My Thankful List

The alarm installation dude is here, putting the alarm and automatic car starter in on our truck. We wanted the alarm, because it knocks down some of our insurance and whatnot... but the dealership threw in the autostart at an incredible discount for us. How could we refuse. Imagine an icy cold morning, well, like Tomorrow, perhaps based on the weather we're anticipating... and sitting in the house while the truck warms itself up. Aaaaah. Or, conversely, when it is 10,000,000 degrees out next August and we have to all pile in the mother to go somewhere... the AC will have that truck fridge-compatible. Nice.

I'm psyched. I never NEEDED one of these. There's nothing wrong with schlepping out to start the car on a snowy day. But I'm a gadget fan, and I think the concept is cool.

Plus, it's just one more reason why it's so cool to be part of western culture. No camels, no barefoot farming, no sabre rattling anger at anyone -- just preheated monster trucks and a good cup of coffee in the morning. It's another reason why many cultures hate us. And to me -- that's just fine. They could have climbed out of the damn stoneage and invented the neon under carriage lights that pimp your truck out old school, but they didn't because they were too busy subjugating women and lobbing off the hands of people who steal loaves of bread. God Bless Technology and Western Culture and Inventiveness and our America. That's all I have to say.

What got me on that? Oh... it must be the intense feeling of joy knowing I have this pimped out truck. Word.

Which leads us to Thanksgiving. Most people celebrate Thanksgiving. There are some who do not because... well. They feel that Western Culture killed theirs, which pretty much is true. And that sometimes makes me feel bad. But 300 years later, here we find ourselves, sitting on top of a holiday that should cause all people no matter what their backgrounds are (colonialist, slave, revolutionary, victim) to stop and focus internally and find something to be thankful about.

And being thankful -- what does that MEAN? Thankful to whom or what? For me, you know I'm thankful to God our Creator, His Son our Savior, and His Spirit our Sustainer for providing me with individuals and situations which make my life worth living.

If you don't believe in someone/thing to be thankful toward, I suppose you are thankful to individuals and situations... thus bypassing the giver. Which is fine too. Because part of being thankful is thanking the humans around you (whom I believe are part of your life for a reason, sometimes bigger than you know or can fathom...)

So my second annual I Am Thankful For entry is as follows:

• I am thankful that God is active in my life and the lives of many people around me, filling me with His sustaining spirit even when I'm on the verge of freaking out
• I am thankful that I have a great husband who continues to make me laugh and smile
• I am thankful for two healthy kids who make me laugh and smile
• I am thankful for this house, the ability to pay for it, the tenants who live here and don't make our lives miserable. It isn't my dream house, and it has a ton of faults, but it is the best for me right now and I sure do love it
• I am thankful for individual gifts of relationship with some unbelievably fabulous people, such as my sister, my mom, Aaron and Michelle, Gregg and Karry, Bonnie and Duncan, Wayne and Marcia and hundreds other people who wander in and out of my daily existence
• I am thankful for CM and MF for keeping me busy and entertained, for their letters of recommendation, for their ongoing professional support and undying admiration of me. They are just what my ego needs sometimes and I love them for it. I am also thankful for the relationships with coworkers that I've maintained, such as with Deb (my old boss), with FL, with Rupa, Brian, Ben, and Dan, all of whom weigh more on the friend side now than the simple co-workers side
• I am thankful for this year of being laid off, for the improvement in my son's academic and social development, for time that I wouldn't have had before, and for his wonderful teacher
• I am thankful that Doug bought the GPS and that we started Team Screamapillar, Geocaching maniacs. We've had a lot of fun and a lot of sweat with it, and we've shared a lot. Speaking for myself, it's the best hobby I've run across to date, and I feel physically in better shape than I have in years
• I am thankful for Doug's job. It's not the best job on the planet, but it gets us insurance, it gets us paid, and makes me less anxious about money
• I am thankful for the friends I've made online, Tess chiefly among them, and for the writings they share. Some of them I've known for years (Amy and Virginia), others just recently stumbled upon. They are all interesting, vibrant, supportive, funny, cranky, upset, angry and fabulous and without them my morning just doesn't seem right
• I am thankful for my little church congregation, for the people who go there and run the place, for the organist and the choir, for the other kids there to play with mine. I am thankful to the interim pastors for filling in while we search for a new pastor. I am thankful for the opportunity to bring in a new pastor and pray that it is the Best Thing Ever (TM)

I am thankful for more stuff. Of course there is always more to be thankful for. But that's an extensive list, and one that I look on and smile. I hope that whatever your circumstances are that you can find something to be thankful for, to yourself, to your friends/family, to your situation or to your God. Take a moment and pause, look back on the last year of your life. I'm sure there is one thing that stands out that makes you happy to be alive. And sometimes -- that one thing is all you need.

