Pet Pleases

Still struggling with stuff to write about...and, frankly, patrons, you weren't much help yesterday.

Don't get me wrong...there's plenty of stuff going on. I mean, I'm in a study of Jeremiah that's really fun/challenging/convicting and I'm reading through Proverbs, which always has plenty of stuff to mull over. There's lots going on at work. There's lots of busyness in my family. It just seems that I'd be treading over all sorts of ground we've already been through, and the last thing I want The Diner to become is constant Bible study chatter (although we could do worse, eh? This post comes immediately to mind.).

Anyway, on days like these I roll over to The Creativity Portal and click on the "Imagination Prompt Generator." It's supposed to give you all sorts of blog & writing prompts. A bunch of them. The one I liked was "My top-10 pet peeves are..." but then I realized that might be the most cliche thing in the entire Blogosphere.

Then I looked up what the antonym for "peeve" was. It said, "please."

So, for today, here are some of my pet pleases:

1. When in heavy traffic, you turn the blinker on and somebody makes a space for you and lets you change lanes easily.
2. When someone else picks up the tab for coffee or a light lunch. This is usually done by former students who have careers now.
3. When my laundry is done and all I have to do is put the folded clothes where they belong. This never gets old.
4. When the teenage child asks me to lunch or coffee, even though they NEVER pick up the tab. I've been told by empty-nesters they don't even pick up the tab once they're married, either...but they say it's still worth it.
5. When my wife gives a flirtatious display of affection such as a kiss on the end of the nose or a wink of the eye and it comes out of nowhere.
6. When I enter my home at the end of the day and Lloyd, Great Dog, jumps on arm the couch, brings me one of his toys as a gift and wags his tail like nobody's ever been home all day--even though he's rarely alone.
7. When anybody makes me what we used to call a "mix tape"...even though now they're usually an iPod playlist burned on to a CD and says, "These are some songs I put together that I really love. Give it a listen and tell me what you think." Even if I don't like the songs I feel like I've come away with a better relationship with that person.
8. When the weather changes dramatically--from anything TO anything. Like yesterday. We went from near-record highs to downright chilly pretty quickly. But I also like those moments when it's been rainy all week and gets sunny. Vice-versa. Any dramatic change.
9. When folks bring leftover snacks from their ministry event and leave them for the office staff. It's all over the map. Morning groups leave bagels and donuts. Lunch groups let us fix plates. Afternoon groups leave candy. Most anything is kind of nice, whether you want it or not. It's just a nice gesture.
10. When somebody reads a book and says, "You'd absolutely LOVE this book and must read it," and they turn out to be right.
11. When I see somebody wearing one of those stickers that has a big red check in a box with blue writing that says, "I Voted!" on election days.
12. When former students text message me with movie quotes from stupid movies we love, and when old college buddies text message me right after an Auburn win in a close game with the simple words "War Eagle!"
13. When somebody leaves a voice mail that says, "Hey, our company has season tickets to (insert Dallas area sports team here) and nobody's using them tonight. You want 'em?" Even if you can't go, the gesture is nice.
14. When somebody asks you to be their "friend" on social networking sites.
15. When a blog topic gets lots of conversation going. (Really, I'm not trying to solicit comments here. I just mean that when you post something and it winds up with 20 or 30 comments due to the hot button that got pushed.)

I could go on for a bit here, so I'll ask you, "What are your pet pleases?"