I was thinking about other situations that consistently notably enhance my moods: being around close friends (one on one) or of course, with Patri, definitely qualifies.

I think I tend to appear in a good mood around most people, but around most people I'm generally very guarded and in super "T" mode, so I just smile a lot (my personal (unintentional) defense mechanism) and don't talk much. This is okay and often worthwhile for short periods of time, but its more like I put my moods on hold. This takes effort and grates on me, especially over long periods of time. I've relaxed about social gatherings a lot over the past year or two, but they're still not my idea of fun for the most part. (I do tend to have fun at parties at my house, and occasionally at other geeky parties... I haven't quite identified the differences yet... might have to do with feeling "at home" in my environment and having lots of places to go hide if I feel the urge ;)

On the other hand, when with friends in situations I feel very comfortable in, I truly do have a great time and often won't shut up because there are just so many things I'm eager to share ;) I tend to check to make sure I'm not annoying my friends with my verbosity, but my close friends have all assured me that they enjoy it in a convincingly sincere way :)

Although I've certainly reported bad moods to friends, I can't recall ever really being in a bad mood with friends: just being around them puts me in a good mood, and even if I'm talking about something that's really irritating me I'm generally happy just to be around them and feel better. (although I do need a lot of time to myself, so this would probably not hold up if I was forced to be around others all the time ;)

Same with being around Patri. Although I do on occasion get in a bad mood with him, its pretty rare (at least from my perspective ;). Most of the time I feel great whenever I spend time with him.

And as with the kids I teach piano lessons to, the people I care about also tend to be in good moods when around me as well.

So when taking all this into account and factoring in that I do see a fair bit of (and/or talk on the phone with) both my friends and of course Patri, I definitely do have more positive than negative extreme moods. They just seem sort of equal when trying to sum up because the negative extremes stand out more in my mind. (I'm pretty certain that the non-extreme moods are positive on average over the last year or two, and that they were more negative on average for the few years prior, and that the extremes used to average out on the negative or neutral back then as well)

As to the future, the lack of sleep to be expected with parenting does not bode well for my moodiness. However, in mulling over this mood stuff I just realized that having a baby is likely to more than make up for it. I've read a fair bit about the feedback loop between mothers and babies, and it seems like just the sort of thing that elevates my moods in general :)