Giving Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S., a holiday in which "typically ungrateful white people that killed about a billion of my Cherokee ancestors take a day off to demonstrate their appreciation of their ill-gotten largess". It is a time to reflect on your successes and be grateful that you and yours haven't all died of smallpox or syphilis. Yet.

This year, I really can't enumerate everything I have for which I'm thankful. It's rare for me to be able to say that I have great health, wealth, and job satisfaction. It is unheard of for me to say that I'm doing what I love to do in a place where I can earnestly see myself still working there next year. It is nothing shy of a motherfucking miracle to look at my paystub and think, "Yeah, I can keep doing this for the foreseeable future."

I'm grateful to Monk and Stef who are my best friends, closest allies, and partners in crime. They are the Starsky to my Hutch, the Cagney to my Lacey, the Kate to my Allie, the Hardcastle to my McCormick, and the Chief to my McCloud. I'd probably be living in a U-Rent storage facility eating McWhoppers five times a day and keeping graveyard-shift hours without their influence on my life habits.

Hyperbole aside, I'm thankful that of the 99 different issues that exist in my life right now, a bitch ain't one.

I'm thankful that I keep meeting people who tell me I, quote-unquote, "look good". At some point I'm going to lose more weight — just not this weekend, OK? — and then maybe I'll start believing that I'm no longer the tubby-looking guy who's edging up on 200 lbs.

I'm thankful I live in a city that has an active and diverse blend of cultural and social activities. I have worked to experience what the city has to offer and I know that I have only tapped a small portion of what's available to me.

I'm thankful for Stumptown coffee, ThinkPads that don't have a Windows key, and OpenBSD. I'm thankful that I didn't contract the not-so-common cold that was going around last month and which could have ruined my vacation. I'm thankful for sandy beaches, the calming crash of ocean waves, and restaurants that know how to be generous with the tequila when they mix a drink. I'm thankful for serenity, Serenity, and Serenity.

I'm thankful for quality films based on comic book adaptations, a family that doesn't always drive me nuts, and sandwiches on Sundays. I'm thankful for a lot as you can tell.