You know when you're so happy you have to watch yourself for smugness setting in? Well the following song, chorused along to in the car road-tripping around the North Island, really grew on me with the lush speed of the rain-drenched NZ Spring. It's catchy. The verses turn out to be a little more grim than the impression I'd got from the song -which was soley based on its smug wee chorus - 'so dead happy'.
I was watching Seinfeld the other day (YEAH, it's related!) and it was that episode where George decides to bow out of any office meeting where he makes a joke that cracks people up. He figures (thanks to advice from Jerry) that by leaving the meeting immediately he'll go out on a a high note like a stand up comic before he can lose them again with another joke that won't hit the mark. Well that kind of 'that's it from me, folks' feeling hits me pleasantly when I hit the hay some nights - ok, not so much a feeling of WANTING that night to be my last, but just that if it WAS, I'm all happy with my life and could leave it there -je ne regrette a rien. No regrets.
I may sort of regret this long-winded introduction but for me feeling content with my life in the moment and in general brings a lot of that 'so dead happy' feeling.
Here, from the album 'The Woolshed Sessions' my sister gave me (and the only CD we had to listen to for much of our trip!) is Dead Happy performed by Andy Hummel and mates. Just try not to sway your head in the chorus!