I'm thankful for...

I know the Pilgrims started Thanksgiving long before our lives got too busy. But since the Mayflower landed, Americans (myself included) have become far too busy and self-absorbed to really sit down and be thankful for all of our blessings. So, in the spirit of my favorite holiday, I'm taking a minute to reflect on my wonderful, blessed life and be truly thankful.

I am thankful for:

My wonderfully dysfunctional family. After everything we've been through, I have 4 people who will let me scream, rant, cry, screw up, and laugh. I also look genuinely forward to being there to reciprocate. That doesn't mean we're perfect, but I'm very thankful we aren't.
Tay and Reed, I'm really proud of y'all.
Mom, thanks for showing me how to be a strong woman who can stand up for herself and bring so much joy to others just by her presence, even if it's in passing.

Friends that:
Make me laugh
Understand how I think and how to cheer me up
Call me or e-mail me to see how I am, even if we don't really stay in touch
I can carry on a conversation with for hours
Try and try again to get together when we know our schedules are too busy to allow it
Let me call them at wildly inappropriate hours for any reason, whether I'm happy, upset or drunk (or all at once)
Will drink with me when I need a drinking buddy
Do something I want to do even though I know they don't want to
Listen to political war stories although I know they don't care
Know the political war stories so we can laugh about them together
Vote because I ask them to
Appreciate my sense of humor, which ranges from illogical to downright vulgar
Take me to their bar
I've known for a while and we've just recently become close again
Let me sing in the car, crash at their house, date their friends (even if they foresee the train wreck), tell me it's a bad idea but don't hold it against me when I do it anyway
I wouldn't hang out with normally but, because I have, they broaden my horizons
Drive aimlessly around or sit on the couch because we want to spend time together but there's nothing else to do
Have ever used the excuse "Whitney's mom has cancer" to get out of something
Let me talk about anything, from complaining about boys or work, to telling them what happened last night even though it's WAY too much information
Buy me flowers because I cried
Still send me thank you cards
Make me sit in the emergency room with them
Talk baseball with me
Watch Mel Brooks movies
Have the same "What are we doing next?" conversation 30 times over
Will tell me I'm immature, unnecessarily confrontational, and short
Cuddle with me and watch movies
Change my flat tire in Buckhead
Like my crazy music
Tell me I'm making bad decisionsT
ell me when they're proud of me
Know the stories from high school or middle school
Share my crappy choices in TV
Don't mind me being an elitist

*I really want to put some of the things that were funny over the last election cycle here. Inevitably, they would hurt someone's feelings, but we all know that's what made them funny. I'll refrain, in a show of self-control that we all know I don't really possess. *

Friends like: Molly, Taylor, Ricky, my big brother Chris, Marty (sorry about Mexico and the Civil War), Michael, Adam, Justin, Heather (and her beautiful baby girl who I can't wait to meet), Byron, Derrick, Patrick, Tom Dodd, Goodies, Amelia, Wylly.. all my angels.

That I had the opportunity to work for someone I believed in and with people I loved for a year. Not everyone gets that opportunity. I'll be the first to admit we got our asses' kicked. But, the cards were stacked against us, and Gary's proud of us. That's all I need.
That I get the new opportunity to work for someone who is going to do amazing things for Georgia.
Georgia small towns because they're all crazy in a unique way. (By the way, a good rule of thumb when traveling: A Georgia city is rarely pronounced the way you think.)
Georgia and US politics, and the grace and wisdom of our leaders.
The American political system, because (let's face it) not all of our leaders have grace or wisdom, and they all have the potential to screw up drastically. Even Republicans.
The men and women in uniform who put their lives on hold to keep us safe. Especially my soldiers, Tommy, Mike, Cory, and Josh.
Breast cancer research that helped my mom and so many other wonderful, strong women survive and that other women won't have to fight. Also, The Susan G. Komen foundation and others who work to make sure the research is fully funded.
Warm weather in November.
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Richard Bach's Illusions.
The artists that satiate my need for music that no one else listens to.
Baseball season and Brian McCann.
Men that play guitar, drink, are protective, wear cowboy hats, look great in suits, are respectful, take out my earrings when I'm drunk, have a sense of direction (literally and figuratively), are successful, make me laugh, let me act silly and reciprocate, cuddle, know how to be proud of a woman for more than her looks but show her off just the same, and don't subscribe to the Elementary School Teacher Theory. No, they don't need to possess all of these traits; a few will do just fine.
That my heart was good and shattered once and I still survived.
Chocolate cake, red wine, the trip I'm planning to Italy, Georgia back roads, sushi, Harry Potter movies, random drunk boys in bars that give me something to talk about for weeks, strong and fruity drinks, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, insightful quotes, Sunday morning news shows, the Varsity (my hang-over cure), AIM (so I have other people to talk to when I'm bored), Shakespeare Tavern, the Georgia Aquarium, the Kangaroo farm (I still haven't been yet), awkward conversations and situations that are funny later, the humor that comes from people watching and being easily amused, and the million other small things that get me through the day.
The health, well-being, and sense of humor possessed by all of my friends.
Considering I've edited this several times, I'm thankful for all the people and things I've forgotten still.
Finally, and most importantly, a Savior who has given me so much to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Quotes for October

"Mere longevity is a good thing for those who watch life from the side lines. For those who play the game, an hour may be a year, a single day's work an achievement for eternity." Gabriel Heatter

"God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.Elbert Hubbard
The greatest and most important problems in life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown." Carl Jung

"Step by step. I can't think of any other way of accomplishing anything." Michael Jordan

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Almost any event will put on a new face when received with cheerful acceptance." Henry S. Haskins

"After love, the most sacred gift you can give is your labor." Don Alan Pennebaker

"A man must live in the world and make the best of it, such as it is." Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

"Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more, and none can tell whose sphere is the largest." Gail Hamilton

"Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also." Marcus Aurelius

"Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine." Hosea Ballou

"A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety." Bertrand Russell

"When I think of work, it's mostly about having control over your destiny, as opposed to being at the mercy of what's out there." Gary Sinise

"Nature gave us two ends: one to sit on and one to think with.Ever since then, man's success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most." Robert Albert Bloch

"Beware what you set your heart upon. For it shall surely be yours." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed." Henrik Ibsen

"Good work habits help develop an internal toughness and a self-confident attitude that will sustain you through every adversity and temporary discouragement." Paul J. Fleyer

"It is great wealth to a soul to live frugally with a contented mind." Lucretius

"Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event." Brian Tracy

"Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes." Chinese Proverb

"A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world." Mohammed

"Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable." Francois De La Rochefoucauld

"The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other." Orison Swett Marden

"Darkness can not drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." Robert Half

"There is nothing sweeter than to be sympathized with." George Santayana

"Even if the sky falls on you, there is a hole that you can escape from." Korean Proverb

"A song is not a song until you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to stay. Love is not love until you give it away." Oscar Hammerstein

"To abandon oneself to principles is really to die -- and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love." Albert Camus

"A job is what we do for money; work is what we do for love." Marysarah Quinn

"Few of us ever live in the present, we are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone." Louis L'Amour

"There are three ways to get something done; do it yourself, hire someone, or forbid your kids to do it. " Mona Crane

"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. " Albert Einstein