What I'm Thankful For

So yesterday I did this post about what I really, really, wanted. Today, it's Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd let you know I'm not completely narcissistic and share what I'm truly thankful for, because it's a lot.

I'm thankful for my huge, crazy family that somehow puts up with me and my craziness. I'm thankful so many of them are here today.

I'm thankful for the butter-basted bird baking in the oven, and all of the rest of the food currently baking, cooling, and settling in various places throughout the kitchen (especially for the crispity, cheesy goodness that is the hashbrown dish -- more on that later!).

I'm thankful that come Monday, I will return a world-class educational institution for classes, and I'm thankful my parents value my education so much and have the means to send me there.

I'm thankful for my fabulous roommate, who shares her food, enjoys our experimental cooking sessions, tolerates my idiosyncrasies, and likes bad TV as much as I do.

I'm thankful for my parents' willingness to jump behind my dreams, and support my decision to take a semester off of school to intern in Washington, DC. I'm thankful for all the opportunities I've received, and the way they make the whole world seem to stretch out before me, in any way I want to experience it.

I'm thankful for the little things too -- the mulchy, clean smell of a Seattle day right after rains, the warmth of a California fall, the leaves that crunch, the winds that blow, the stars I appreciate even more now that the skyline of Los Angeles -- a totally different kind of beauty -- illuminates my sky instead.

Today, and always, I am thankful for all of it. And right now, as I type this, I'm thankful for this blog -- a place where I can pour out my day in writing, and share it with my family and the blogosphere -- and I'm thankful for you -- everyone who bothers reading it or commenting. You brighten my day.

I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving.