Grateful Blog

Today I’m grateful that:

• I read this profile on Mr. Rogers from well over a decade ago, a piece originally published in Esquire by Tom Junod. The blogger who more recently posted the article mentioned that reading it today still makes her “cry throughout.” I initially found that idea pretty ridiculous, and thought that the blogger, despite having the fantastic tag line “So Awesome You Just Might Punch Her in the Face”, must be emotionally unstable. But let’s just say that either I’m also emotionally unstable, I had a bunch of dust particles in my eyes while reading the article, or it was just a damn good story.

Today I’m grateful that:

• At least the refrigerator stopped working, again, after I had served lunch to the family.
• We had a full afternoon with the Toronto wing of the family.
• Gabriel didn’t mind sharing his belated birthday celebration with Josh, who has been having a hard time waiting until October to celebrate his birthday.

Today I’m grateful that:

• My sister, Jenn, and her family got into Boston from Toronto safe and sound early this morning/last night (depending on whether you consider 2am morning or night).
• Cass and Ellen hosted the usual family gathering today so that Jenn and Gus didn’t have to after the long drive, and so that I didn’t have to host two days in a row
• My sister, Heath, and I joined my nephew Josh on the swings at the park. Yes, ON the swings. It’s been far too long since I’ve sat my adult behind on a swing and reached for the sky with my feet. It’s one of the best ways to see the world. Coming down a slide is not a bad way to see the word, either, as Josh can attest, many times.
• Adults actually playing at playgrounds is a good thing. The photo below shows Chad’s attempt to use both swing lines at the same time. Key word being attempt.

Today I’m grateful that:

• Our refrigerator is finally fixed! Two weeks without a full-sized refrigerator is a really long time. I mean, my college days are long over, people.
• My dad is retired and willing to spend a fair amount of time sitting around my house waiting for various service people. The amount of time he’s spent doing this over the past four years borders on obscene. Thanks, Dad!
• My brother often thinks about me and Chad when he is picking up donations in his job working as a driver for Big Brother Big Sister. Okay, so when I first came home a few months ago and saw the mini fridge (which was fairly sizable for a “mini” fridge), the thought going through my head was something along the lines of, “Do we really need a separate fridge for beer?” (To which, of course, Chad answered, “Yes. Yes, we do.” That’s how he answered in my head.) Well, over the past two weeks I have been extremely grateful to have this pretty big mini fridge for beer and more importantly (yes, more importantly), a small amount of food to get us through til the fridge fix of today. Thanks, Tommy!

Today I’m grateful that:

• I got to see two of my favorite musicians, Ray Lamontagne and David Gray, thanks to my friend Tracy thinking of me with her extra ticket. The photo credit goes to her. (It’s David Gray. I swear.)
• Ray was super chatty for Ray. I believe he said three full sentences. That’s the equivalent of a novel for him. And for the record, they were three very sweet and complementary sentences about New England. We felt the love!
• Tracy is one of my favorite fellow people watchers. And there were certainly plenty of people watching opps tonight. Special shout out to the girl a couple rows in front of us who decided a Ray Lamontagne/David Gray show was a great place to get completely hammered and pass out COLD mid-way through David Gray’s set. You provided us so much unexpected special entertainment!

Today I’m grateful that:

• I finally caught up on So You Think You Can Dance. Despite losing two of the best dancers to injury, somehow the final three of Lauren, Kent and Robert seemed just right. Well done, Lauren!
• Reality TV is full of an unbelievable amount of utter crap. This is not crap: “Fix You”, choreographed by Travis Wall, danced by Robert and Allison. Watch it here, since sadly Fox.com’s embedding code is not working.

Today I’m grateful that:

• The weather was perfect for a day of island hopping in Boston Harbor with my nephew Gabriel as the star of the day, and my husband Chad and my brother Tommy as the supporting cast.
• I got to spend “quality time”, as they say, with Gabriel. These days are few and far between. I’m sure his Mom in Toronto misses him, but from a selfish point of view, I’m so happy for this extra time with him.
• Here’s our self-portrait in the blazing sun on the boat on the way to Spectacle Island for kite flying.

Today I’m grateful that:

• Tracy thought of me with her extra ticket for Ray Lamontagne and David Gray! Really looking forward to next Tuesday’s night of super mellow somewhat downer music.  Hoping Ray doesn’t show up looking too much like an extra from Little House on the Prairie. (Okay, I don’t really care what he looks like as long as he shows up and sings.)
• Whatever my day was like, it wasn’t as bad as this “lady’s” day was:

Today I’m grateful for:

• Getting to the beach at the perfect time to just catch the sun as it set.
• I find this news very encouraging: Spinal-Fluid Test Is Found to Predict Alzheimer’s. There’s a long way to go, but this is amazing progress. (Granted, I wouldn’t take the test myself … but I’m hopeful that this will lead to further improvements in the treatement of the disease so that maybe some day I’ll think it’s worth taking the test.)
• I’ve said it plenty of times before, but it’s worth repeating: The people who work at my grandmothers’ assisted living facility are saints.
• Other writers who write mostly just to write. Right? I enjoy the food for thought and/or pure entertainment value that this provides.

Today I’m grateful that:

• Even though the past week, especially the past four days, has been super busy, uncertain at times, and a little overwhelming, it’s all been mixed with great family and friends that turned it into one of the best weekends I’ve had in awhile.
• My brother and little sister like playing nerdy board games til one in the morning on a Saturday night. Okay, maybe they didn’t exactly like it by 1am, but at least at that point they humored me and continued playing Racko until I finally won a game! (Yes, I made them pose for this picture. They looked thrilled, right?)
• Relatively short but quality time with two of our best D.C. friends, Dana and T.O. Sadly, separately, but one of these days we’ll get the band back together.
• Seeing children you baby-sat become adults brings up a strange mix of emotions, but it helps when they become pretty impressive adults. Really glad that despite feeling like I had a million things to do, I hung out for a couple of hours at Julia’s high school graduation party. I think it’s pretty cool that she’s going into graphic design at Colby-Sawyer, and Robbie is interning at the Ledger and going to be sports editor at the Colby newspaper this year — My plan to influence their minds into following in my footsteps worked! World domination is up next…