This is Gretchen, and I’m always thrilled to see her because her brain sponges up such satisfying facts. For example:
Were you aware that some studies have shown that when women are looking to reproduce, they’re attracted to men who smell biologically disparate? However, when they get pregnant, they’re attracted to men who smell like family, ostensibly because family will be more likely to protect the offspring. BUT! The pill mimics pregnancy. Which could mean that some types of pill cause you to fall in love with a man who is biologically similar, reproduce with him, and then find his smell unattractive when you’ve gone off the pill, sometimes leading you to break things off with him. What the what?
Gretchen is good for a few dozen of those life-altering facts over an evening, which is why I always pull her down next to me at dinner.
Gretchen also happens to be the author of the bestselling Happiness Project, and the soon-to-be-released Happier at Home (which will hit shelves September 4 and is now available for pre-order), both of which document Gretchen’s curiosity about ways to improve her life — she also has a site dedicated to the process that has some useful suggestions. The Go Mighty team and the gracious Isabel Kallman hosted a book release party for Happier at Home in New York last week, and some of our favorite women gathered to celebrate happiness.
Laura documented all the details over here. There was champagne, and donuts (Donuts 2012!), and lots of women laughing, which is the best.
There were also gift bags. Want one?
Bliss supplied a generous helping of good-smelling body and bath products, and Anthropologie gave us pretty wall calendars.
We also have five copies of Happier at Home to give away. To enter, just tell us what makes you happy in comments. In fact, will you please tell us three things? I like to read them. Fingers crossed for you.
Top and bottom images by Mighty Girl. Other images by Sheri Silver from www.sherisilver.com.
UPDATE: Comments close Monday, August 13. Until then, keep ’em coming:
Mighty Girl 
1. Coffee in bed
2. Cold nights, warm socks
3. Hearing a song lyric that makes my insides dance
LikeLike
Three things that make me happy: Waking up to my fiancee cuddled up behind me, when my previously semi-feral cat seeks attention from me, sitting outside at our student union at night drinking beer with friends.
LikeLike
1. Paris. Just everything about being there, from the Eiffel Tower to the food.
2. My first sip of coffee in the morning.
3. The last moments of the day, in bed with my boyfriend and cat.
LikeLike
Things that make me happy: Fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. Rainy days. My family.
LikeLike
1. Sunday morning quiet, first cup of rich coffee and the Sunday New York Times
2. A nice, long dark & early Saturday 7-mile’r with my favorite runner girls
3. Sitting on my 11-year-old daughter’s bed, next to her, as she chatters on about the her most important things
Can you say BLISS…. Ahhhhhh….
LikeLike
1. Hanging out with my husband and daughter, having new experiences together.
2. Brunch. Sweet mother of pearl, I love brunch.
3. Reading a good book in lamplight, wine glass in hand.
LikeLike
1. My newborn’s huge smile.
2. Watching my husband become an amazing father.
3. Sitting at long table filled with great food and fantastic friends, and you suddenly realize just how lucky you are.
LikeLike
In no particular order:
a. The crunch of granola in my morning yogurt.
b. The colors and smells of autumn.
c. When my boyfriend anchors my feet with his feet, wraps his arms tight around me, and kisses the top of my head, with my face buried in his chest.
LikeLike
1. I learned to make nougat and it is not hard. Now I can just…fucking…make a pan of nougat and then EAT it.
2. My baby is 7 months old and pleasant, neither a shrewish newborn nor a willful and mobile toddler.
3. She is sleeping right now and I have a pan of nougat.
LikeLike
1. Good coffee in the morning.
2. Sunset on the beach.
3. Sound of niece/nephew’s belly laughs.
LikeLike
1. gummy worms
2. 3 uninterrupted hours of reading
3. overhearing my son’s imaginary play
LikeLike
– stupid jokes (what did the fish say when it hit a concrete wall? DAM!)
– a good reuben sandwich and french fries
– figuring out the twist in law & order before it happens!
LikeLike
1. Raspberry pie for breakfast
2. Realizing that the book I just started is going to be AMAZING
3. Making my husband laugh
LikeLike
1.) the smell of my husband’s neck
2.) the feel of our first(soon-to-be)born kicking my fingers through my belly
3.) coming downstairs in the morning to a clean house
4.) everything autumn-related (drinks, smells, weather, pumpkin donuts, football, leaves changing, everything…)
LikeLike
Deer trimming my blackberries for me, so I won’t have to.
Hymns of my childhood
Tomato season
LikeLike
1. Laughing hysterically with my best girlfriend from college
2. Hiking, running, biking – anything that gets me outside
3. Losing myself in a great book
LikeLike
1. Dancing without music (or *with* music)
2. Long summer meals with my family
3. Swimming in the ocean
LikeLike
1. Taking my bra off at the end of a long day
2. A bowl of steaming hot cream of broccolli soup
3. Starting a book I’ve been super happy to read. (Finishing said book usually makes me sad)
LikeLike
1. my kids’ laughter. (I know it sounds cliche, but really, there’s nothing better than my daughter’s silliness or my son’s belly laughs.)
2. a really really good night’s sleep.
(tie)
3. sailing on a nice sunny day with my husband.
3. skiing with my husband and dad on a powder day.
LikeLike
Things that make me happy:
1. Travel: stepping out of the airport in a new destination, ready to set out and start exploring. (bonus: this is the time you will be the furthest from having to get back on an airplane the whole trip)
2. Puppies: my dog Riley, all of the dogs I’ve had in my life, all of the dogs to come, and all the dogs I see on the street. They’re the best.