Happy Thanksgiving all. I may or may not get to post again until after the holiday. Depends on what happens tomorrow with the weather. We're anticipating a southern storm, which may impede our departure to Grandma's house. Much to the annoyance of my son, who insists we're going tonight. So this may be it until December! Yikes. Where is this year going?

To Do List; Orioles and Hugh Laurie

An update on The Immediate To Do list:

Today:

1. Contact the mortgage company first thing in the morning to get fax number to send my homeowner's policy to them so they'll pay my bill. it's due the 17th. Call the insurance agency to make sure that's all I need to do. Must do. Or we lose policy.

2. Get the form from HUD notarized to get the money (about 1000 clams) from our refinance last year. Didn't realize we hadn't done that.

3. Check with tenants on where the rent is.

4. Verify Geoff's next eye appointment date in June because I think it conflicts with his CORE eval.

5. Contact Dart folks to tell them who to host with and get final info to finish site. They've been awfully patient. And I'm 99% done with cateringman, so that site won't take up nearly all my time anymore.

This week:

1. Download the professor's site I'm working on.

2. Get boxes for the food drive next Saturday, organize church basement so there's plenty of room to bring the stuff in. It'll be fun. Also, ask Pete if we can use his GMC Jimmy.

3. Send mother's day cards to certain mothers. Grandmothers. Matronly aunts... etc...

4. Call Gammy, she fell and broke her arm.

5. Remind Doug about taking Wednesday morning off to be with Geoff while I go to some ridiculous unemployment "retraining" crap. Jeesh.

This morning Jessica was getting her shoes on and I was still abed, and she called me from the livingroom in a soft, almost nervous voice. I told her I couldn't hear her so she tiptoed in to see me.

"Mom, there's this huge orange bird in the apple tree. I'm trying to be quiet so he doesn't hear me," she hushedly intoned and came into my bed quietly, on her belly, to look out the window at the tree. I rolled over and looked with her, sure enough he was there. A huge oriole, I think. I'm not good with bird identities, but he and his mate were here last spring. Just yesterday I'd mentioned to Doug that I was sad they weren't back this year. Last year was the first year we'd seen them.

So I was happy to hear his loud song this morning. I thought I was imagining things, because I was so tired. I got about an hour and a half of sleep before Doug came to bed, and when he did he was noisy, complainy that he broke his glasses... so I ended up being awake for several hours.

Here's a picture of many orioles, I had a hell of a time FINDING a picture of a feathery oriole instead of a Baltimore Oriole. But I did it all Scholastic Book Service with a blow up excerpt and spotlighty pull out. You like that?

Oh I'm pathetic today.

I am going to drink more coffee and figure out what to do with Geoff. He desperately wants to picnic, so perhaps we'll do it in the yard or go someplace for a picnic. He's doing his pokemon battle thing... and I'm going to do a little more work on cateringman's site.

Right ho! as Bertie Wooster would say. Who is Bertie Wooster, you ask? Aah. I forget. You were an English Major in college focusing on British Literature, but they didn't let you read anything FUN... right?

Jeeves and Wooster are characters which spring (sprung?) forth from the mind of P.G. Wodehouse. In addition to very funny BritLit, which should be taught in college, but NOOOOOOO, (I digress) they are immortalized on the screen by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. Excellent, funny stuff.

Right ho!

I mean, just look at Hugh Laurie. I love him! His face alone makes me guffaw. There are very few people who make me laugh just with a facial change, Eric Idle, Hugh Laurie and Weird Al... But again, I digress. Back to Hugh Laurie... I truly enjoy him in many different series, specifically Black Adder where he is the Prince Regent. Damn funny actor, very talented man. Super under appreciated as long as he keeps getting roles in things like 101 Dalmatians. Ugh. Dreck.

