Is There Anything Better Than...?

Is there anything better than a new razor blade? I put a new one on my Gillette Fusion razor this morning and my face is baby-smooth. Which made me think, is there anything better than that? I think so.

Here's my unedited list of the first hundred in the order they came out of my head:

Is There Anything Better Than...?

1. Walking Snickers the Wonder Dog in the worst nor'easter in 14 years and having the entire neighborhood to yourselves?
2. Having Snickers the Wonder Dog race around the house after her rainy walk, shaking herself off and knocking the rugs askance?
3. Learning a new vocabulary word that you use within 24 hours?
4. Having your hair washed by someone else?
5. Finding your back scratcher the second you need it?
6. Lifting weights after a long time away from it?
7. Getting your first comment when you originally started blogging?
8. Hearing that the youngest iFlipFlop qualified for the Penn Relays?
9. A pedicure?
10. Finding your car right where you thought it was in the Philadelphia Airport Lot F?
11. A brand-new dollar coin?
12. A reliable car?
13. A bike ride in the morning along the Schuylkill River?
14. Summer?
15. The Sopranos?
16. Google Reader?
17. Anything Google?
18. Talking with your high school sophomore son about what schools he's aiming for and hearing "Harvard, Penn, Stanford, USC."
19. Being able to speak a foreign language fluently and really giving it a run for the first time.
20. Amsterdam?
21. Growing your hair long and having a ponytail in middle age?
22. Starting your motorcycle for the first time in the spring?
23. The Democrats winning the House and Senate in 2006?
24. A cardinal singing in the morning?
25. Cardinal's robes?
26. Vans (the shoes, especially my black velvet ones)?
27. Getting upgraded?
28. Live theater?
29. Box seats?
30. Seeing a movie when the audience and the film and the sound is perfect?
31. Having choices?
32. Having freedom?
33. Knowing when you have enough?
34. Getting your first promotion?
35. Starting your own business?
36. Chasing your dreams?
37. Haikus?
38. Seeing your wife find her bliss in middle age as she teaches high school students?
39. Being up before everyone and sitting on the deck in the quiet?
40. That moment and the color of the sky in the time between day and night -- the gloaming?
41. Giant snowfalls when you're a kid?
42. A winter without snow when you're grownup?
43. Charleston?
    
44. New York City?
45. Asheville?
    
46. Breckenridge?
47. Philadelphia?
48. Barcelona?
49. Temple Bar in Dublin?
50. Great friends?
51. Strawberry shortcake?
52. Pernod?
53. Stella Artois?
54. The Louvre?
55. Paris in April...or anytime?
56. Seeing Queen Elizabeth II while you're riding in a taxi in London?
57. Respect?
58. Andy Rooney's commentary on 60 Minutes?
59. Broadband internet?
60. Napa Valley?
61. Running with the bulls at the Festival of San Fermin?
62. Climbing to Everest Base Camp?
63. Sailing down the Nile?
64. Olive groves in Tuscany?
65. A picture of Jack Kerouac in his khakis and a white shirt?
66. The Pax Family Singers?
67. Getting to know a lot of people (you would have never met) by blogging?
68. I do?
69. I won't and don't have to?
70. Proving your detractors wrong?
71. Karma?
72. Sweet, sweet revenge that is years in the making?
73. Seeing your friends succeed?
74. Making a principle-based decision and following through?
75. Try not, do?
76. My favorite Stephen Wright joke: Hard work pays off in the long run, but laziness pays off immediately?
77. Beethoven's 9th Symphony?
78. The Weight (you know the song...Take a load off Fannie/take a load for free/take a load off Fannie/and, and and you can put the load right on me)?
79. Being good at Jeopardy?
80. The end of Mr. Holland's Opus when the governor says, "We are your symphony, Mr. Holland"?
81. Nobody puts Baby in the corner?
82. The Big Chill...the whole damn thing and all the songs?
83. Louis, I think this is the begging of a beautiful friendship?
    
84. The scent of Johnson's Baby Oil?
85. Love's Baby Soft?
86. Chanel No. 5?
87. A really great black t-shirt?
88. Cheeseburger in Paradise?
89. Ancient Greece?
90. An afternoon nap?
91. That feeling that you get at Christmastime when people actually are nice to each other for a little while?
92. A fresh grapefruit and burnt toast (my Grandfather's daily breakfast)?
93. The Chicken Dance?
94. Having superstitions before they used to call them OCD?
95. Knowing how to take good photos and every once in a while getting one?
96. Being the first in your family to go to college? Or even graduate high school?
    
97. Knowing that your kids will never have to live in a house with scads of brothers and sisters and only one bathroom? (We have more bathrooms than people in our current house.)
98. Lippizzaners?
99. Anticipation? (The feeling and the song.)
100. Knowing this list isn't even close to complete?