Thirteen Unexpected Things I'm Thankful For

As evidence that I have ADHD I present the following list. It was written for Thanksgiving, our American holiday we celebrated last Thursday. It's all thankfullie and sentimental, something we allow ourselves to be during the holidays without feeling the slightest bit silly. Then I forgot about it and wrote my "month trying to write a novel" post instead, which I dutifully posted on time - even early - even though November wasn't finished yet and neither was my novel! Then, later Thanksgiving Day, as I sat and tried to convince my stomach I hadn't eaten too much, I remembered the REAL Thanksgiving Day Thursday Thirteen. But it was too late. People had already started commenting on my novel list. So here is the original Thanksgiving list. Today is not a holiday and the list feels overly cloying and sentimental. Funny how holidays have their own separate realities. Still, I am determined to print this list because not only have I already taken time to write it but my wife really liked it and wants me to post it for the world to see. Dang! It's going to ruin my reputation as a gothic, maudlin, cynical, warm fuzzy hater. Thirteen Unexpected Things I'm Thankful For Apple Computers. Dang I love those things. Applescript, a command shell, and the slickest GUI you could touch with your eyeballs. Using my Mac is fun and productive as opposed to using my PC. Yeah, I have a PC, too. But I don't love it. In fact, I fantasize placing it out in the middle of the road, sitting in a chair with a nice, cold, lemonade, watching the carnage from a safe distance, and screaming at it, "How do ya like THAT anti-virus action!". MP3s. I have thousands of songs on my hard drive - ripped from my tapes and CDs - and heavily marked up with comments like Sad, Upbeat, Melancholy, Moody, Vocal Trance, Instumental, etc. I listen to music by mood and whim and my collection almost never bores me. iTunes and smart playlists. I know. I'm a geek. But music is so central to my life that I can't imagine life without my cleverly programmed smart playlists with their continually refreshing streams of music. Candy. Manna from Heaven, baby. My stupid tea kettle with the cheap bottom. I cannot explain why I am so elated when the silly whistle blows. Perhaps having a tea kettle for my herbal tea inally makes the whole tea experience more old fashioned and complete. Pennywhistles. I love playing them. I just wish I was better at it. I am not allowing myself to buy an expensive one until I can do rolls better. I'm not thankful for my Hohner Chromatic 270 yet. It's the toughest instrument I've ever tried to learn. I can make music with it, but I still feel like I'm trying to play it with my chin while holding it with my feet. Miyazaki movies. Especially Whisper of the Heart and Mimi o Sumaseba. I can watch those movies over and over again. They really inspire me as an artist and as a story teller. My oldest daughter's singing. Nonstop. Hour after hour. I might get irritated by it during dinner, but otherwise she simply leaves me speechless. And she's only 14 years old. I cannot imagine what she will sound like when she's a woman. Sometimes I cannot imagine that she can improve, then she does. To think I had something to do with that voice. Well, not her voice per se. I'm about as exciting to listen to singing as watching water boil, but I helped bring her into this world. I am often humbled by her. My eleven year old's grace and beauty. She flits about the house like a fairy all day long as she practices her Irish Step Dancing moves. She is also the only one who I can't tease mercilessly and who gives it back to me the best. She's a delight to have in my home. My eight year old's spunk and sense of wonder. I may not have half her gumption, but I can completely identify with her view of the world, especially her love for toys and gadgets. She more than any of my daughters helps me remember what it was like to be young. She keeps me grounded. We have drawn very close now that I homeschool her. My five year old's smile. She's my little wild child. She lights up the room and my day whenever she starts beaming. Even though she has cerebral palsy - mild as it is - I feel that everything will turn out alright for her whenever she smiles. Back rubs and foot rubs. My wife has amazing fingers and super human endurance. I have a back tenser than the steel suspension cables you see holding bridges up. It is a match made in Heaven, though my wife might beg to differ some times. Hugs. I wasn't really into hugs when I first married Robyn, but she changed my mind about that in a hurry. Now I get them all day by my wife and four daughters. It's hard to be depressed when there is so much affection going around. If you blog, please tell me thirteen things about yourself and link it here. Oh, and try to refrain from linking here if you don't have a Thursday Thirteen post. I'll just end up removing your link. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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