Things might get a little crazy between now and Thanksgiving so just in case I don’t get a chance to post then, I will post this now. This is what I am thankful for.
- The state of Idaho. Because not many are thankful for it. It’s a handsome state when looked at from a map at least.
- The movie The ‘Burbs. “I let go of the goddamn brownies…”
- Finally being able (at 30) to grow a full beard.
Being comfortable with myself even though I look like a melvin. (Picture shown above.)- The men and women in uniform that keep this country safe and free.
- Micro Brews with cool labels.
- Empire Strikes Back. My first memory of the movies and we went the Thanksgiving weekend of 1982.
- The Creepshow. That was the trailer before The Empire Strikes Back and to this day, I still am “creeped” out by that movie. God bless it.
- REI
- My place in the mountains. Especially my work desk view.
Oh hell, I’ll just say it. Cheese.- The New York Times. It’s a Sunday must.
- Kids with odd first names like “Lake” or “Apple” or “Valley”. It makes me feel better about my initials “WEW”. Woooooo!
- Home Improvement 1991-1994
- XM/Sirus radio. The drive from GA to ID would have sucked real bad without that.
- My job
- X-Entertainment. No other place can one go to see their childhood archived.
- My rock star shoes. They are on their last legs. So to speak.
Triscuits. Both reduced fat and Olive oil and Rosemary.- Maybe the one guy who can regain international trust, racial healing, national pride and all that is great with America will be the President. (don’t Fuck Up!)
- The F-14 Tomcat. Even though it is retired.
- Everyone on my blog role. I love sharing memories with them and I love how they share them with me. I imagine that we are all camping and exchanging tales of bike accidents and office blunders as we chortle our way to slumber. I have a very special place in my heart for each and every one on the Veggiemacabre blogroll.
- All my ex girlfriends. I know that sounds odd but it is true. Each person has left an indelible print on who I am today. Even though most want me dead, they made me better. And for that I am thankful.
- Little kids high on Juicy-Juice and cookies. (2:07…..it’s worth the wait. “ooooo!”) The little guy is breaking a sweat!
- La Sportiva running shoes
- My gift of gab
- My parents. As the late, great actor John Candy’s character, Dell in Planes Trains and Automobiles said, “Love. That’s not a big enough word.”
- Being in better shape at 30 than I was at 21. Or even 18. That is important to me.
- Being able to put down the bottle and walk away. Always had a tough time with that. Especially last year.
- Fitness Macabre is still in the works and the sponsors are letting me run with in after the 1st of the year. I don’t know if I am thankful for that yet but I’ll throw it up here.
- The freedom to move around. Last year I thought 92 degrees was a cooler day and today I think 42 degrees is a warmer day. I love experiencing that broad shift of environments.
- The Food Network. Especially Good Eats and 30 Minute Meals.
- My close friends. The ones who put up with my snoring, know that when we eat out I may order in a foreign accent, will pontificate at random and tell long stories and often lose the point half way through. Thanks for taking it all in stride.
- That my friend found the love of his life and married her. I wish I could have been there but this year I needed some serious “head’ time. I will always regret that.
- Great White Sharks are making a comeback from being endangered.
- And above all else, good health
So that is my 2008 list of thanks. I wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Try to reflect and let the people who mean the most know how important they are to you. You never know when you may get another chance. Think of those less fortunate and if you can, share. Try to keep an open mind and forgive those who you don’t get along with. At least for Thanksgiving. Letting go and loving is so much easier than holding on and hating.
So, thanks.
Casserole of Disaster 
I’ve been kind of pessimistic this year so, I’ll just say I’m thankful for my friends and family because they’re the ones who have been here through this so-so year.
Oh no! Why asi asi?
Well, Thanksgiving already came and went in Canada, but I’m definitely thankful for the fact that I found your blog this year. You make me laugh, you make me think, and you even make my heart a little fuzzy sometimes! 😉 And I can’t believe you didn’t tell us until your last post that yo’ure a firefighter! That’s amazing, and we’re all thankful to you for that as well!
*hugs*
🙂
You are awesome Romi. I am thankful for you too. I love your blog. Seriously, i don’t know where your ideas come from but it is all gold.
Great post – I love your last line: “Letting go and loving is so much easier than holding on and hating.” I wish everyone thought that way. I think I will copy you again next week and post what I am thankful for. Loved the video of the kids – I think that kid was in my kid’s class. Mine is the one with his hands in his pockets and not singing. Oh, and Amen to Cheese, Triscuits (love the Olive oil and rosemary ones – omg! Have you tried them with cheese?!!)
Amen to the Empire Strikes Back and Great White Sharks. And I love the one about your parents – so sweet. On a side note – this boy in high school quoted lines at me from that movie because my name is Del. *eye roll* Boys are stupid. (not you.)
