Feeling blessed

Last Thanksgiving, I was kind of at a low point because a relationship had just ended very suddenly and so I was in no mood to be thankful about anything. I knew life would go on, but it kind of seemed like it wouldn't. And I knew I would be ok, but I felt like it would never happen. Oh how far, how very far, I've come in one year. So I'll start there.

I am so very grateful for how much a person can grow, and learn, and experience in a year (and throughout a lifetime), and where it takes them. It takes them to places, people, happiness, friendships, love, experiences, etc that you never could imagine happening before it does. Life is beautiful.

I'm thankful that when things seemingly go wrong, somewhere down the road, even if it's like 50 years later, you'll realize it was so everything could go just right.

I am thankful for my adorable fuzzy black Salem cat, who is laying on my lap purring right now.

I'm thankful for my family. That might be cliche, but at the same time, not everyone is as fortunate as me with family situations. I can't imagine not having them. Especially my mom, good grief. What would I do if I didn't feel comfortable talking to them about life? They're everything. Thanksgiving, Christmas, life's experiences, would be meaningless without loved ones to share them with.

I'm thankful for unexpected and completely perfect first kisses that leave a girl wondering where she is and what her name is and what in the world just happened.

I'm grateful for friends. I'm glad that my friend N asked me to be in her wedding and I got to drive down to Virginia to see her, and I'm glad my friend S spent one last summer in the area and we made up with H, and I'm glad my friend G reached out to me when I felt invisible and it changed the course of things, I'm glad I went with E to a drive-in movie. I'm glad for time spent with all of my friends A-Z. My family is stuck with me whether they like it or not, but my friends picked me.

I'm really grateful for music. This could become a category in itself. I'm really happy Itunes exists. And I'm super glad I went to the Chameleon on my birthday for one band and discovered several others. I'm grateful for singing and dancing and the joy it brings. I'm really thankful that God blessed Michael Buble with the voice of an angel and I went to his concert. I'm grateful for Christmas music because Christmas wouldn't feel half as warm and fuzzy and wonderful without it, I think.

I'm thankful for charity, for the moments when real, pure love flows through someone. It doesn't happen often in a world where everyone's looking out for themselves, but when it does happen, when someone doesn't even stop to think of what's in it for them, it's beautiful.

I love my job. I love working school hours, weekends off. I love the people I work with and how they make me laugh. I love the kids and how they make me laugh. I love my client. Of all the people I've ever met and had the fortune to spend time with, he's the coolest. 

I'm grateful that I spent the first 3 months of the year jobless, with countless bad interviews and ignored applications and then so easily and simply stumbled upon the place I am now, and I think that's where I was meant to be. It makes me appreciate what I have.

I really love food. I love to cook. And bake. And most especially eat. So I know it sounds like a silly thing that a 6-year-old might write on a hand-turkey, but I'm thankful for food. To quote my sister, "food is good". I'm really grateful and completely pumped for a yummy Thanksgiving meal. I'm thankful for turkey, stuffing, ham, sweet potato casserole, bread, dried corn, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cookies, and the Smurf glasses we always use. I'm grateful that I'm dating a guy who's tried every kind of foreign cuisine ever and likes to take me out to the coolest places. (I'm such a guy, isn't the way to a guy's heart his stomach??) I'm grateful that I spent 4 years cooking in a restaurant. The mornings I woke up at 4:45AM to cook breakfast and the nites I spent at the broiler cooking 4726256 burgers and steaks for people (and thinking to myself that my face was melting off and I must look like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark) did not go to waste. I kind of know what I'm doing now. Maybe. I'm grateful for red bell peppers, mac and cheese, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Panera Bread, and Sheetz smoothies. Most importantly, I'm grateful I don't weigh 400 lbs like I probably should, with all that I eat.

I'm thankful for Harry Potter. And all books like it that are so well written that you can just get lost in the world of the book, and grow up with the characters, and feel their joys and sorrows.

I'm thankful for the moments when really fun things happen and it's completely unexpected. Or you go to some event not expecting much and it turns out to be spectacular. For example, I once went with a friend to the Salvation Army store to look for parts for my Red Queen costume and discovered this super-amazing sparkly flamenco dress for cheap. My friend bought it, it's hanging on the back of my bedroom door, and everytime I look at it I smile. And another example, a couple weeks ago I went to Maryland with some friends to support a band from Lancaster, and ended up meeting some really nice guys in other bands (Rocky Loves Emily =) ) who make great music. It turned into a really memorable nite.

I'm really uber grateful for my wonderful little civic hybrid car. I've had her for a little over a year, and still haven't named her, though I've thought about it. I've considered giving her the name of a greek goddess, because she's that amazing. I think I blogged the story of how I got her on my xanga that I was using before I created this. It's a really great story, but lengthy. In short, I first considered buying her twin sister from a nice dealership and someone else bought it 2 hours after I looked at it. I was devastated, so I searched the make, model, color, year and found only one other in the entire state. I made my dad get up early the next day and check out that one, at some tiny used car place in Lancaster. And she was soooo much better. We looked at her, test drove her, and within 10 minutes, she was all mine. I lasted til age 21 without my own car, and it feels really good to know I'm paying for her entirely on my own.

I'm convinced I have thee most comfortable bed the world has ever known. When I curl up in it at nite, my problems melt away. I love that thing. And thus am grateful for it.

I love being a girl, and I'm thankful for it. Cuz girls have alllll the fun.

I'm grateful for my sense of smell. I don't think it's ever saved my life or anything like that, but I think it's pretty cool that a person's sense of smell can so strongly trigger memories (much stronger than the other senses) because of where it's located in the brain. And I love nostalgia.

I'm grateful for earth's beauty, (north) east coast weather and the changing seasons. For sunshine and blue skies, snow when you actually want it, the great outdoors and spending time in it, summer thunderstorms and downpours, the beach, driving with windows down and music turned up, the mountains, clear blue water, the color blue, trees with leaves that change color and snow-covered evergreens. And that bald eagle that swooped down right over my car on my way to work a month or two ago. I'd never seen one before and it was the last thing I expected to see.

I'm grateful for holidays, especially this one.

I'm thankful for facebook, because without it I would've lost contact with so many wonderful people, and they wouldn't be in my life anymore.

I'm grateful that God created laughing, because it's my favorite thing to do.

I'm grateful for my life, every part of it. For the things I've learned and experienced. For all the terrible things that happened to help me appreciate the good. And like I started with, for the ability to progress and change and learn from my mistakes; for the strength to keep going when it's difficult and to be able to look back and see how far I've journeyed and how great it's been.