Grateful Blog

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:

• My Dad has finally discovered Family Guy. Hearing his re-cap of the episode “Hell Comes to Quahog” was quite entertaining, especially given that it was in front of my typically more P.C. mother who may or may not have been feeling the effects of morphine during my Dad’s very animated re-cap.
• My Mom got infused with some morphine to help with her pain. Drugs are good. Those ones, anyway.
• The torrential downpours this afternoon drove most of the humidity out of the air, making for a beautiful night to kill time at the beach. Bummed that I was killing time because Dana’s flight was delayed due to said storms … but happy I will be seeing her in approximately an hour!

Today brings some thanks related to some of the important men in my life, in honor of Father’s Day…

• Thanks to Grandpa Doyer for demonstrating true devotion to my grandmother, creativity and resourcefulness, and teaching me to putt! During our many, many visits to their home in New Hampshire, we would go out for lunch or something else, and inevitably on the drive home we would stop to examine a yard sale or even just something someone had left on the side of the road. So, I thank Grandpa D for showing me the true meaning of the phrase, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”



• Thanks to my Grandpa Sullivan for being an example of dedication to family, treating all people equally, and hard work.
• Thanks to my dad for teaching me to appreciate human history, music, and finding laughter (huge, hearty, “horse” laughter) in just about everything.

Today I’m grateful that:

• The weather was perfect for celebrating my parents’ 40th anniversary with a dinner on the deck overlooking the bay. Granted, that wasn’t the original plan, but sometimes where you end up is better than where you thought you should go.

(Credit to Heather for the photo)

Today I’m grateful for a host of random but worthy things, including:

• I had a great day at work. It’s so satisfying to see people get excited about what an online community can do, even when (maybe especially when) it started as an uphill battle.
• There is train wreck TV like The Bachelorette to make me laugh out loud and feel better about my past dating history. Guys like Kasey and the Weatherman make my worst/weirdest dating experience seem like a harmless, wonderful walk in the park amidst rainbows and butterflies.
• There is quality TV like “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” to make me laugh out loud without feeling ashamed to admit it in public settings (see previous bullet point). Actually, given the mostly evil nature of the comedy on the show, maybe I should feel ashamed. But I don’t. Oh well. Below is a very tame (But still hilarious) example of the genius:
• My father sends me e-mails like this one, with the comment, “There is more than one thing very wrong with the tag line for this Bill Brett photo” accompanying this photo.
• Love is in the air! So happy that B.J. (brother of my brother-in-law, if you follow, and all-around great person) is engaged to Grace. What great news!

Some days it’s more important than others for me to focus on the things that I’m grateful for. Today is one of those, and today I’m grateful that:

• My sister and her family arrived home in Toronto safe and sound after a long drive from Boston.
• My father, though retired for a few years now, still puts his 30+ years in human resources to good use dispensing advice from time to time when called upon.
• My former co-workers have a sick sense of humor and apparently a fair amount of time on their hands. It made for a long and entertaining e-mail string to read while stuck in traffic on the way home from work tonight.
• This is not always the best thing, but tonight I’m grateful that Chad can sleep through pretty much anything, including my typing. Tonight I’m grateful to be able to get some things done on the interwebs from bed, where I can still glance over and see him there. Maybe not 100% there at this very moment, but still there, and for that I am very grateful.

Today I’m grateful that:

• Twenty-eight years ago today, my sister Heather was born. We pretty much couldn’t stand each other for many years, being stuck in the same bedroom together for too long, but I’m so grateful that with age we were able to become the best of friends.
• My own memories of this day include my Dad calling me, my other sister, and my brother into my parents’ bedroom very early that morning to tell us that we had a new little sister … at which point my then 10-year-old brother Tommy ran out of the room in a fit of unhappiness at realizing he was to forever be outnumbered three to one.
• My Dad shared his memories of that day via e-mail with us all: “By the time you were born, cigars (even bubble gum cigars) were starting to be out of vogue as a way of celebrating a birth. I brought in little boxes of candies (with pink ribbons of course) to pass out. And by the time you were born, Mom and I had seen almost everything with babies and very little kids so it was so much easier to just “enjoy” you when you came home (like playing with a new toy so to speak). And you were the big deal since you were born before your two cousins!”
• I think this photo, taken before Heather’s christening, sums a lot up:

Today I’m grateful for:

• My parents were able to drive me to the doctor’s office, with Chad unable to leave work and myself unable to drive myself due to … well, the whole reason I was going to the doctor’s, a lovely stomach virus keeping me from eating or drinking anything for three days!
• Everyone at the Urgent Care facility in Waltham for pumping me full of fluids, anti-nausea and pain meds, and doing it all with sympathetic and patient smiles on their face. It makes a difference!
• Whatever little machine that warms the blankets in the Urgent Care facility — that thing is magical! I would like one for my home.

Today I’m grateful that:

• My dad is retired. It comes in handy for me sometimes! (Yes, that was a pretty selfish reason to be grateful that he’s retired. For the record, I’m also grateful that he doesn’t have to work every day!)

Today I’m grateful that:

• I have a dad with, among other things, a great sense of humor, many a story to tell, and good taste in music.
• My dad introduced me to Bruce Springsteen at a very young age. Today I gave him Bruce’s “The Seeger Sessions” as a Father’s Day gift, and I love that he will appreciate it as much as I did.
• My dad sacrificed so much for me and my siblings over the years. I appreciate this more as time goes on. When he was my age, he was the lone source of income for four kids. I can’t really relate, but I can certainly appreciate.