the thankful list, 2008

It’s tradition.

I am thankful for this tree. Really, I am thankful for most trees. I love them.

I am thankful for night photography, especially when it’s cold outside, which goes against everything that makes any sense about me, but there’s something especially thrilling about the bite in the air and waiting waiting waiting for a long exposure. (I am thankful for screwing up the white balance when it works in my favor, and yeah, I should probably shoot RAW but whatever.) I am thankful for how much I’ve learned and how much I still have left to go.

I am thankful for my family. Everyone is crazy and I love them. I am thankful that even though she taught me how to do all of the things she taught me under the guise of making me more marriageable (and that has obviously worked so well) my grandma taught me all sorts of useful things, and I will never be able to set a table without thinking of her.

I am thankful for my friends near and far, how they make me laugh and how they let me cry.

I am thankful for my dog, my loopy nutcase dog. I am thankful for our long walks and our energetic games and our end-of-the-day snuggles when my feet are cold. No other creature in the world makes me smile as much as she does. I am thankful for how much I smile. I am thankful for how much I mean it.

I am thankful for boys even though they are so much trouble.

I am thankful for Diet Coke and bourbon and high threadcount sheets and lazy mornings. And lip gloss. I am thankful for lip gloss, and whoever first invented it.

I am thankful for bubble baths and good books and glasses of wine. I am thankful to be stubborn enough that I am actually going to finish Ulysses even if right now I would like to punch James Joyce in the throat.

I am thankful that I know how to throw a punch.

I am thankful that I live in Michigan even if winter pisses me off and its economy sucks and I can’t find a job, because despite all of that I really do love it. I love it in a way that only makes sense to people who are from Michigan.

I am thankful that even though everything is up in the air and confusing and I get nervous about it more than I’d like to admit, I still (at least figuratively) know how to juggle.

I am thankful. I am.