Words that please me.

I carry a small notebook in my purse in case I have a sudden need to write a thought. Not usually a creative thought, more often the price and dimensions of an attractive dining room table or how to say "Amsterdam has 88 beautiful canals" in Dutch (Amsterdam heeft ocht en tachtig prachtige krachten.).

In this little book I started keeping a list entitled "Words That Please Me." "Please" is a key word here because it's the sound of these words and their effect on me that I care about. How they make me feel. How they make my face feel when they're pronounced. Some of them need annotations, which is maybe cheating because the words should stand on their own, but it's my damned list so shut yer trap.

You may notice a theme.

Tiny
Chubby
Sheep
Pudgy
Cheese (especially when said by my sister when imitating Wallace of Wallace and Gromit.)
Chewy
Modest Mouse (must be said together, although Mouse on it's own is not bad.)
Dinky
Shpilkes (as said by my friend David when he sorta pops his P with his big lips and pronounces it the way my father says most Yiddish words, with an EE sound on the end.)
Birdie
Chirp
Squirrel (when said by an Englishman.)
Peachy
Fluffy
Furry
Fuzzy
Arf (said in a chirpy staccato way.)
Plump
Nutmeat
Peep (this is an important one. Good word to peep out when you're all full of energy and have to let steam of your lungs.)
Delicious (really drawn out with a juicy SH sound like my film and literature professor Hugh Cohen says it.)
Budgie
Cram
Cheeky
Worm
Floppy
Sleepy
Itchy
Chunky
Plop
Tweet
Probe

This is an ongoing list. You may note many EE sounds. Is this because my father likes to make words extra cozy by tacking on that sound? Yeah, probably. Some of them probably have warm fuzzy associations for me. But a lot of it is how your mouth and tongue and cheeks and lips work together to make the sound. Say cheese out loud. Really draw out the EE. Chew on that CH sound. Doesn't that feel good? I think it feels good. But then again, making sound is very important to me. It may not be that way for everybody. I find the act of making sound physically pleasing. Soothing. A relief. Small sounds and deep sounds and high sounds and groaning sounds. And singing. Singing is my balm in Gilead. I always wanted to learn to play the violin because the sound of the violin makes me feel the way I feel when I sing. I thought if I could combine these things I'd be in heaven. (Can't play the violin because besides the fact that it's hard to play, I can't keep my left elbow bent for more than a few minutes due to nerve damage from breaking my it when I was four. But really, was that necessary to write here just now?)

Noise. Good noise. Just singing Ahhhhhhhhh. Such a pleasure. A physical pleasure. Why is that I wonder? There must be some physiological reason for this. Does it release endorphins? I don't know. And maybe it's just me. I come from an odd sound-making family. It's in me blood. I have a calling for voiceover, which is weird, I know, but let's just be grateful the nut's got an outlet for it and got work.

I'd like to apologize to the words I've forgotten to put on my list.

You got words you like? And what about making noise? Do you like making sound come out of your throat (wow, that sounds suspect)? Is it just me? I'm okay if it is. I'm fond of me.

And fond of you,

Jo