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Thanksgiving month, days 25-27
Nov. 29th, 2011 10:29 pm(Crossposted from Google+)
Thanksgiving month, day 25:
I am thankful for our new independent bookstore!
Athens has had some great bookstores since we moved here--the Hobbit Habit, Logos, Old Black Dog--all gone but not forgotten. And now we have Avid Books, right down the street from The Grit. I'm excited, and also a little worried for my bank account. It's lovely to have a local place to spend my book money, and people who obviously love books and read all the time as opposed to someone whose knowledge seems limited to "spines out, right side up" and "this is what we're upselling this week." Go Avid!
Thanksgiving month, day 26:
I am thankful for my health.
It could have been otherwise. I was born to a mom in her 40s, and one of my lungs collapsed at birth. I was well behind my developmental milestones for the first few months. I could well have died, or been born with Down Syndrome or cerebral palsy, or had respiratory problems for the rest of my life.
As it is, I'm neurotypical, with only mild allergies (even poison ivy only gives me a light rash). I can eat anything I want, in moderation, without any dire results. I sleep well. I've never broken a bone. I have torn ACLs in both knees, but they don't keep me from doing my job (I did give up taekwondo after the second one). My minor back, neck, and joint problems notify me fairly often that I'm not twenty any more, but they don't do much more than that if I'm careful. My depression, which I come by honestly (from both parents) is reasonably well controlled. I can walk, jog short distances, climb stairs or ladders, swim and dance (poorly). My vision, with glasses, is good enough for driving and work, and my hearing is the same, though I can see I'll need help with that in a decade or so. I have fillings in most of my teeth, but no root canals so far. I've never been hospitalized except for childbirth.
I am particularly thankful that I've never been without health insurance. I try to stay mindful of just how privileged that makes me.
Thanksgiving month, day 27:
I am thankful for gifts from people who understand me.
One year Mark gave me a load of manure for my birthday. I had a garden at the time, and boy did I appreciate it (and also his help in unloading it!). It sounds like the sort of gift that might be intended as an insult, but NO. I get wistful thinking about it even now.
Just the other day Lucy gave me a kids' book about Phineas Gage. It's not that she thinks I can't read grown-up books; it's that she knows I am a HUGE GEEK about Gage (have I told you I got to see his skull AND his life mask AND the tamping iron that got blown through his head? They're at Harvard Medical School! I got a commemorative t-shirt too!). So: gruesome, simple, and oh so appropriate.
Thanks, people who know I am a weirdo and love me anyway. And thanks for being willing to give me stuff I really like, instead of "appropriate" presents.
Thanksgiving month, day 25:
I am thankful for our new independent bookstore!
Athens has had some great bookstores since we moved here--the Hobbit Habit, Logos, Old Black Dog--all gone but not forgotten. And now we have Avid Books, right down the street from The Grit. I'm excited, and also a little worried for my bank account. It's lovely to have a local place to spend my book money, and people who obviously love books and read all the time as opposed to someone whose knowledge seems limited to "spines out, right side up" and "this is what we're upselling this week." Go Avid!
Thanksgiving month, day 26:
I am thankful for my health.
It could have been otherwise. I was born to a mom in her 40s, and one of my lungs collapsed at birth. I was well behind my developmental milestones for the first few months. I could well have died, or been born with Down Syndrome or cerebral palsy, or had respiratory problems for the rest of my life.
As it is, I'm neurotypical, with only mild allergies (even poison ivy only gives me a light rash). I can eat anything I want, in moderation, without any dire results. I sleep well. I've never broken a bone. I have torn ACLs in both knees, but they don't keep me from doing my job (I did give up taekwondo after the second one). My minor back, neck, and joint problems notify me fairly often that I'm not twenty any more, but they don't do much more than that if I'm careful. My depression, which I come by honestly (from both parents) is reasonably well controlled. I can walk, jog short distances, climb stairs or ladders, swim and dance (poorly). My vision, with glasses, is good enough for driving and work, and my hearing is the same, though I can see I'll need help with that in a decade or so. I have fillings in most of my teeth, but no root canals so far. I've never been hospitalized except for childbirth.
I am particularly thankful that I've never been without health insurance. I try to stay mindful of just how privileged that makes me.
Thanksgiving month, day 27:
I am thankful for gifts from people who understand me.
One year Mark gave me a load of manure for my birthday. I had a garden at the time, and boy did I appreciate it (and also his help in unloading it!). It sounds like the sort of gift that might be intended as an insult, but NO. I get wistful thinking about it even now.
Just the other day Lucy gave me a kids' book about Phineas Gage. It's not that she thinks I can't read grown-up books; it's that she knows I am a HUGE GEEK about Gage (have I told you I got to see his skull AND his life mask AND the tamping iron that got blown through his head? They're at Harvard Medical School! I got a commemorative t-shirt too!). So: gruesome, simple, and oh so appropriate.
Thanks, people who know I am a weirdo and love me anyway. And thanks for being willing to give me stuff I really like, instead of "appropriate" presents.
