Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Thankful

As I haven't been very much inspired to write recently, I thought Mama's Losing It's Thankful prompt would help me out until getting my blogging mojo back...
1. Name a color you are thankful for. Red is usually my go-to color, but recently I've been obsessed with aqua and/or turquoise.  
2. Something your spouse does that you are thankful for.  I'm thankful that these prompts don't assume one is married, oh wait...
3. Something your kids do that you are thankful for. My students come to school every day with the intention of learning.  Sometimes their life gets in the way, but the intention is always there.
4. A food you are thankful for.  This time of year, after eating my millionth apple, I am thankful for summer fruit.  It is so good for quite a long time here, but once summer fruit is out of season all we've got left are apples.  It's fine for a bit, but I'm sick of apples.  I think I'm also thankful for pizza.  
5. What recent good news are you thankful for? When I first read this, my mind immediately went to media-news, and good media-news is hard to come by these days.  I read this story late last week. With all the fear/hate being reported on over the last week, this is a very nice story, reminding us that however afraid we are of a terrorist attack, I don't think our fear can even come close to what these people are going through. It's nice to see a positive story about helping them.  
On a more personal note, a very dear friend of mine was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer - one of the most aggressive kinds - about two months ago.  Certainly very scary news.  Two weeks ago, after undergoing one round of aggressive chemo, the tumor had shrunk in size.  Last week after two rounds, the doctor could almost not even find the tumor to measure.  While certainly not in the clear, I would say that was the best news I've heard in a very long time.  
6. Name a drink you are thankful for. Starbucks' holiday drinks are back!  The chestnut praline latte is like a hug in a cup on a cold morning.  
7. Name a restaurant you are thankful for.  Hmmm, we have a lot of good restaurants here, so it's hard to pick just one.  A good Mexican or Italian place tend to be my go-to places.
8. Talk about an animal you are thankful for. Of course, my Rigby-dog.
9. Name a beauty product you are thankful for. Gel nail polish is the best beauty invention ever.  Runner-up is Kiehls' Creme de Corp body moisturizer
10. Name a cleaning product you are thankful for. There are a lot of good cleaning products out there, but the be all, end all is the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  It'll clean pretty much anything all other cleaning products DON'T clean and has been a lifesaver with the tan interior of my new car - which shows EVERYTHING.  
11. What social media platform are you thankful for? I'm going to sound 100 years old, but I'm not thankful for any of them.  While I understand that social media has its pluses, it has a ton of negatives and I think it's making us dumber.  When serious issues are being discussed in 140 characters or less, and serious, important people are passive aggressive in their posts, and large quantities of news reporting is spent on who tweeted/facebooked what,  and every thought one has ever had is posted for all to see, well it could possibly be the demise of the human race.  
12. Tell us why you are thankful for the last person who texted you.  My gay work husband takes great care of me but without the inconvenience of having a real husband.  :)
13. Name a candy you are thankful for. Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, and I'm also thankful they only come out for about a month each year.  
14. Name an app on your phone that you are thankful for. The Chase Bank app is wonderful.  I haven't had to go to the bank in person in over two years!15. What are you looking forward to that you are thankful for? My mom will be in town for about a week over Christmas.  I haven't seen her since July!
Thanksgiving is a holiday that causes me some inner turmoil.  The Thanksgiving "story" so-to-speak is such a white-washed version of what actually happened (and possibly even mostly made up).   It's a difficult holiday to teach about, but the message is still a good one.  And I think that applies to our celebrations with family and friends as well.  While I no longer go to Thanksgiving dinner celebrating the "Pilgrims and Indians" and their bountiful harvest, it is nice to have a reminder that we need to be thankful for what we do have, including those friends and family (even the ones that drive you crazy).   

9 comments:

  1. These posts are always so much fun and I love getting a glimpse into others' lives through their answers.

    I'll agree with your pizza answer. It's my go-to meal the night before Thanksgiving since I've already spent all day in the kitchen prepping. On the fruit, though... don't y'all get pears in the winter? Or maybe you don't like them?

    I'm thankful for all our pups, but especially my Alice who seems to love me the most. Sweet girlie.

    I'm thankful for green - especially in the spring. I'm sometimes amazed by how many shades there are of that one color!

    I'm thankful for water. It's been my favorite thing to drink for most of my life. Then again... many days around 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. I'm pretty happy to grab a beer out of the fridge. ;)

    Hope you're enjoying your week off!

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    1. Yes, enjoying it very much, thank you. Although it's speeding by like weeks off usually do.
      Yes, I like pears, but I find them difficult to get ripe when I'm ready to eat them. Like one day they're as hard as a rock, and the next they are mushy.

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  2. A wonderful post and I agree with you on the celebration of TG. John Oliver has it right.

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    1. It's a simplistic look at what's going on, but sometimes simple is needed. It's a good way of looking at it, especially when people are afraid.

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  3. Yeah.
    The thing is it's not that I have nothing to write about it's that what I'm thinking and feeling about what's going on is sending me into a rage. And the letters of a blog post would be spitting venom.
    You know something, I'm quite jealous of you. I don't see the future like you do. So I had nothing to hold onto while I picked up on the live tweets from French and BBC news feeds in my timeline. Of my connections I was the node for a while and was translating the Paris attacks as they were occurring.
    Then we've ugly wankers like Trump shovelling horseshit making a misery, worse. Or tools like the French president Hollande pre-empting the reaction of the people of France.
    And now we've fricking NATO shooting Russians out of the Syrian slash Turkish sky's. Hell, we've not been nearer since the Cuban crisis.
    Anyhoo's. Jessy got a flashing colla. I called it her bling and she picked up on the name and now will go find it if I mention the word for her fav time for a walk in the near dark and dark.

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    1. Happy T day.
      It's crossed to 12;34 here.

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    2. :) Thanks!
      Yah, I think that's been my problem too. Between the misinformation, the constant opinions from armchair-quarterbacks on and off the media sites, and then the actual news of what has/is happening, well it's a lot to digest. And our politicians are just making it so much worse. I have some friends who don't follow current events very closely and as the saying goes...ignorance IS bliss. :)
      I have never heard of a lighted dog collar before. That is a great idea for low light walks for both you to see her but also so others can too. In my case, it might be a good idea for cars and such where I am. I'll have to look into those.

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  4. I too am all about the aqua and turquoise these days.
    The news about your friend is great news.. wow.
    I am all for Mexican and Thai food..
    and I agree with you on the apples.. I am craving peaches right now.

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    1. Yes, the news is very very good. When the diagnosis was first issued, things seemed very very bad. So we're taking all the good news we can.
      I've been addicted to the Honey Crisp apples the last few months, but I'm over it!! :) And yes, Thai food comes in a close third for me.

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