Doug started reading Wodehouse a few months ago. I was very familiar with the TV show, and knew it had to come from some literature, and sure enough, Doug brings home some Wodehouse from a bookstore. Indeed. So I've been addicted since. Check out that Jeeves & Wooster page, and also go check out his Ashland Oregon page. Doug and I went to school there for a semester, and I'm tempted to drop this guy a line and just say hi.

I'll write more about Ashland another day. I've got some great stories, kind of Frontier Housey in a way, only with electricity and Dostoyevsky.

And a side recommendation, if you've never seen Stephen Fry in the movie Wilde, I highly recommend it. The story of Oscar Wilde, amazing as it is, is even more astounding as Mr. Fry plays the lead role. If you are squicky about homosexuality though, you may want to rent but avert your eyes during certain scenes... for the most part, it is an astounding movie. I cried, I laughed. I appreciated my britlit degree ever so much more. (Jude Law is very good here too...)

---

(side note, Geoff just did "Talk to the Hand" attack in his Pokemon battle with me and I just about spit my coffee. Oh my God, that's funny. I countered with the "Don't Go There!" attack. Which for Simpson's Fans makes total sense, right?)

Par-Tay Checklist; Frontier House

The immediate To Do list:

Tomorrow:

1. Contact the mortgage company first thing in the morning to get fax number to send my homeowner's policy to them so they'll pay my bill. it's due the 17th. Call the insurance agency to make sure that's all I need to do. Must do. Or we lose policy.

2. Get the form from HUD notarized to get the money (about 1000 clams) from our refinance last year. Didn't realize we hadn't done that.

3. Check with tenants on where the rent is.

4. Verify Geoff's next eye appointment date in June because I think it conflicts with his CORE eval.

5. Contact Dart folks to tell them who to host with and get final info to finish site. They've been awfully patient. And I'm 99% done with cateringman, so that site won't take up nearly all my time anymore.

This week:

1. Download the professor's site I'm working on.

2. Get boxes for the food drive next Saturday, organize church basement so there's plenty of room to bring the stuff in. It'll be fun. Also, ask Pete if we can use his GMC Jimmy.

3. Send mother's day cards to certain mothers. Grandmothers. Matronly aunts... etc...

4. Call Gammy, she fell and broke her arm.

5. Remind Doug about taking Wednesday morning off to be with Geoff while I go to some ridiculous unemployment "retraining" crap. Jeesh.

It is a gorgeous day, I just wanted to do a quick life update, write those things down because I always remember things better when I write them out. I've gotten kind of forgetful in the past few months... eep. Can't be a forgetful nelly in this life. We went to Wayne's birthday party on Friday night. We got there about 20 minutes late because of traffic on the Spaulding Turnpike. We were at Newick's Seafood on the Great Bay of the Piscataqua River in Dover New Hampshire... it was GORGEOUS there. I love living in New England... the sun was setting in the west up the river, and there were all these cute little boats and serious lobster boats, lovely dark pines lining the river and beautiful stately homes across the water in what I guess is Newington, not sure... but I loved it. The boy was kind of well behaved. For as good as he's been the last two weeks, he gets way excited when he gets with his buddy Pete.

Pete always looks at Geoff like "okay, what new trouble can you lead me into here!?" and seems to get such a kick out of him. Wayne enjoyed his cake immensely. It was lots of fun. We had a blast.

Before, when the cake was new...

After... when none of us got any. D'oh!

Kidding! We staged this after all the cake was dealt out. It made me laugh. Good cake too. Kudos to Marcia.

I was supposed to go to this reunion party for one of the companies that I used to work for in Marblehead, but Doug was in a kinda poopie mood, and Geoff was giving me a hard time about leaving. I knew I was screwed if I left Geoff there with Doug in a poopie mood, that I'd get grief for it later. So I decided not to go. At about 8pm Doug says to me "when are you going to this thing?" Mind you, it started at 6 and was 45 minutes away. I told him, obviously I'm not going. Cited my reasons. He kind of shrugged and said "whatever."

