12/10/02’s illustrious band:

Eudemonia

Brought to you by A Word A Day, www.wordsmith.org.

Eudemonia (yoo-di-MO-nee-uh) noun, also eudaemonia.
1. A state of happiness and well-being.
2. In Aristotelian philosophy, happiness in a life of activity governed by reason.
[From Greek eudaimonia (happiness), from eudaimon (having a good genius, happy), from eu- (good) + daimon (spirit, fate, fortune).]

Here are a few signposts on the road to the great state of Eudemonia:

• two cats, one couch, one book
  
• endorphins and an influx of vitamin chi from a good workout
  
• the four Cs of good eatin’: carbs, cheese, caffeine and chocolate
  
• really fine singing
  
• light traffic and a heavy foot as I head home for the holidays to make tributary cookies (gingersnaps) from my grandfather’s recipe
  

Signs I’m leaving Eudemonia:

• someone misquotes funny dialogue or a joke I know by heart
  
• resistance to the building of a light rail transit system in the metro area continues
  
• daytime TV is on
  
• people (particularly presidents) say new-Q-ler when it’s clearly spelled nu-clear; same goes for ick-scape instead of es-cape
  
• someone catches me saying newQler or ickscape
  

Come on, y’all. Share with me three from column A and three from column B — three things that that get you to Eudemonia and three that yank you out. Don’t bother mentioning chocolate; that one’s a given.