semperfiona | More answers

jingoro -- I've been thinking about it, and I think I can do it. Even if I can't get much time off, I can skip the first day and join y'all on the Friday.

tafkar -- Wow. Thought-provoking one. The short and obvious answer is "feeling loved", but that really just begs the question. It's almost more about feeling validated, feeling like my existence matters to someone(s).That covers everything from accomplishments at work to words of affection to physical caresses.

I've got a deeply ingrained sense of inferiority in the realm of relationships: too many years being the butt of jokes in elementary and middle school have left me disbelieving and insecure in all sorts of relationships, so that really feeling like someone cares about me makes me incredibly happy. I get a lot of pleasure out of simple things like having people comment positively in other conversations on things I have said, or being introduced to someone's friends because they think the friends would like me.

On the other hand I've never doubted my intellectual abilities, so day-to-day accomplishments are not nearly as satisfying. It takes a more outstanding (by my lights) success in the intellectual realm to give me joy. Now if I were to suddenly discover a physical talent (a sport, for example), that would make me amazingly happy as well, since once again, it's something I was never ever good at.