I bet your kid is the cutest. And, i can be stupid. Give me time.
Thanks for putting me in the Thanksgiving-y mood. And the reminder about the goddamn brownies. I get the silent laughs whenever I think about it.
Why do I think you look younger with the beard? Maybe go all Grizzly Adams since you are a mountain man now. Or would that take too long?
I look younger? I like that one! I am going for a Jeremiah Johnson look.
Excellent post. Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday! You’ve inspired me to make my own “thankful” list to be posted next week.
Re: some of your thankfulness…
– I am thankful for Delaware the same way you are thankful for Idaho.
– I know some very manly men who cannot grow full beards. Don’t let it bother you.
– Exactly what makes you look like a melvin? (Anyway, I thought a “melvin” was a front-pulled wedgie…)
– I would kill for a view like yours. Not really, but, you know…
– Triscuits and Home Improvement rock. Cheese rocks my world.
– I feel the same way about my ex-boyfriends.
– That little guy is the best thing I’ve seen in days. Hooray for little kids!
– I don’t feel you on the “in shape” thing. I was in the best shape of my life at age 9. It’s been going downhill ever since. Not that I’m fat or anything, but I’ve definitely let myself go since college. That whole “comfortable with yourself” thing is a double-edged sword.
Thank you for all the wonderful things to add to my list of things for which I should be thankful.
Thanks Megs! I just said melvin because it sounded dorky. Really? Frontal wedgie, eh? Yikes!
That kid is PRICELESS!!! I can only hope that one day, my son/daughter is as big a ham as that one. It would only be appropriate for my spawn to be as big a doofus as his/her mother.
As for the rest, I like that you gave thanks for the ‘little’ things. Cheese, anyone? Cheese? Kootanie, cheese?
This was a very uplifting post to read. Thanks, I needed that.
“Letting go and loving is so much easier than holding on and hating.”
So, so, so true.
Every year, I put up a “What I’m Thankful For” entry on my blog. The last 2 years have been on the myspace one, but this’ll be the first time it’ll be on Beaming For Bunnies!
“Gobble, Gobble.”
Every time someone uses the name Melvin I think of Melvin from the Toxic Avenger movies and cartoon.
Everybody needs to stop every once in a while and really think about what they are thankful for. I think everybody that has both arms and legs, 5 fingers on each hand, 5 toes on each foot and doesn’t have some kind of freak rare disease should feel like a complete selfish jerk. That is one of my main pet peeves. People that have a constant pity party and they don’t have any of the health issues I mentioned. I am insecure but I don’t feel I go around trying to get sympathy from people. I want to yell at whoever does that at the top of my lungs like a drill sargent. Well every once in a while I do try to get sympathy because my family is freakin’ nuts 🙂 You would be very surprised if you met my two sisters. We are like night and day. And I have sincerely disowned both of them.
I like triscuits sometimes even though they are a bit too crunchy for regular eating. It makes me worry that I am going to lose a filling. I put saltines in my best friend’s lunch all the time. He has bad teeth so it would be near impossible for him to eat triscuits. Poor guy, I wish I had the money to just give him all the fancy smancy stuff to fix his teeth. The dentist told him it would be 1500 dollars a tooth. I hate how rich people have the opportunity to get the best health and everybody else just has to live with it.
I LOATHE those olive oil and rosemary triscuits! You can tolerate those? I got those last year once and I had to suffer with an awful taste in my mouth the rest of the night after about 10 of them. Too rich for me. It tasted like I was just eating straight rosemary. And who the hell would voluntarily choose to do that. Sorry for the kill joy just never bring any to my place lol! Just bring some ritz crackers and a block of cheese to slice up. And some bran muffins.
I admire people that have the gift of moving anyplace and having a job there. You preplanned but still. About 6 years ago I moved to California for a month. That is a wild story but the point of bringing it up was I moved back to Oregon because I couldn’t find a job. I didn’t try hard but still. California! (impression of the little kid in the Wizard lol)
It was indeed an uplifting post. I am thankful for it. 🙂
I don’t think you look like a melvin at all. Certainly it’s not the best picture of you (you got a little of the crazy eyes), but it’s not the beard.
HAHA!! I totally forgot about the expression of being a melvin or a marvin. I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean either. And for a brief, fleeting second when reading The New York Times and right under that you have Kids with their funny first names. So I read The New Kids and assumed you were going to continue with On The Block and I thought, Oh man me too! Er, I mean…what? And my initials are NES as in Nintendo Entertainment System.
