Gratefulness

Making a list of stuff I'm grateful for and posting it the day before Thanksgiving is so obvious it's almost trite, but this is my first Thanksgiving with a blog, so I'm doing it!

*I'm grateful that I'm married to someone I really, really like. I love him, too, of course, but you know how you can love someone and not like them? I'm glad I'm not in that situation. My husband rocks. He takes good care of our kitty and he fixes broken things and he remembers to pay the rent every month and he's very tall and gets things off of high shelves for me. Also, he plays several musical instruments very well and writes good songs. And he went to a fabric store with me this weekend and didn't get bored... which makes him better than me, in that regard. He listens to my endless yammering with patience. He laughs with me, especially at fart jokes. And he's a good hugger. This is becoming a list-within-a-list, so I'll pause there. But I'm a fan, and I'm very thankful for him.

*I'm grateful for employment, which in this economy is not to be taken for granted. And it's a job that indirectly does good things for people, and it's working with grad students which means there's always food around - I'm mostly grateful for that, except when I start to show that I've been visiting the cheesecake bites a little too often.

* I'm grateful for the students I work with. They. Are. Awesome. Well, most of them. Most of the time. Which is a pretty good record for anyone with whom one works, right?

* I'm grateful that I'll get to spend some quality time with both of my siblings and both of their significant others and both of my parents, all in the same place on Thanksgiving, and that we'll get to meet my new baby cousin, and that another cousin of mine (who, once upon a time, was considered the "baby" herself) will be there from Europe with her fiance, who we all get to meet. I'm happy that all these people are alive and healthy and talking to each other (OK - the baby's not really talking yet. She was born in July).

* I'm grateful for good friends I can trust, and who trust me in return. I currently know exciting secrets of two close friends - which I'm obviously not going to write in this list - and it's touching to hear "listen, I haven't told anyone else about this but I'm really excited and had to share it with you..." It makes me feel like I'm doing something right, to know people trust me like that. I think the first step is not telling anyone else the exciting secret. So I will stop typing about this... now.

* As much as I complain about it, I am grateful for the opportunity to go to grad school. And I'm very grateful that I'm mostly finished with it at this point.

* I'm grateful that I'm basically healthy, that I'm still (occasionally) running, and that I've got a couple of athletic events planned in the next year or so that could be awesome.

* I am grateful for inspiration and prodding and minor butt-kicking that prompted me to start a blog. Writing is good for me, and this format seems to suit me.

* As a part of that, I'm grateful to you few stalwart folks who read this blog. Thank you for taking the time to read these words.

I hope you all have a safe, warm, fun Thanksgiving full of turkey and cute babies and board games and laughs... or whatever family traditions you tend to go for. I expect that posting will be light-to-nonexistent until Sunday around here, on account of food and family and whatnot.