 you only get 2 carbs. Just watch out for the “laxative effect.”
6) Extra cheese nachos from the Coolidge Corner Clubhouse. I eat the cheese, Max eats the chips. The cheese comes right off, chip (and carb)-free. If you eat no carbs, you can (probably) eat cheese daily. Check with your doctor.
7) Cocoa hull mulch. Though it costs more than the orange pine bark, it lasts far into the next season and is actually good for your soil. Smells like chocolate when first laid down, much classier — richer, darker brown — than the other mulches.
8) Raking out my own gardens and seeing what is coming up. No stupid leaf-blower noise, no money paid to lawn guys, makes you lean and muscular, and you get to see your baby planties. You blast your Arabic tunes and your Allman Brothers on your iPod shuffle, and you’re set. You sing along and your neighbors may think you’re crazy, and again, who said I’m not? At least I’m happy.
9) Stitching up holes in jeans and reinforcing the stitching with duct tape on the inside (learned this from Max, who uses duct tape on the outside of his jeans as well. Sigh).
10) Cleaning out my closets, one at a time. Doesn’t save money or burn off fat but it is so great when the junk is gone.