Thankygratefulness

I'm thankful.

So, so, grateful.

I know I am lucky in ways I don't even fully realize. My crew is healthy and happy and we want for almost nothing. My Mom is cancer-free when she wasn't last year at this time and that is SO BIG, I can't even crack wise about it. She looks great, feels great and I am swimming in gratitude while I think of those who aren't as lucky...or are hoping to be. 

First world thankful-ness and junk. And this stuffs:

Social Media - I has it.

1. Social Media- yep, I said it haters. It makes me happy, mad, annoyed, aggravated and sometimes stay up too late. It also keeps me closely connected with people I was close to in one small sliver of this long life, some I didn't know well in school but should have, and a few who are good friends I have never met. Social media keeps me entertained, informed and provides a (mostly) thoughtful forum for concepts and ideas. This makes all of the duck lips and the occasional inappropriate nonsense tolerable. Communication WIN.

2. Missing people

The Holidays can be are a melancholy time for me. I miss my Dad and brother. I miss being annoyed by them, miss annoying them back. And I am thankful for this? You bet. I have learned over time what a special thing it is to grow up in a close family, with family members who are worth missing. I am so lucky in my unluckiness in this.

 3. Glorious Food

This is the epitome of #firstworldproblems for me. My decisions around how to prepare the T-Day meal harbor on embarrassing. I have made turkey every conceivable way except fricassee, which I need to look up. We have variations of the same items on the same table because we all want what we want. We make extra so we can have leftovers AND discuss making extra so we can have the adequate leftovers even after we share with our family. I know there are many in my own town who are struggling to make daily meals happen. For plenty, I am thankful.

4. Mae. 

Because, Mae.
No offense to others, but Mae is my favorite. She wins. She loves me, she gets me, she tolerates me, she gave me her genes (we used to be the same height but she shrank). She is bossy and wise and good. Her only fault is that she lives just far enough away that you can't make it there and back in a weekend. I am thankful every day that she is still only a phone call away from me at 94 years old. I am not sure there is a time we have spoken from childhood to now that she hasn't told me I am special. It makes me want to believe her.

5. Coffee Dates
I love going for coffee, especially for someone who doesn't drink it (tea nerd here). The best thing to combat a shitty week is a coffee date with one of my peeps who makes me laugh and tells me to get over myself.
I have a rule that I won't turn down an invitation from someone who wants to talk up an idea over coffee, and I have rarely been disappointed in this rule. The last time I took a chance on a stranger (with ideas I wasn't too sure about) who wanted to talk it up over coffee, I joined his election committee, and made a good friend. He won.

6. Nutty pets

I threaten our pets often that I am getting rid of them, but I don't think they believe me (We used to similarly tell our kids we were selling the other one to the gypsies. It's like that.). These knuckleheads are just like the rest of us with all of their idiosyncrasies. Water obsession, dogorexia, murderous behavior, and stealing. The lizard finally packed her rock and moved into a school classroom where she can run free. Who can blame her? It's a zoo in here.

 7. This.
I don't even have an exact name for it, but its about friends. And I am thankful.

8. Red Velvet Cake - But only my mom's recipe. You can keep your cream cheese frosting. I prefer the light and fluffy Crisco frosting which will likely lead to clogged arteries. Every year, she makes me one. Mom = cake=love.














9. Wyoming
This is MY state, and many of yours as well. It isn't definable as any one thing, which is what makes it great. If you're new, welcome. If you moved here 9-12 months ago so you could run for office in what felt like an easy-to-win flyover state, that's not ok. Behave accordingly.












10. Stuff

There are more things of course, like the Baboos, epidurals and headline news. There's always more, always things to be thankful for. And those things always, ALWAYS outweigh the things that are hard. Always.

I am thankful for that.