Some say life is best lived admiring the little things, the little joys we encounter throughout the day that make us smile a little or feel that much warmer for having met them in passing—the polar opposite of the pet peeve, if you find those more familiar.

But even if you're more accustomed to being bothered by the annoying little things rather than lightly joyed by the nice little things, everyone's got something that gives some tiny measure of happiness when they catch it.

Probably the most common one is the feeling of popping bubble wrap. For some people it's licking an envelope, tearing apart packing or gift wrap, bursting bubbles—the list goes on.

Some of mine are things like walking in perfect sync to the beat of the music I'm listening to or the way my dog Dexter's floppy ears perk up when he's excited (I always get all giddy and call him "Antlers"). Other (maybe less common ones) are just as incidental to daily life, but they have some kind of strange fancy to them. Like, if I'm walking on tiled flooring, I always end up stepping like a knight in a game of chess: two tiles forward, one to the left/right or one tile forward, two to the left/right.

None of these have to be active either. They can be completely passive sensations.

I love the sound of bacon as it begins to sizzle and roar, as though it's applauding its own creation. The feeling of your socks coming off after a long day almost outweighs any case of sore feet I've ever had. I realized for the first time today how much I love the contrast of a clear blue sky against the red brick buildings that litter Oklahoma State's campus. The shared joy of hearing somebody quote a movie or some other kind of media that you love; very recently, I recognized a Pulp Fiction quote the guy in front of me in line was using, and he paid for my beer (shout out to Oliver from Dallas!)

So those are some of mine. What are the little things that keep you going?