2009-09-02

Sure. Gratitude. Why not.

On those days when I am feeling out of sorts and a bit like a toddler with crappy pants who'd rather sit in the crap and wait for someone else to deal with it than learn how NOT to have crappy pants (and this is fairly regularly), I have been taught to count my blessings and make a GRATITUDE LIST.

I hate that. I really do. I hate it because it sounds so trite and ridiculous and touchy-feely. I hate it when someone reminds me to do it, and I hate it when I hear this very suggestion coming out of my own mouth. More importantly -- I hate it because it WORKS.

I woke up this morning with that "crappy pants" feeling. Those of you in the Greater Boston area know that we've had probably 2 weeks of actual summer (and that's a generous estimate), and the past few mornings have clocked in at just around 50 degrees (yeah, yeah, I know Los Angeles is currently on fire, and Texas has been hotter than two rats getting it on in a wool sock). I'm simply not ready to surrender my sandals and sundresses.

I had also been plagued all last night with bizarro nightmares, the last of which had me in the balcony of my junior high school's auditorium, fighting off a bunch of "30 Days of Night"-esque vampires. I was just grumpy and cold and weirded out, and I KNEW what I had to do, and here's what I came up with:

1) I am grateful that it's September 2nd, and I am not coated in newsprint and surrounded by scavenged copy paper boxes full of college textbooks that I can't get rid of, some seventeen years after graduating from college. I am grateful that I didn't move yesterday, nor was I involved in/affected by somebody else's move.

2) I am grateful that this is my twelfth year in my beloved Jamaica Plain, my birthplace and "ancestral homeland." I am grateful that I no longer live in Allston, and am therefore not subject to the vertiginous wretching HORROR that is the B Line come autumn.

3) I am a tiny bit grateful that the Halloween stuff is on display at CVS, even though it's not even Labor Day.

4) I am grateful for the new season of "Mad Men," because I had my doubts after the season premiere a couple of weeks ago. But once again, it is TOTALLY delivering the goods:

I feel better already.

lisamcc at 9:39 a.m.



3 comments so far
Lynette
2009-09-02 14:41:18
Yah, hard to pull out the Happy List in those moods. I'm with you, though. Sometimes it's all I can do to come up with three things I'm grateful for. Once, I was scraping the barrel and came up with being happy that squirrels have such huge fluffy tails. Today, I'm pretty damned glad I know you. And that's true pretty much EVERY day.
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Michelle DiPoala
2009-09-02 16:25:15
Note to self: do not take a big sip of coffee while reading McC's diary, because you never know when a phrase like "two rats getting it on in a wool sock" will make coffee go...everywhere...and now the rest of the day will be spent shaking out the keyboard and smelling like dark roast.
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Jess
2009-09-02 16:42:37
I'm sorry you're having a crappy day. I like your list. Josh, Jeff, & I are planning a "Mad Men" night(s) when we move because Jeff & I still haven't seen it.
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