I don't do this on Facebook. There are far too many 'like this is you hate cancer/death/murder/child abuse' type of posts that may give people a burst of enthusiasm about how they just proclaimed to everybody they hated horrible things rational human beings should hate anyway all over Facebook and I don't want to contribute to that trend because it solves exactly none of the problems that people want to solve.
The Thirty Days of Thanks thing is one of the few Facebook trends/memes that is actually worth a damn. But not wanting to splatter this all over my social media, I decided to do it all in one big super burst of gratitude. So:
1. For my wife, Allison. I got this feeling when I was a senior in high school that I might end up marrying an Allison and it turns out I was right. I had a lot of teenage angst and social awkwardness to deal with and no matter how lonely I felt or miserable I made myself (a lot of it was self-inflicted, I'll admit) I always believed that there was someone out there for me who would be the answer to all my questions, my soul mate, my best friend, my other half. And then one day in January of 2007, the night that Romo fumbled the snap on the goal line and sent the Seahawks through to the next round of the playoffs, this beautiful woman walks in with her brown coat and scarf, sees me and gives me the biggest, most beautiful smile that just lit up the room. It was pretty much game over right then and there for me, though I didn't realize that until later. I found out she was beautiful, intelligent, funny and had one of the biggest, most caring and compassionate hearts I'd ever seen. She makes me a better person every day and I still can't believe I got this lucky.
2. For ALL my family, extended, in-lawed or otherwise... and even though some of them may not be with us anymore, they're still here in spirit. I wish I had something more meaningful to say about them all, but they're my family. What more is there to say?
3. For friends, old and new. As life's gotten more complicated, I've gotten worse about keeping in touch with some of you but whether you've wandered out of my life or wandered back in or have never left at all, you've all impacted my life in some way, whether it's simple as always bringing beer over or something more meaningful than that, you're all amazing... thanks!
4. For our small menagerie of pets... people think we're out of our minds when we tell them how many pets we have but I wouldn't trade any of them for the world. They've each got their own personalities and problems but they bring so much joy into our lives (most of the time, anyway... unless it's 3AM and Winston wants to sit on my head or Samson decides he wants to be petted RIGHT NOW after leaving you alone all day... just the joys of pet ownership and I'm glad that we've been able to give them all a good home.
5. For both of my countries- the UK, where I was born and the US where I grew up. Mom, Dad and I didn't get citizenship until 2001, so I've always had that 'other' passport and that knowledge that I came from somewhere else even when I was very young. I think that knowledge only drove my intense curiosity about the world around me and deepened my love of geography and history and especially maps and globes. As the wife can probably attest, even to this day, whenever I see an old globe, I've got to figure out just how old and potentially inaccurate it is...
6. For anyone and anything I might have forgotten to give thanks for. (This is the CYA entry of the list.)
7. For marmalade and toast... it's one of the strongest memories I have from childhood. A nice, golden brown piece of toast, so warm the butter melts with real Dundee (or Rose's. We'll allow Rose's) orange marmalade. I miss that. In fact, I'm craving that. (Add to this least Cadbury Crunchies, blackcurrant Ribena, Lyle's Golden Syrup on toast, proper English breakfasts, any Cadbury's chocolate- the proper kind not the weird stuff they have over here. Oh and the salsa Doritos and Easy Place Chinese Food that kept me running throughout college.)
8. For caffeine because goodness knows it's kept me running in a variety of forms for several years now. And yes, the quantities I consume are probably not at all healthy for me and no, I don't care.
9. I might piss off a lot of people with this one but I'm thankful for snow. And I miss it right now... I have so many memories of walking in the snow, whether it was walking home late from school with the flakes quietly floating down in the Gym Parking Lot or getting up at 5:30 AM to snowblow out the sidewalks and driveways. While Mother Nature can keep her bitter, biting cold, I'd like at least some snow this year. It'd be nice to have a white Christmas for once.
10. For my grandparents- the three of them I got to know anyway for being shining examples of hard work, service and everything that makes their generation so great. They might all be gone now. But they inspire me to this day.
11. Thank you to all the Veterans that serve or have served in the cause of freedom... the freedoms we all take for granted today have been secured through the sacrifice of courageous men and women of many generations- including my grandparents, my great uncles, my great-great uncle- not to mention the wife's 2 uncles and grandfather. Thank you for all you've done or continue to do for the cause of freedom.
12. This one's kind of gross and I've been told before I shouldn't be so public with my gratitude for this so I'll let people try and decode it. I'm thankful for the ability to take a r****y s********g s**t whenever I need it. It's so satisfying.
13. For the ability to see, hear and walk. Too many people take these abilities for granted- I'm thankful for all three and have the deepest respect for people out there who work so hard to overcome any limitations in those departments- whatever the reson for them.
14. I'm thankful for the five years I spent as an undergrad work at the University Art Museum. My appreciation of art had reached a low point after that fateful vacation when we had been dragged into every art gallery in Santa Fe by my mother and my Uncle. (Some were cool, most were not.) Five years of walking the galleries and learning about the collection- because the Guards were the ones that got asked the questions- opened my eyes to the world of art and made me appreciate it a lot more than I had before.
15. For trying to figure out just how many things I'm thankful for- there are so many more than 30 but trying to put the most important ones to paper only makes me realize how many things I have to be thankful for.
16. For the random surprises life sometimes gives you. I remember when we were in Rome, it was the same weekend as the umpteenth edition of Live Aid and walking back up towards Santa Sabina, we were passing the Circo Maximo, when we heard the strains of none other than Duran Duran- and we walked over to check it out and got to watch the rest of their set. For free. Sometimes life surprises you- and sometimes it's awesome.
