happy thanksgiving

things i'm thankful for: 3...2...1

1. the ability to wake up to my alarm clock after only hitting the snooze button twice. really. it's a new thing for me. ask my roommates. jules could actually call out my name when my alarm was going off and not wake up herself. so now, i'm thankful that i can get up on time for things like the macy's thanksgiving day parade and work.

2. long distance friends. it's kinda cool talking to japan, st. louis, seattle, china, new york, providence, boston, ireland, and dc. and in those terribly lonely moments here, someone special always manages to say the right thing - whether they realize it or not. i'm incredibly blessed.

3. short distance friends. when no one else seems to "get it" i know that i'm not completely alone in my sentiments towards this place i call home.

4. finding the charger to my mp3 player. it ran out of juice back in july, so i haven't gotten to listen to it since then. all the same music from july was on there of course. you know how hearing a song will bring you back to a past time? the first song i heard was "foggy day in london town" hmm. classic. this brings me to...

5. the british home office. they're in charge of handing out the work permits to us foreigners. thank goodness they want to take care of their own citizens first, or else i'd be there drinking a whole lot of london pride and beefeaters at the red lion pub in crown's passage or the leather bottle in cobham - instead of here. are you hearing sarcasm? there's no sarcasm intended. (they haven't heard the last from me; by the time i apply for a work permit next, hopefully i'll have enough "relevant experience" for them. all in good time, my friends, all in good time.) y'all know how much i love my city. i missed new orleans for the last 4 years in providence. but now i can be part of the rebuilding, with people who love new orleans just as much. it's like being part of an edurance test. like someone said "i DARE you to stay and try to bring that city back." with the rest of america being ignorant and taking newstories like the one 60 minutes did as truth (oh because we ALL know how reliable the national media is), it might as well be a dare. well, america, you know how much i love a dare. so i'm thankful for that.

6. my green converse sneakers. no explanation needed.

7. our 10 inches of water and the remaining water mark on all of our surviving furniture. it could've been a hell of a lot worse. and once you lived without a kitchen or furniture and in the middle of sheetrock dust, you can pretty much live through anything.

8. diet coke. again, no explanation needed.

9. chris rose and spud mcconnell. their words are a lot better than mine, and its safe to say that reading chris rose online and hearing spud on the radio kept me sane during our stint in fairhope.

10. family. there really is no way to escape them, so i'm very thankful i enjoy their company.

11. faith. you can see the good Lord breathing life into this city every day. it's a wonderful gift being able to see that and put trust in a force greater than you. thankfully, faith leads to hope. and hope is what gives me the energy to keep myself occupied, and not thinking about things that get me down. crap, if i DIDN'T have my faith, i would've cleared out a long time ago and God knows where i'd be now. i know that today the first mass was celebrated at st. dominic church in lakeview since katrina. it was on the news briefly. the people looked peaceful being there. most have just lost everything and there they were. as my mother has always told me, there are 2 constants in life - God and family. when life's changing every day, it's good to have something constant.

Lord,
grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change
the courage to change the things i can
and the wisdom to know the difference.