What always makes me smile? Multiple things come to mind!
Also: my default is to be smiling, so it’s not like the bar for making me smile is super high.
Nevertheless, here are a few notable things that make me smile.
kittens
Is it possible to see a kitten and keep a solemn face?
I think not.
spelling/grammar/punctuation errors
These make me smile most of the time, especially if they really change the meaning of a sentence.
Like, when people write, “viola!” instead of, “voila!” I envision something enthusiastically holding up a medium-sized stringed instrument.
Businesses that use extra quotation marks in their signage also make me laugh. I know they mean them for emphasis, but I see quotation marks as meaning something like, “not really”.
So when a sign says that they sell delicious “quality” food, I imagine someone saying that with sort of sarcastic air quotes, and it makes me chuckle.
really bad singing/instrumental music
This doesn’t just make me smile; it makes me all-out laugh. And if it’s especially bad, I will laugh so hard that my abs hurt.
This is why I could never be a middle-school band director; I would get the giggles every time we tried to rehearse.
Too funny! I love the image of someone holding a viola triumphantly aloft. One of my most reliable smile-maker is young children. Nothing makes me giggle like a toddler deciding that they would like to lie down in the middle of the sidewalk and their parents calmly grabbing the back of their shirt to hoist them back up.
Bad music makes me squirm. Yikes.
But something that does make me smile is seeing my seeds sprout. Every time, every seed. It also makes me clap my hands with excitement, speak in exclamation points, and demand that everyone come see the wee little seedlings, to share in my joy. My kids roll their eyes a lot in the spring. 🙂
Babies and little kids laughing. Older kids laughing, genuine laughing, not at someone’s expense (as that age range is prone to doing).
Years and years ago during the age of all the email forwards, pre social media, my now-deceased aunt emailed me this video (as a gif at the time): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LuiXF1i_JE
Dang, that’s funny. Totally photoshopped, totally don’t care. Funny.
Also I’ve got a tiny video clip of my son as an infant hiccupping and — again — dang, that’s funny. Completely infant-y deadpan expression, and yet with every hiccup his eyebrows go up a mile. Hilarious.
I have a bitchy resting face; even when I am in a great mood I look like I am not happy. It is just the way the wrinkles fall, I guess. My husband used to work in a building next to mine and would often drop by on a break or at lunch. A co-worker told me that my face would light up when my husband walked into the room, so I guess he would be something that makes me smile. My dog makes me smile. Seeing a flat of fresh strawberries makes me smile; I love them the best among all fruits and when the first ones end up in the grocery store in the spring I feel like swooning with anticipation.
Cat pictures 🙂
The “et voila” and “viola” mix-up makes me roll my eyes. Pronouncing “et” like a hillbilly who just ate something makes me smirk (it’s more like ey than ett). Someone who types “Wah lah” makes me discount anything they had to say before that.
Also I think loving cats is just a side effect of Toxoplasmosis. 😉
Babies!! Oh how I love babies!!!
Babies and animals, yup! Funny videos, especially people falling or stuff like that. I feel like a terrible person but its almost instinctive. In-person, I would run to help them and not laugh, but since I. know they are OK, it’s funny. Im very klutzy myself, so get lots of laughs from that.
Bad singing story- Memorial Day at the Iowa cemetery. Boy Scouts play Taps. Girls Scouts place wreathes. People tear up, hold hands, look up at the sky. Woman starts singing horribly. We tried SO hard to be sad and serious but needed up snorting and laughing so hard we cried. My sister was furious, which made it funnier. I think she’s still mad, 20 years later. And I’m still sorry, even though thinking about it makes me smile.
I also smile frequently. Like
– when I sip a cup of hot coffee
– when my son does something kind for someone else
– when I hear the ice cream truck at the park
– when my husband points out that I laugh at the same movies, stories, jokes like it is the first time I saw/heard them.