I'd be lying if I said that I loved the part before Thanksgiving dinner when someone (mom) announces that everyone must share something they are grateful for. Thank God, it usually gets seconded, but then voted down by the hungry masses led by someone's kid screaming "I'm hungry! When are we eating?!" I know I'm grown, but I'm sorry, I jut get uncomfortable when people get teary eyed in front of the cranberry sauce. Therapy prior to massive emotional eating? Doesn't make sense. Best to cry after the pie and too much wine, and then go home and call your therapist's answering machine. Of course, by then you can't remember your name through the food coma, let alone why you felt like a loser (only single person at the table). But nobody listens to me.

However, while, I'm not one for public displays of emotion I am not a complete ingrate.

I am grateful for....(in no particular order)...

1) plumbing. (Have you ever been to a third world country?)
2) that weird moment between when someone says something unexpectedly funny and people laugh.
3) that my emotional scars yield a never ending flow of creativity.
4) In n' Out.
5) firemen.
6) childhood friends.
7) the spellcheck on my blog. (Though, clearly, it can't save me).
8) terrible relationships for teaching me what not to do.
9) the Facebook like button.
10) inspirations and ideas that come to me when I'm doing mundane things like sweeping.
11) the endless amount of dirt in my apartment that needs to be swept.
12) family and friends who know when something is wrong without asking me.
13) psychic premonitions and instincts that I pay attention to.
14) psychic premonitions and instincts that I don't pay attention to, but that remind me in gentle and not so gentle ways to pay attention to my psychic premonitions and instincts.
15) my six aunts for teaching me so many different ways to be a woman in this world.
16) avocados.
17) my mom for always knowing when I need her.
18) amazing dances, dance partners, and music.
19) Peete's. (The coffee and the shop).
20) Guy friends who try to kiss you on the lip, but settle for the part just outside your lips. (Sorry.)

Just for today, I am grateful.