Thanksgiving Thoughts

Thanksgiving is upon us woot, yay, huzzah and all that. While I desperately love any holiday that allows me to have two pieces of pie without a dirty look, I'm not super excited about it. What I am SUPER excited about is after Thanksgiving. CG and his family are coming down on Friday and will be spending the weekend with us. FES's (I think I've talked about FES on here before, maybe, anyway our Foreign Exchange Student from Germany) uncle and brother will be coming in as well. Our house will be absolutely packed, which means that my sisters and I get to stay at Grandpa's house.

I haven't spent the night at Grandpa's house since Memaw died, at first because it was too painful to even go inside the house where I spent most of my childhood, then later because it was too painful watching Grandpa making the house into a shrine to her. Over the last year things have gotten better for him, which we are all very grateful for. The house, while still featuring an alter of sorts on the kitchen island devoted to Memaw, has changed, it's easier to go inside and spend time there, finally.

So all of us girls will be spending our nights at Grandpa's again, on that big white feather comforter, in the middle of the floor of the living room, in front of the old console tv, maybe we'll even watch old cartoons, just like we used to when Memaw was around. I think we're all looking forward to it, things like this bring back so many good memories and when we can create new memories from the old, knowing that Grandpa is sleeping alone in his bed doesn't feel so terrible.

So this Thanksgiving I'm grateful for the ability to move on. Terrible, tragic things happen, things that we're sure we'll never be able to move on from, to get over. But we do, that's what's so amazing about the human race: our ability to hope, grow, learn, get better.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, safe travels, and be well.

Normal for Me

Oh look, Callie doesn't have the brain power for a post today, so she's half-assing it with a list instead. How inspired.

This list is of things that seem completely normal to me:

1. Riding around in a limo from the 80's with gold trim
2. Waking up with bruises and having no idea how I got them
3. Building blanket forts
4. Dancing wildly with my 8 year old cousin
5. Getting bras in the mail
6. Throwing hedge balls around as a game
7. Wearing one coat into work and putting on a second over top of the first to stay warm in the office.
8. Dressing up as Louie the Lightning Bug
9. Wearing hunter's orange to take a walk
10. Being nicer to strangers than to family

Ch-ch-ch-changes, Turn and Face the Strain

. . . just gonna have to be a different man

ANYway, I was once told by someone that your personality changes constantly, so much so, that every seven years you become a different person. I can't remember who this person was, but I'ma believe them anyway (and you should too).

I'm constantly surprised by the new things I learn about myself. I used to be terrified of rollercoasters, now I quite enjoy them. I used to cherish being alone and completely self-sufficient, now I find it hard to spend more than two evenings in a row alone and enjoy almost any interaction I have with the populace. I used to like Family Guy (although I blame my dislike for it now less on a change in me and more on the sub-par writing on the new seasons). I used to think that I could and would do anything for the right amount of money. I used to live and plan only for the future.

I really have changed a lot in the last few years, so I can't wait to see who I'll be in another seven years.

I could end up being a socialist Asian man, my dad would flip his shit (about the socialist bit, although now that I think about it, I'm sure that my dad would also be at least slightly curious about how I became Asian and male . . .)