give thanks.

in 24 hours, ill be hurtling over the northeastern united states in an aluminum death tube with the rest of the traveling masses.

in 48 hours, ill be lying with a full belly in front of a fire in boston with my dog at my feet, my man at my right, and my family all around me.

in 168 hours (one week), i'll be finishing a hopefully awesome work event that i've been lucky enough to run point on since landing my dream job.

so now is when i give thanks. and since i'm an emotionally stunted wasp who can't verbalize thanks to those i truly care about (see: punching the first boy who ever said he loved me in the back of the head. arm spasm?), i'll blog my thanks.  

i'm a lucky enough girl that i'm thankful for many people. but those people get their due- especially over the holidays, where we all make a concentrated effort to tell people we love them before exchanging the hideous sweaters they bought us. what else is there to be thankful for, after we cover the bases of family, health, and friends?

mostly? i'm thankful that i live in the age of communication. i've got more anxiety than i know what to do with. some is of my own making (blow drying my hair in the morning leads to pulling out strands, which leads to "WHY IS MY HAIR FALLING OUT- OHMYGOD I'M DYING AND GOING BALD", which leads to three hours spent on webmd researching the correlation between female hair loss and early death), and some is the byproduct of a life led away from family and friends, with significant stressors and responsibilities i can't seem to escape. for the little anxieties, i silently mull them over until they become a much larger deal in my head and i eventually collapse with worry. for the big anxieties, i call my friends, talk it out, drink some wine, and spend some quality time sorting out my thoughts on my couch in my jammies. it's socially acceptable to communicate with others about your thoughts, feelings, and fears. watch an episode of mad men- this culture hasn't been around forever. and thank god for this change. i couldn't get out of bed some mornings without knowing its ok for me to call up my mother and lay out all my fears about work and home. and my life is made instantly better when i get a mid-day text from my man about the dinner he's making for me to come home to (yeah, internet. go ahead and take a collective sigh at that. he's awesome).

unfortunately, this communication index often is the root of some of my major annoyances in life. people who can't contain their own news longer than 30 seconds before broadcasting it to the internet, or people who use communicating as a way to solicit sympathy. guess what, boy i went to elementary school with? facebook news feed isn't a place where you r.i.p. your grandmother. she ain't reading it. and now you've gone and bummed out your interwebz friends to the point that people feel obligated to write these "heartfelt" messages about loss. nobody goes on facebook to talk about loss! that media platform exists to 1. stalk people i don't know well enough to ask my rude & blunt questions to, and 2. validate that everyone i hated from high school got fat. 

but when i'm not hating people who need to talk about their problems during every waking hour of their life (or those that need to create blogs just to bitch about it- lawlzzzz self-loathing), i'm actively looking for other things to be thankful for. 

other than the social acceptance of talking through my worries and spending a significant portion of my 20s on my couch in my jammies...

i'm thankful i've learned the hard way.

i'm thankful for the heat stands on the cta platforms.

i'm thankful for chivalry. 

i'm thankful my corner bodega has a snoop dogg advertisement that makes me laugh every morning. 

i'm thankful for boston accents. 

i'm thankful for dogs with smushed in faces.

i'm thankful for brunch. oh god, fuck the rest of this list and anything i've typed before this. i'm so thankful for brunch.  

i'm honestly trying to come up with something else, but brunch is dominating. and i think that's a good place to leave off before a holiday dedicated to the consumption of food. go baste those turkeys, readers. and make sure to give thanks for your loved ones brunch. or whatever else makes you happy.