gobble

Okay, so here I am, 9:45 on the dot, home and warm and listening to Oprah. It's a good mental place to write my "I'm thankful"blog. So here we go:

I'm thankful for my city, and although I took this idea from someone else's blog, he mentioned on there that anyone with a blog Thanksgiving list should be thankful that their city is not under water. And I am, truly thankful that my beautiful city is healthy, in tact, growing and freezing. This city has taught me all year, through it's architecture, through it's character, through it's winning baseball team, how beautiful life can be. How beautiful a city can be. I revert back to a boyfriend who once asked me if I could live anywhere in the world, and I answered Chicago. He told me I was giving an easy answer, that with the whole world, how could I choose to live here and my only answer was 'If I wanted to be somewhere else, I would be there". And that still hold true for me today, this city is the place I love the most.

My mom and my family. Of course this year has been the hardest for all of us. We were warned by many books and people to be wary, that the true family will show itself in the face of a stroke in a parent. That families break apart, fall apart. And ours has not. Yes, it has ABSOLUTELY brought attention to what place me and my brothers hold in the family. Who is the caretaker, who holds back, who is emotional, who is strong (that's all of us by the way). But we have held fast, we have remained laughing, we have remained together as a functioning and loving team. And my mom, a hard life she has led and it instead of getting quieter and easier, it gets harder. She is an amazing woman, who is a thousand times different than the woman she is cooped up with in her nursing home. She is hilarious, strong and creative.

John. Moving in together while your family is going through chaos in 80 different ways is definitely a risk. Moving in together with an independent woman who has lived alone most of her life, another risk. Moving in with a Hicks, risk. But this man has handled all of it with humor most of all, kindness, sympathy, love and understanding. Sound cliche? Possibly. But John has stepped up to the plate in every way he could have. I am amazed each day with his relentless love and support. He is handsome, sexy, hilarious, intelligent and warm as can be. I struggle some days to match his capacity for understanding, I am amazed at his patience and awed by his mind. I promised myself long before I started dating him, that if I ever got to, I wouldn't take him for granted. And I believe I've mostly done a good job with this, because he is so truly amazing, that it is hard to take him for granted. He's too good. I am more myself with him than I am without him, I can be myself all over the place, and have never been asked to change. l love you baby.

My friends. Again, how does one get through a year like this without the hilariousness and strong shoulders of friends? I don't know, but I'm glad I didn't have to. From Dan and Sabrina in Ann Arbor, my heart actually aches some days knowing they're there together without me, but the ache goes away quickly, those two people make completely happy and completely full. Most of my friends back home here are men, it just somehow happened that way. And what strong, amazing, good men these are. I always knew good men existed because my brothers existed, but now I know even more than my brothers are wonderful. These men, although foul, smelly, loud and brash are good men, who are good friends to each other and to me. The support with men is so much more subtle, so much more implied than said, but sometimes you are touched by their strength, and it is incredible. Also to my friend Dori, who I barely see, but continue to email with ridiculously. She knows things no one knows about me, and I adore her.

Now the short list:

Cheeseburgers
Lost
Survivor
Take 5 bars
The Town Hall
My new job
Not smoking
my apartment
Netflix
Triscuits
The gym
BOOKS
My blog.

Thanks to the people who comment, thanks to the people who read, thanks to my friends and thanks to whoever made the computer.

Happy Thanksgiving.