...These are a few of my favorite things

Word to the wise, if you get a holiday retail job, you will be driven insane by the constant Christmas music. It has officially crossed the line from annoying me to making me want to gauge my ears out with candy canes. The combination of a certain overplayed song (which I'm still not sure how it is related to Christmas) and the end of the year lists that I love reading, has led me to create of things I have come to adore in 2010.

1. Salty Chocolate

Like a Jeff Bridge's western, it has managed to combine two things I love and make it more awesome. Chocolove's Sea Salt and Almond Dark Chocolate and Chuao Chocolatier Cafe's Sea Salt and Panko are my favorites. Both feed my cravings for sweet and salty, and I figure that the heart-healthy benefits of dark chocolate balance the badness of salt (Kinda like Spark's without the whole "kills college freshmen" side effects).

2. NPR

I can't believe people are trying to shut it down. Modern media and life can be so mind numbing, its refreshing to learn things other than which psuedo-celebutante in in rehab. I love Science Friday, The Splendid Table, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and This American Life. It's free and commercial free, if that is "left wing" and wrong, I don't want to be right.

3. Not being constantly plugged in.

I don't have a SmartPhone, leave my cell phone at home and hate texting, and have never gotten cable. And that's the way I plan to keep it. Though I love the Internet for all the lovely podcasts, music, blogs, and recipes it supplies me (not to mention using google to prove I'm right in petty arguments), I feel like the constant flood of social networking and shiny images make peoples insensitive and less grateful for knowledge. PS: IPads can stuff it.

4. Moustaches

I don't know, I just like 'em.

5. Soup

Soup is good anytime, but in Midwestern winters, it's a necessity. Super easy to make and there are no shortage of yummy veggie varieties. Just mix spices, veggies, grains, veg broth, and sometimes fruit. Saute this, puree that, and you have a solid, hearty meal. Soup is the true working man's food.

6. Secondhand books

Fifty cent books are a gateway drug for authors I have been sceptical about before. A ten or fifty cent risk at Goodwill or the library has paid off by introducing me to Barbara Kingsolver, Margaret Atwood, and Jonathan Franzen. Way cheaper and less soul sucking than chain bookstores.

Other things people should unconditionally love: Turkish pistachios, nutritional yeast, Community, Paul Newman, peppermint tea, black cardigans, Bobbi Brown, and composition notebooks.

We are going to Chicago to eat and have fun for a few days. I am so excited and am totally gonna stalk Oprah and climb the Sears Tower.