#365Gratitude Day 33: Present & Accounted For

For as long as I've known them Maya and Michael have both been super thoughtful. They go out of their way to do nice things for others, demonstrate their affection. 

They gave me an awesome thoughtful birthday present Thursday night.  

Oh you want to know what was in it?  Cool shark socks and an even more cool t-shirt. 

Why is this shirt cool?​

Several reasons. ​

​1) It glows in the dark. 

2) It features Stevonnie from Steven Universe

3) And quotes from my most very favorite episode ever, Mindful Education .

4) The second they saw it they knew it was perfect for me, and I would have to have it.  

They were right too. They're so thoughtful!

ps - if you haven't seen the episode, you really should check it out. It's awesome. 

Here:

#365Gratitude Day 32:Carry on with my gratitude

This one's sort of a double-shot.

So last night at dinner, I'm telling Missy and my sister-in-law, MB, what a crazy bunch of days I have ahead of me.  First of all tonight I am going to get a much-needed sleep study, for which I need a small suitcase, because taking one of our really big ones would be silly.  Then tomorrow I'm driving down to North Carolina to visit Maya and Shokolada, and spend the weekend with them, going to a cool Phillip Glass concert, and just spending time.

This means I'm not going to be home for like 5 days.

MB volunteers a suitcase of hers, and goes downstairs to get it for me.  Supertotal nice!

She wishes me safe travels and to have fun down in NC.

After Missy and I have game night with Squee and the kids over the internet, we head off to sleep, and I promptly forget to bring the suitcase upstairs.  

This morning, Missy hugs me, we cuddle a bit, and have this sweet tender moment where she tells me to be safe, have a good time, and be a good boy while I'm away.  I get in the shower, feeling all schmoopy and good over it.

Then I remember that I need to pack, and that the suitcase is still downstairs in the kitchen.

Except it's not.  Missy went and got it for me and brought it upstairs while I was showering, to make it easier on me.

Did I mention that Missy's having trouble with her knee, and that going up and down the stairs doesn't particularly feel good for her just now?

These sorts of little things (that are in fact, not little things at all) are some of the best parts of my life.

I love that my family supports me, in who I am, and what I do.  I love that they're there for me, and get me.  I recognize that I'm kind of an odd duck, not quite like most folks, in so many ways.  But it feels so damn good when the people who I'm the closest to see it and support it.  It's so nice to have family who have my back.

#365Gratitude Day 31:Meatloaf

Yesterday I was at work, breaking my brain on this hard technical thing.  In the middle of the day we had this two hour long meeting that didn't help matters.  Around 5:30 Missy texts me, wanting to know what time I'm going to be home.

No, not this guy.

So I bang away at my tech problem for just a little while longer, then get in my car, and go home.  When I get there, the house is warm, and bright, the dinner table nicely set, and I find meatloaf for dinner.

Missy makes really, really good meatloaf.  It's delightful.  And coming home to a hot dinner made with love, and eating with my family was just what I needed after a long, rather frustrating day.

She takes really good care of me.  I really love her.

#365Gratitude Day 30:Something Something National Conversation

There's this ineffable thing I feel about social media political arguments, it's so hard to express.

It's meaningless barking.  It doesn't solve anything.  The very process of it just expends energy, air, time, and effort to get... nothing.

But that doesn't even cover how I really feel.

However, this ineffable feeling, well, it's done been effed, as it were.  By an artist named Mitchell F. Chan.  He created an "art installation" called Something Something National Conversation.

Here's a description of it from his website:

"In Something Something National Conversation (In 2 Characters Or Less), two clouds of water vapour emerge from holes in opposite gallery walls and float toward each other. They collide and dissipate into nothingness, a phenomenon that repeats in perpetuity. The artwork is simultaneously a spectacle, and an over-elaborate exercise in futility."

It is sublime, perfect.

See for yourself.

#365Gratitude Day 29:Palifornia

I've been friends with my pal Sarah Noel for a loooong time.  I first met her through my friend Cleo, back when she was in service to her.  Ages ago, she came down to visit me, and go with Missy and I to Six Flags, an amusement park outside of Washington DC.

I've know her through every incarnation, and she's had many.  She changed careers, went back to school, changed her identity d/s wise, all sorts of things.  Through it all, we've always been close.  One of my favorite memories of her is a time we just floated together in the pool at my apartment building, talking about our lives.

A few months ago, she moved very far away, to California.

We had a farewell lunch at my house.  It was bittersweet.

But the funny thing is, she and I have talked more often, more regularly since she moved than in the past several years she lived in the area.

We took for granted, both of us, how easily we could see and talk to one another, spend time with one another.

And now we don't.  Whenever we feel like it, which is often, we reach out to one another to talk about Very Big Things, or just How We Are Feeling.

It feels good.  I'm so grateful for my friendship with her.  Love you, Pal.