growing in the goo

*what my dad calls my blog, haha

I was about to whine about the pain of coming home in this post, how I had to take plane, train and automobile. But I realized that no matter how I wrote it, it was coming off whiny and spoiled. Because um...it is.

Last weekend, I was that annoying (sober) girl at the bar asking all the employees what their favorite thing of the past week was. Two of them couldn't think of anything. Humph. One guy said that he was happy that he had worked a lot the past two weeks, so now he has a lot of money. I thought that was a nice way to look at not having a social life and getting up early and staying up late. Another guy said that he had gone to Buffalo in the past week, and some girls flashed him. He was still very pleased about that (even though they were fake, he said).

If someone asked me about what made me happy in the past week, I could list a billion things. A lot of them small - like finding that I still hadn't made a packet of rice in the cabinet, so it was an easy dinner on Tuesday. Or having enough change to buy a candy bar in the vending machine at work. So basically, all revolving around food (yup...sounds about right).

And since it's Thanksgiving, I'm sitting here trying to think of unique or clever things to be thankful for. Something that people read, and they go "wow, that's a good one."

But I'm coming up with nothing here. Nothing special, that is. So here's my boring list:

- my family. My immediate, and all the relatives around me. They're amazing. They're funny, fun-loving, responsible, young, old. They're all different. But all so loving.
- my home...an extension of the family. That I have this wonderful house to come home to, in what I think is the perfect town.
- my friends. Both in D.C. and here. I'm very, very lucky to have the friends that I do.
- my faith. I may disagree with the Church on a lot of things and that makes me worry, but one of my friends laid it down for me. He said that most of my issues seem to be with the institution, and not with God. And that's entirely true. God is why I'm here, and why I have what I have.
- my job. I'm very lucky to enjoy my job and to like my co-workers. I have never ever really enjoyed working (at a place of business) so I was quite alarmed about graduating. But then again, I've always had those crappy summertime jobs. But I'm very thankful that I like what I do, and who I'm doing it with.
- awesome quotes. Like stuff from reflectionfortheday.com, or "Just when the caterpillar thought life was over, it turned into a butterfly." or "Whenever you must, you can." And "Man has secret sorrows which the world knows not, and often times we called a man cold when he is only sad."
(that last one is from Longfellow, and I probably misquoted it by a couple of words. but you get the gist.)
- a great book, ones that make me think, ones that make me care about the characters. The Counte of Monte Cristo, Gone With The Wine, Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, Bridget Jones's Diary, The Most Dangerous Game.
- things like amazing sunsets, or flowers. Natural things that make the world beautiful. And I know that's corny, but I love that stuff. A great sunset rarely fails to make me stop and stare.
- great food. Like my mom's apple crisp, The Corner Bakery's pumpkin muffins, turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, pepsi, my mom's "scrumptious chicken," richardi's chicken cutlet sub, and pineapple fried rice (no shrimp).
- Christmas. CHRISTMAS!!!! The lightly falling snow, Christmas music, the giving of presents (and okay, the getting of presents, I'll admit it), candy canes, cookies, food, the smell of spices, candles, white lights, snowmen, scarves, hats, gloves, little kids their eyes all aglow. Oh Christmas!! The promise of hope and love and goodness for mankind.

Oh, Christmas...