I hate going to stuff without him, even if it is something that is primarily MY friends or MY history. He gets all bitchy and moany about going, but then he always has a great time. We went on a harbor cruise once that this same company paid for and had for us, and he didn't want to go. Didn't want to get a sitter. Didn't feel like it blah blah blah.

Halfway through it, he's having a blast talkin' shit with my buddies.

Whatever.

Anyway, I feel badly about skipping it. I'm a schlub. I should have gone and just had him deal.

Marriage: Sometimes it isn't fun. And sometimes it is hard work. But you're a team. And teamwork is necessary. So sometimes there are concessions.

Which brings me to my next topic (nice segue, eh?) I've been watching marathon sessions of this PBS show "Frontier House." Perhaps you've seen it, heard of it? You can't go NEAR PBS without it being on lately.

Essentially it's "Survivor" meets "The Real World" meets 19th Century Montana.

Three families, starter provisions, period clothing and tools, and the homestead act. The goal isn't family vs. family, but family vs. requirements to meet for making it through the winter. Only one of the three families end up having proper stores of supplies, and that's just barely, by the time the whole thing is over. And it is interesting to watch how they changed, grew, transformed... I enjoyed this program a lot, and like my addiction to "The Real World" and "The Real World Road Rules Challenge" programs, this is another "reality" program that I will proudly declare as a guilty pleasure.

The only complaint I have is that I wish they had filmed an episode a week the way "The Real World" does it... but there are like eight episodes total I think. The website gives a lot of detail that you miss out from the overview programming, so if you've watched the show and haven't checked the site, please do.

The first family on the frontier is the Brooks family, initially just Nate and his dad. Nate's bio said he was employed at Fisher College in Boston... so he's my local favorite! Yeah Team Brooks!

Nate and his dad Rudy head out to the west and are preparing a homestead for Nate's bride Kristin to come out in July and have their wedding (by the way, yes, I cried and cried, it was gorgeous. I'm a friggin' sap. But I loved it).

How hip and cool and sweet and wonderful is this guy?

The cabin he built for her, the dress he sent to her, ugh! Gorgeous and romantic, and so grounded. He's a damn riot too, very funny. I'd have all the Brooks family members over for a beer and hang out anyday. Especially compared to the other two loser families.

The next family is the Glenn Family, from Tennessee. She's Karen, and is divorced with two kids, Logan and Erinn. She's there with them and her 2nd husband, Mark. Initially it's all peaches and cream. They all four seem to get along great. But eventually the marriage and all the interpersonal relationships in the family start to fail. It's really incredibly sad to watch. Karen is controlling and unyielding, Mark doesn't feel like he's a part of her "family," because it's her and the kids and then him on the outside, so watching him distance himself and begin a resentment at being treated like an 8 or 12 year old was difficult. The boy Logan was so funny, full of great little comments like "My best friend is Work. You met him yet? Nah, cause yer a 21st century slacker!" The daughter Erinn rocked, and I thought she was the most normal person in that house, but you can tell in the future her mom's going to pollute her mind. They'll have a hard relationship as she grows.

The Glenns officially separated, after they got back to Tennessee.

Finally, the team from Malibu California, all Hollywood stuck up attitudes and all, the Clunes. A husband, wife, their three kids and a Clune cousin.

They cheat, and break laws, and basically don't really learn anything from the experience but they are convinced in the end that they did and would have survived the winter with one pile of "wafers," Gordon's nickname for unsplit rounds of firewood.

The wife, Adrienne, begins the journey all heartbroken about not having makeup, skin cream, shampoo etc... the girls are just as shallow. They smuggle 'contraband' into the past with them, which they later realize was stupid and they bury the stuff under a tree. Gordon, the dad, is upset and angry that life is so hard. And "you mean to tell me that 19th century man wouldn't have come out here more prepared than our so called "history experts" sent us out here?"

The two boys seem to get the most out of things, and really love being with their dad on the frontier. By the end, the girls who started out naughty seem to have learned the absolute most.

They all would have died lonely miserable deaths in 1883.

The thing that pisses me off the most about these people is they are the most highly educated of the bunch, but the dumbest when it comes to reality of things.

