Tuesday's Day of Thanks

What a great morning!!!! The house is cold (I left a window open and it got into the low fifties last night), the coffee brewing fragranced the entire house, I've got Ella Fitzgerald playing and am in my jammies.

Right, it's the week of Thanksgiving and my goal this week, all week is to list at least five things I am thankful for. And I really don't plan on everything being a really high brow, introspective or noble thing to be thankful for - just things I am feeling good about.

My Black Harrod's Bag - This is such a superficial thing to be thankful for but as most of you know, I have a serious bag fetish. The longevity of my love and practical and whimsical use of this bag has made it a companion to me as much as anything else. It came into my possession illegally however. I was working in London at least six or seven years ago around the holidays. I got carried away with Christmas shopping at Heathrow Duty Free and needed a bag to put my loot into. I had been chattering away with the Harrod's shop girl, paid for my loot and she put it into the bag I picked out - a plain black Harrods shoulder tote with patent leather straps and a discreet marcasite (sp?) Harrod's logo (not one of those garish green and gold vinyl things). Once on the plane back to Chicago, I was doing my customs card and realized my Harrod's receipt seemed awfully low at only 35 quid. Turns out she forgot to charge me for the bag which was about £30 in and of itself. Nothing I could do about it - I couldn't go back to the store since I was over Greenland when I realized the mistake. The bag truly has been the best I've ever had. I use it to take my lunch, carry papers, gifts, - everything I need. I love it - the best impulse buy I've ever made.

Clarity of Self - This is vague I guess, but something I'm very thankful for within myself. I suppose it could be described as the ability to look after myself emotionally and how to recover from setbacks. I used to be the type who would shutter herself up and wallow in self-pity when things don't go the way I wanted. But I ended that when I was in my late 20's because it's such a waste of precious, living days. Rather than cry and shout over the failed expectations, I take it as a time to listen to myself. When I was working 20 hour days in Zurich and my life was falling apart on every cylinder, I sat there in that conference room in Oerlikon and listened to my heart. It told me to make a fresh start, in a new city and begin the process of removing myself from Consulting. That was a big, huge insight but they are on smaller scales too. This week has been disappointing for me but it reinforced my goals and also put me back on track to continue to pursue my interests that I gave up a long time ago. The two big interests is getting back into reading the paper (and I mean the NY Times or something more than the Orlando Sentinel), books and working diligently towards going to Roma next spring. Which brings me to my next item of thanks.

Fearless of Travel Abroad: So many, many, many people are afraid to throw themselves out of their comfort zone and miss one of the most absolute experiences of a lifetime: feeling like a 3rd grader in a phone booth. Where else in life can you get three or four engineers into a phonebooth and not figure out how to make a local phone call? Rome! Not everyone enjoys that vulnerability of course, but I do think it's the leveling of one's self and seeing what you're really made of when you're without country, rights and the ability to communicate definitively. My sense of self-assurance comes from small events like standing in a petrol stations in Poggibonsi using four words of Italian to get directions to an obscure place in a large town. It comes from figuring out how to unwedge a car trapped between three houses in a Frontera town in Southern Spain. It comes from the car locks working when an insane Algerian comes screaming at you. It comes, yes, from buying bananas in Madrid. Of course, my trip to Roma next spring has less to do with being daring and more to do with being a slug in piazzas since Roma has ceased to be an adventure for me. But I so love it there.

Friendship in Crisis - One of my friends is going through a particularly rough week just as I have. Having friends to commune and laugh with when things just are hard is one of the greatest blessings in my life. Last night I realized how thankful I am for that. I left work at 5 on the nose (I'm not staying late this week - I've already talked to my bosses about it) and joined a friend for dinner and what should have been a movie. But we ended up having such a good time, and such a good laugh that we blew off the movie and spent the evening talking. There are a lot of people in the world who suffer and are friendless. That condition of life is not uncommon and for me to have not only one but many friends who are with me when I suffer is probably one of the greatest blessings I could ever wish for. It's what makes me able to keep persevering - boat agains the current.

My Job/Not Being In Consulting Anymore - Yes, I dislike my job and everyone knows it so it may be a surprise that I'd list it as something to be thankful for. Those who knew me when I was in consulting, however, know just how much I am truly thankful for where I am at now despite appearances otherwise. My job has provided me with one thing I always forget when I bad mouth it - good friends and the ability to meet new people. My life before this job was very bleak, lonely and unfulfilling. I was never home, I never could cultivate any relationship and I had to go through a lot of fear to get on that plane every week (long story short - a near collision in LaGuardia and then being in flight on 9/11 over Pennsylvania really screwed my previous love for flying). But now, I have a home life, I have really been able to dive into my cooking hobby and I've met so may wonderful people who have become true and dear friends.. My job has facilitated quite amazingly the ability to turn my house and my city into a home.

So that's it for today. This was a great exercise and I'm really looking forward to seeing what silly things I'll be thankful for tomorrow!!

And, oh, baby it's ccccccolllld outside!!!