3. Surprises: planning little things like surprise presents, taking someone to something you know they’ll love, and sending unexpected packages. I love surprising people with unexpected treats, and all of the planning and build up that goes along with it (perhaps more than the gift or event itself!)
LikeLike
1. Waking up to my son’s face.
2. Being in the middle of really good book and being excited about how much there still is to go.
3. Trying a new recipe and having it come out perfectly.
LikeLike
1. The moments when I realize there’s nowhere I’d rather be than where I am right then.
2. Laughing in bars with my favorite people.
3. Dad jokes.
LikeLike
1. Bobsled run at Lake Placid (trying new things)
2. Staying up late–just because I can!
3. Cheese–life without cheese isn’t worth living.
LikeLike
1. Hearing my 2 year old nephew try to repeat every big word I use around him, like persnickety and apocalypse.
2. Looking at my dog’s one gold eye, one blue eye in bright sunlight when you can really see the difference.
3. Halloween costumes
LikeLike
1. The way my husband wraps his arms around me when we go to bed at night.
2. The moment I finish and send away a big project.
3. Seeing my little sister (who lives far away from me)
LikeLike
1. Watching my girls make each other laugh with a sparkle in their eye.
2. Eating, laughing, conversing with friends around a big table.
3. Sunshine.
LikeLike
my 4-month-old’s shrieky laugh, an early morning walk, and being in bed reading by 10pm.
LikeLike
The sky at sunset, on the water.
The moon.
Oatmeal.
LikeLike
1. My eight-month-old daughter, Harper, and her cackling little laugh.
2. My sweet husband, Blake, and how he puts everything into perspective for me.
3. When I think I only have a sip or two of diet soda left and I pick it up and realize I have, like, half a can.
LikeLike
My toddler’s sloppy kisses. Iced coffee. Lying on the grass.
LikeLike
Making me happy lately:
-the Olympics
-my baby’s first smiles
-my bilingual toddler’s first full sentences
LikeLike
1. Doing something silly
2. Making lists
3. Getting a perfect beer buzz with friends who are at the same buzziness level (although this sometimes collapses into #1)
Bonus: purring cat snuggled in my lap on a weekend morning
LikeLike
1. Mimosas and a good brunch with friends
2. My cat’s cheeks in all of their plump and wonderful glory
3. Baking for people I love while listening to old music.
LikeLike
1. Clean sheets, and that crisp smell when you first get into bed
2. My sister’s little dog, who, among other things, gave me the stink eye until I realized she wanted to sleep next to me, snuggled between the pillow and the sheets, not at the end of the bed. Adorable.
3. The smell of garlic when you get close to Gilroy
LikeLike
1- When I show up for happy hour early and can have some alone time with my book and a beer.
2- The smell of pine and dirt blowing in the mountains.
3- Fresh clean sheets.
LikeLike
OMG- I read Happiness Project last year….dog eared the pages and passed it around!
#1- someone else washing my hair.
#2- making cookies. Whenever, wherever, whatever kind. Baking makes me happy.
#3- snuggling between my kids.
LikeLike
Peach juice running down my chin, riding a bike downhill, sweater weather, mountain air, books and coffee on porches, planning surprises, eating cake.
LikeLike
1st three things that came to mind:
-dogs
-2yr olds (the INTENSE! EMOTIONS!)
-having the house all to myself
LikeLike
I love all this talk of happiness! So often we focus on the tragedies + pitfalls of life. I love me some optimism. What makes me happy, you ask?
*Coming home after vacation. I love to travel + my family lives 3,000 miles away so I’m away frequently. But oh how I love crawling into my own bed + getting back into my routine.
*Walking my dog in the morning with other neighbors. The dogs make me laugh + my neighbors give me a sense of community in this large, sprawling city in which I reside.
*A good book. I’m a librarian, there’s no way I could leave this one off the list.
LikeLike
1. morning coffee on the porch
2. knowing that my broken heart is finally healed
3. freshly painted toenails
LikeLike
1. The sound of my two boys laughing together.
2. A bubble bath and a great book.
3. Gabbing with my girlfriends over a glass (or two, or three) of wine.
LikeLike
The Head & The Heart
The belly laughs of my children
The smell of coffee brewing
LikeLike
Good music, good coffee, and time with great friends.
LikeLike
1. sunshine and the ocean (okay it was two in one).
2. really great food.
3. waking up in a tangle of arms and legs next to the one I love most in this world.
LikeLike
1. My two-year-old’s laugh.
2. A really good book.
3. Sleeping (I’m pregnant, and not getting much. I suspect it will be roughly another 10 years before I get a good night’s sleep).
LikeLike
THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS! Lately:
1. Sitting on my porch in the sun reading a book.
2. Walking the dogs on a perfect day, snooping at my neighbors front yards, hmmmm I like those flowers they planted!
3. Reading a good book in bed as the night winds down.
LikeLike
Things that make me happy:
1. Realising truths that you have ignored for far too long
2. The amazing woman in my life who catch me when I fall
3. Wine.
LikeLike
Happiness these days looks like:
1. My little family of three.
2. Having a job I believe in.
3. Dear friends who spend time talking about ideas and then inspire me to change and grow and do.
LikeLike
#1: Sifting through family photos
#2: Buying my new planner in January and filling it in with birthdays and special events for the year ahead
#3: Videos of babies eating lemons for the first time (seriously…do a search for that on Youtube. BEST!)
LikeLike
1. the smell of my 4 year old little man’s neck while he sleeps.
2. Homemade waffles on a saturday morning at 11 am
3. Not dreading going into work each day – that makes me super happy
LikeLike