I’m thankful my dry cleaner knows how to sew, because I don’t. I’m thankful for Obitz gum, especially after eating the nasty salad that tasted like my grandpa’s lawn. I’m thankful that Jace, my hairdresser of 12 years, makes me look like a million bucks (except last time when I looked like a Texas beauty queen). I’m thankful my freshman year boyfriend, who was pretty but a total idiot, knew how to kiss because at the time I didn’t have clue. I’m thankful my eyes are like mood rings, changing color according to my emotion and what I’m wearing. And lastly, I’m thankful you’re a thief. 😉
I can overlook the Home Improvement (WTF???) because of the John Candy quote. I cry like a little baby every damn time. i’m thankful you changed your header, because that biscuit picture is genius. And, like others, I’m thankful I found your blog. Moon pies on a roller coaster – one of the best things I ever found on the internet.
Ginny has – as she is and will always be quicker than I – beaten me to it but I must raise my voice in gratitude for the Biscuit Invasion Header. Perfect. Truly, truly perfect.
It is an impressive list of gratitude and I’m’a’gonna’ chime in with the rest of the gang to say that I am thankful for your blog too.
My thanksgiving gift to you: Some of the cooler labels I’ve ever seen on microbrews from the province where I grew up…
http://www.unibroue.com/products/bieres.cfm
Click on different names and, in case you don’t know the French words – one of the beers is “The End of the World”, another is a French swear word “Maudite” which is basically Damn — sort of…. “Quelque chose” means “Something”… When I was more of a beer drinker I enjoyed them all… Though there are more of them now then there used to be…
Okay! Happy American Thanksgiving to you!
I’m thankful for a Guy that loves me for being me- a gal that still likes to blow bubbles in her milk and yet still enjoys doing the laundry…
and a dog that listens to me and makes me look like a genius more often than not.
And Cashews.
And Brie.
And Absinthe.
And my boss…I love my boss.
And my job. I have a lovely job.
and bloggers. Y’all keep writing.
I am thankful for my computer…sad. Love the new picture up there billy!
This was a really nice post Billy.. good advice too.
Hope you have a great Turkey Day! 😀
Always loved the film The Burbs, one of the last good comedies Hanks did, and there is always the XE calendar. 🙂
I miss Thanksgiving so much. Here in Italy it’s not celebrated and hardly gets a mention. Halloween has caught on, big time, and Christmas is big, of course. But, for me Thanksgiving is the one that has wonderful family memories.
Thanks for that beautiful post.
Sounds like you’ve got a lot to be thankful for, go you! And dude, kids kill my shit. My dad always calls them ‘worms on speed’. I brought some boutique cupcakes over to a friends house for her little girls birthday. Said little girl is also known as “Ms. Campbell” because while she needs to look super cute and girly at all times, we can totally picture her whipping a cell phone at someone. Well Ms. Mini Campbell licked the caramel off one cupcake and planted the rest of it on the floor. Twenty minutes later: “YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” She. Went. MENTAL!!! Like off the wall mental. Anyways, thats my tangent. Even if I don’t have my own kids yet, I’m pretty thankful for having other peoples awesome wee ones around for practice 😉 Oh, and Josh too of course, I’ll sort of need him for that later on 😛
Have a good one!
ok this has nothing to do with your post, well maybe b/c I’m about to say thanks, but i checked out the book Ultra Marathon Man yesterday at the library per your recommendation of course, and read it last night. It was really good and inspirational for sure. I even went out and bought it for my brother in law for his Christmas gift. So thanks!
Yay for triscuits, and cheese, and blogrolls, and beards and…
Impressive list. Nice beard. Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m so thankful for you and this blog, which has provided me with so many laughs and relief from the stress of life, my friends, X-E (All Hail X-E!), all my other favorite bloggers, Dr. Pepper, Reese’s Cups, a perfectly cooked filet, Frosted Mini-Wheats, All things Horror, David Bowie, Clive Barker novels, MY HEALTH, Batman, the ability to laugh, cartoons, Seinfeld, freedom, going to the movies, TV, video games, and my desire to constantly improve myself, grow, and learn.
Oh, and videos of spastic, jacked up, singing kids and people falling down and hurting themselves in embarrasing and funny ways. All of which can be found right here. You rock, Bill.
Fabulous list. I share some with you (REI, juicy-juice boxes), and others…not so much (Home Improvement, The NY Times). Congratulations on your beard, kicking your 18-yr. old self in the fitness ass, and your bold cross-country move. Many wishes for a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with lot of Triscuits, childhood memories, and rock star shoe wear.
Miss you Buttercup 😉 Have a good Thanksgiving if we don’t hear from you!
With regards to your ability to grow a beard, might I remind you about a little ditty you wrote some months back: “I prayed that I wouldn’t grow up to be a bearded bush man.” Hmmm.
Truer words have never been spoken. Have a happy turkey day. ^^
Being able to put down the bottle and walk away.
BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Hey, I turn 30 in a couple days. Maybe I too can grow a beard!