baseline middling

There's something I've noticed. And I'll comment on it because of a couple things--One is that there's at least one person who finds my musings dismayingly negative. The other thing is an observation made by Rachel. She asked whether I used to enjoy the process of getting several small children ready for and into bed. (She was asking, I think, to compare her feelings about babysitting smalls--mainly positive feelings-- to how it was for me.)
I responded that I "kind of liked it. " She then correctly observed that for me to make that statement was the equivalent of her saying "I really, really love it!"
And I think it's true that I am given to understatement, even when I find something gratifying. The flip side of the 45 is that if my tone seems to be hovering a bit below neutral, this is unlikely to be indicative of serious negativity. Or at least not anything I'm wallowing in. Don't like wallowing. Maybe I can relate to Lou Grant when he told Mary that her first try at producing the news herself "didn't stink." Mary, of course, knew this was high praise and took it as such.
Anyway, go here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/peachkabob/ if you've an appetite for effusive enthusiasm. It is fortunate that curmudgeonliness is not always inherited!
(I'll get back to that thing about meaningfulness soon...)