Oh, I'm just not into it today, just not into feeling gratitude today. You know those days? Why does Thanksgiving boss me around with its orders of giving thanks. Pshaw.
However, since I am not in the mood to be gracious, it seems to me the perfect time to be gracious. No? Yes.
I was looking over my past years of Thanksgiving posts and man they're all the same. Thank you to John and to Sabrina and to my mother and to the dog and blah blah blah.
So I don't know, this year I'm going to try and come up with some more ... specific things.
1. I'm thankful that we somehow managed to stay above ground this year. Yes, we still have a month left to go and it might be the hardest one of all, but still...I don't know how we did it with so little money coming in, but we did and I'm fucking thankful.
2. I'm thankful that the moment the Chicago Tribune showed up for the first Second City tour that I did not freak out or act stupidly on the video.
3. I'm really thankful for the Art of Non-Conformity and to Chris Guillebeau. That website and his hints for living a different kind of life came along just when I needed it, truly. I don't use the site as much as I used to but I like knowing it's out there. I also look at it for travel tips, budgeting, budget traveling...it's a font of information.
4. I'm thankful that John and I like each other as much as we do. Yeah yeah, there's always love, but what we went through together this year goes way beyond love. If we didn't like each other, this string would have unraveled a long time ago.
5. I'm thankful for learning lessons I should have learned 10 years ago: budgeting can be fun and I'm not bad at it, I just didn't have the tools. I am awesome and it is my duty to share cool information that I have and my slant on it. I'm thankful for learning not to crave security. There is no such thing in any form, the world can change on a dime, I'm starting to really get that.
6. I'm thankful for really making exercise an important part of my life this year. This shit is ingrained now and when I can't do it, it upsets me.
7. I'm thankful that my friends and family who are struggling right now are with me. I relied heavily on my friends and family this year with intermittent crying jags and venting jags. I hope my friends and family can do the same with me this year.
8. I am so damn thankful for this city. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I can be a tour guide anywhere, but I'm so so SO glad it's here. There were so many days I sat in Daley Plaza and looked up at the buildings and thought of all those Burnhams and Sullivans and what Chicago had been through and literally prayed to its history to help give me the strength. And in a weird way, or a totally not weird way, it did. The answer to my prayers was the city itself. I plan on showing it off in the next years of my life...now starting December 16.
And finally I'm thankful to Thailand. I'm not sure we would have made it without that trip. I go back there all the time, anything can spark a memory from then. The sense of freedom and awe and beauty and grime all led me to realize what it is I want out of life. That led me to realizing a full-time job wasn't it, that travel is what I want most of all and luckily, I chose a profession that lends itself quite nicely to the art of travel. Worked out.
I'm thankful also to you guys for always having a kind word or some validation that I'm not completely out of my mind.
Happy Thanksgiving.
And see? Stupid Oprah, she's right. I feel better after doing my gratitude list. Dammit.
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