Thanksgiving

I like the cute blogs where people choose one thing every day to express gratitude about during the month of November. Might as well admit my shortcomings right now.  1) I am a procrastinator and 2) I have too short of an attention span. Let's go ahead and add 3) I can't be serious for 26 days in a row. It's just so un-Nancylike. Real word.  I'm going to add it to wikipedia as soon as I finish this post. (Definition: someone who can't be serious for 26 days in a row.  Brilliant.) 

So here is a smattering of my gratitudes:

1. Good friends who know me and like me anyway. No details necessary. They know who they are.  I love them right back.

2. Central air conditioning.  I realize it's November and quite cold but I know and remember the difference between no cooler, swamp cooler, and central air.

3.  Oversharing - a good psychiatrist who knows how to treat sweet 11-12 year old girls carrying the weight of serious anxiety.  

4.  The magic power of yeast.  It tickles me every time when my rolls or bread rises. 

5.  Contrast.  There's an old man in a nearby town who has chosen to live in a ramshackle house containing two bedrooms with no central heating or plumbing.  His 13 children are grown and raised but his youngest daughter was a friend of mine. There were/are two outhouses a few yards from the house.  Understandably, his children all married young and now live in homes with flushing toilets.  There's actually more to the story regarding his collecting of cars, upwards of 200 so all of his children could have transportation when the time came to return to Missouri for the Second Coming. Unfortunately the junkyard was a breeding ground for varmints called voles and rats. He eventually had to sell his precious cars to junk collectors. Which is an excellent segue to -

6. Normal parents and a good childhood. Not only did I grow up with indoor plumbing, heating, and central air, I grew up in the home of a Skinnerian Behaviorist. Bribes which were branded as "bad" in the 60's and 70's were called positive reinforcement.  Poor behavior brought on "extinction" or, more popular term is time-out. Yes, we also had a token economy sporadically throughout my childhood. There my be some who believe I had an atypical and completely screwy childhood. I can count the number of spankings I received on two fingers.  

7. Blogging.  I can't begin to express how enjoyable it is to write, get nice comments, and make new friends. I've got a whole new camp of Texas friends that I keep asking to adopt me. I can't quite grasp why they wouldn't want me.  I'll bet they will shed some light on my shortcomings in the comment section. Just to clarify, they do not belong to any fundamentalist groups nor do they know Warren Jeffs.

Actually, that's only an assumption.  Maybe they do and I'm too ugly to take as a plural wife. Huh. That would explain a few things.

Back to blogging and all bloggers - thank you for sharing your journey.  I love reading about you.

8.  The whole computer social networking gig.  I'm not terribly active on Facebook or Twitter but I've connected with some very old and very dear friends. I even found a very long, lost and distant cousin via FB in Australia or rather, she found me.

9.  The whole computer social networking gig.  Again. Do you know there is a built in calendar so I had my own little birthday party reading all the well wishers?  I even threw confetti over my head and pretended I was having a surprise party.  

10.  My garden.  I miss it.

11.  DVR.  How did I live before it was invented?  By the way, I don't officially know who won Dancing With the Stars.  Just haven't gotten to it.  

12.  My one true addiction - a good book, rare and precious. Nothing wraps me up like a good book.

13.   Erasmus for his wise words that allow my justification of book allowance:  "When I have money, I buy books, with what's left over, I buy clothes and food." 

I'm hungry and naked a lot.

14.  My king size bed.

I realize I left out the obvious vessels of gratitude but they are simply assumed.  They are also inferred in the king size bed.  Sunday mornings is where they all congregate. 

And now I must go enjoy that king size bed so I can get up and squeal with delight when the yeast works tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow I won't be hungry and, for my in-laws sake, I won't be naked.

Happy Thanksgiving!