They came into the project thinking "this is going to be fun, romantic, and so cool." The wife "has a degree in food science" so they obviously planned on living off her skills. She is an excellent baker, wonderful in the kitchen, and makes great baked goods with her time. But they miss the point. The first winter out there would have been the hardest, and being most prepared with essentials instead of peach pies would have been the important task.

They needed wood split and hay cut for their animals. Not scones with raisins. She ended up building a romanticized 1883 life as their crops come in and their hunger abates after the spring, but this does nothing to prepare them for the future, for the winter. It was kind of sad to see her get all into it and happy, only to know in the back of your mind that nothing she is doing is going to benefit the clan in the months of cold to come.

So this show sucked me in, and I really liked it. It's one of those things that I can't pass on the dial without seeing what's up.

I'm glad I didn't watch from the start though, because the very first episode where Adrienne is crying because she put rag curls in her hair, and wasn't allowed to wear makeup for the olde tyme photograph they were having done, pissed me off and I couldn't take it seriously at all. If that was the first episode I saw, that would have been the last. Glad I tuned in when they were milking cows and the Glenns were a fightin'.

Anyway. Geoff is head to toe mud out there. It's spring. I have some seeds I want to plant, get a garden going out there... And during the week we'll go pick vegetable plants out. I saw where one of the squash seeds that Geoff had planted is growing up. Aah, frontier life.

The To-Do List for 'ZonaFest 2001, 8pm

1. Buy more shorts. I have only 2 pair (Done)
2. Obtain reading material for trip for myself and Geoff (Done, with exceptions)
3. Confirm with Dan M drop off time for dog (Done, date/time set)
4. Pack for me and Geoff (not done)
5. Color hair (done)
6. Pick up prescription from CVS (will be done on way to drop off dog, see number 3)
7. Drop off video rentals (see #6)
8. Dishes (do before leaving/Thursday night)
9. Get directions to airport
10. Buy Gift for Emily Yag's birthday (after all, she is the hostess when we visit!)
11. Leave note for Pete with contact info, how to turn on water for hose (to be done tomorrow)
12. Give megan the plants in the pot to babysit (to be done tomorrow)
13. Feed that fish
14. Locate and secure tickets where you won't misplace them

---

Right then. Steady on. I hate getting organized for a trip, but this one seems to be under control thusfar. I am struggling with whether or not to "drug" the Boy with some benadryl before the flight, people have suggested it to me. I think I will bring some just in case he's a total wired basket case and won't be calm/quiet through the trip... it will be very obvious immediately whether or not this will be necessary. Kind of funny that I'm even thinking of 'dosing' my kid as it were, but friends have recommended it to me, they've done it with their children... I'm not sure it's a great idea, so I will just keep it as a consideration.

Doug and Jessica have called me from St. Louis, MO and Salinas, KS. I have no idea where they are today... they could have gone from Kansas south to Oklahoma and Texas, into New Mexico, or, from Kansas westward to Colorado. I wonder which they chose. Doug's put a lot of miles between us since Saturday, and I'm looking forward to hooking the fandamily up in Phoenix.

My dog will be babysat by a very good friend who has watched him before. The last time Kinger was there he was with Missy. Kinger chewed the arm off their leather couch, and ate a duck off of the kitchen counter, which made him sick to death the following day (here at our house, luckily... I would have felt horrible if it had been at Dan's...) Dan has 2 dogs, both are retrievers... they are fun. We'll babysit them in August in exchange for this. We babysat them last summer when Dan and his fiance Honey went to Thailand (that's where she hails from) for 2 weeks. Dan neglected to tell me one of his dogs has a "thing" for hair scrunchies. I was sitting in the grass after a rousing game of tennis ball with all four dogs, and Buddy came up behind me and bit my hair... and started dragging my by my ponytail across the yard, yanking and pulling and scaring the living crap out of me. Finally the hair scrunchie came out of my hair and she danced away tossing it in the air victoriously, and rolling around with it like a kitten with a ball of yarn.

What a fucked up dog.

Anyway, I love them, I love Dan... he's great. I need to get that list at the top of the page completed to the Nth degree so as to enjoy my visit down at his house with him when I drop off the dog. I don't want to ditch and run, nor do I want to stay there, be friendly, hang out, and then come home to a complete catastrophy of life.

Off to pack.