17. My health. It's not something I want to start taking for granted- it might not always be there after all.
18. For Zingers, Doritos and everything unhealthy for me. Because sometimes they just taste so damn good- in small quantities of course.
19. For the 1992 Presidential Election. I was in 4th Grade and whether it was the bad economy, the 12 years of Republicans in the White House or Perot with his crazy ears and his flip chart but it marked the moment where I started paying attention to politics. 2 degrees in Political Science later and I find myself doing something only vaguely related to my degree (PoliSci is about making laws, I know work with/for the people that help enforce them. An acrobatic stretch but one I'm willing to make) I'm not sure whether I should be thankful for this or not- but one things for sure, I started paying attention to the world around me and I haven't stopped since.
20. For the 2009 Hawkeye Football Season... I never realized just how interesting and entertaining I could find football and other sports until I was thrown into the thick of football as a guard for the department. Seeing what happens behind the scenes during a game, seeing the game from angles most people don't get to see, it turned me into a mild ESPN/sports junkie, much to the amusement/irritation of the wife, who wonders just who this beer chugging, sports enthusiast is that she married. Plus it helped that our football team was actually good that season...
21. I'd never volunteer to go back to night shift- but having done it for a year or so, I can attest to the fact that it's hard- really hard. I've got a lot of respect for people who do it full time, but here's the dirty little secret I'll share with everyone. Occasionally, every so often, when I have to hold over or cover a night shift for OT, some tiny part of me is secretly happy about it. I miss my bed, I miss my wife and the comforting snore of the dog but there's something about being awake when everyone else is asleep... there's something about watching the empty streets on the cameras or stepping outside to take in the silvers and oranges and tangerines- all the colors of the night coming alive that makes the air seem alive with some kind of strange promise and the possibilities seem almost exciting. I'm thankful for those quiet moments during a night shift... and then I go home in the morning and collapse in a heap and wonder what the hell I was thinking.
22. For 'Love In The Time of Cholera', '100 Years of Solitude', 'Autumn of the Patriarch', 'Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon' and that random Spring Break as an undergrad when I spent the week watching a Gilmore Girls marathon on ABC Family listening to whip-smart, razor sharp dialogue fly out of the television at me (it helped that all the women from Alexis 'Travelling Pants' Bledel right on up to the Grandma were pretty damn hot, too)- for all of these books and so many more and every movie or television show that has dared to be intelligent, almost demanding with it's writing- thank you. You make me want to be a better writer.
23. For that 'Just In Case You Need An Excuse To Party' Poster on my sister Rachel's door. Without that, I never would have noticed that my birthday coincided with the television debut of the Original Star Trek in 1966 and felt that instant kinship and Trekkie hood that condemned me to a lifetime of enjoyable geekdom. After I ate through Star Trek, I dabbled in Star Wars, then the X-Files, Babylon Five, Battlestar Galactica, Alias, Firefly, Stargate, Stargate Atlantis and my love of geek/nerdom and all it's glorious culture continues to this day.
24. For that crazy science fiction book club my Dad signed up for when I was kid that brought a kaleidoscope of science fiction pouring into the house (my never-read favorite: Chicks in Chain Mail- Volume 2). Our bookshelves were soon groaning and I was soon plunging into Tolkein, Eddings, McCaffery, Piers Anthony, Robert Jordan and too many more to count- one of the many things that helped turned me into a voracious reader.
25. For food, glorious, glorious food... some of the best memories I have amazing meals... whether it was the first time I tried foie gras at Bradley Ogden for the parents Anniversary or the Louis XIV cake at Vincent's in Minneapolis or just one of the many amazing meals my mother has cooked over the years.
26. For a good bottle of single malt... always reminds me of my Granddad. Plus, it tastes delicious.
27. For the incontinent donkey that shit all over my foot on a donkey ride on the beach at Weston-Super-Mare when I was 9. The old man running the donkey rides had been doing it for 20 years and no one had ever been shit on before. I was slightly traumatized by the destruction of my super cool zebra-striped canvas shoes but as my parents, aunt and uncle all realized what had happened and fell about laughing, the old man relaxed and laughed too and even I started to understand (dimly, because I was 9 and zebra-striped canvas shoes are important when you're 9) that it was pretty damn funny. That donkey and it's greenish-yellow runny shit taught me an important lesson: always remember to laugh at yourself now and again. And keep your feet away from the poopholes of donkies. Well two lessons, I guess.
28. For The Illiad. Sounds a little odd, I know but my parents had the perfect translation when I was growing up. I read it multiple times, had it read to me multiple times and while some aspects of the book went completely over my young head (Achilles and Patroclus, everything to do with poor Briseis) it helped inculcate a love of Greek mythology which in turn developed all too quickly into a life-long love of books of all kinds.
29. For my job, believe it or not. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with my job. Somedays I feel like it's a stressful, out of control monster that's threatening to eat my life and just make me miserable- but other days, my fingers fly faster over the keyboard than I thought possible, I ask all the right questions and everything just clicks so perfectly, so wonderfully it makes it all worth it. Every day is a different challenge and as an added bonus, I'm privileged to work with a group of professional, dedicated and talented Dispatchers- and despite the fact we tread on each other's toes sometimes in this tiny little space of ours, we still more or less get along.
30. For the last beautiful days of Fall- and for any beautiful day for that matter. Sometimes you just go outside, look around and the colors are sharp and bright, the sun is shining and everything seems so alive with possibilities and potential you just can't help being thankful you've been given the opportunity just to be here on this planet at all and how miraculous it all really is.
No comments:
Post a Comment