Thanksgiving

I seem to have mostly beaten the cold that I contracted on my days off into submission. Rest and fluids and vitamins and liquid cold remedies seem to have done their job. Or maybe it's just the two days back to working eight hours that did it. Either way, it was nice to not have to take a second dose of DayQuil all day today.

Yes, I had to work on Thanksgiving. Actually, I volunteered for it, and not just because it's time and a half. I like working on the holidays. People are generally friendlier and less rushed and there is a tingle in the air of "not quite routine". Okay, so maybe I'm weird, but when you work in the service industry, you crave those days when people take you slightly less for granted because it dawns on them that someone else has to be at work in order for them to get their favorite drinks. It's very humanizing. And it actually gets me more in the holiday spirit than a lot of other things. Tomorrow, however, I will be spending the Festival of American Consumerism at the Mall, where I expect the spirit to be much more self-absorbed and demanding. So, I'll cherish the memory of a busy but rewarding Thanksgiving Day at my store and hope that no crazy shoppers stomp on my spirits. Or my toes. Or my face.

I missed dinner tonight, although they saved a plate for me, and I still got to see everyone before they started trickling out to Second Thanksgivings (what are we, hobbits?). So I'm not sure if they did that thing where you go around the table and everyone says something they are thankful for, and if they did, I guess I got out of it. But, I've still been thinking about what I would say. What am I thankful for today? Or, more importantly, why did I bring the topic up when I don't actually know what I'm going to say? (This is where I admit that this paragraph is not a witty segue into a thoughtful, "what I'm thankful for" post. Or maybe it is... I don't actually know what I'm going to type next myself.)

It's so easy to dwell on the negative. And frankly, I've got plenty to complain about if I feel like it. Which, as some of my friends have been subject to at times, I occasionally feel like doing. But I don't want to be a complainer. I want to dwell on the positive. And not just on the booby prize positives like, "Well, Jer may be sick, but I'm thankful that he's not dead." Real positives, with no sinces or buts. Generics don't count, either. I don't want to say that I'm thankful for life or salvation or creation or food or shelter, although I am thankful for those things. I feel like my thankful-for has to be specific and concrete and immediately tangible and preferably personal. So, I'm that much closer to what type of thing I want to say, but I'm still not sure what exactly it will be.

And after all that build-up, I've got nothing. I don't have the perfect words. Rough notes below...

-I'm thankful that Jeremy not only read "The Five Love Languages" with me when we first got married, but he actually took it to heart. The fact that he made the bed before company came over today meant more to me than a dozen dozen roses.
-I'm thankful for my job, for feeling like I fit, for starting to feel capable and valuable again.
-I'm thankful that my pumpkin pies tasted good.
-I'm thankful for friends who are either as social as I am, or at least understand my yearning for company and accept my invitations and proposals.
-I'm thankful for a wood-burning fireplace.
-I'm a little hesitant to write this one out, because I'm afraid it will jinx it, but I'm thankful that Jeremy's health seems to be improving just a little bit.
-I'm thankful for all the people who are praying for Jeremy and for me, some of them who don't even know us, when I've felt like I just don't have any more words to pray of my own.
-I'm thankful for something else, too, I'm sure. But every thing I think of to end this list sounds corny.