Thankful

In the holiday spirit, a short list of things I'm thankful for:

• poems, and the ability to write them


• a (relatively) healthy family


• awesome friends


• good weather (at least for today)


• fresh strawberries in the off-season


• student loans (so money is not an issue, at least until six months after I graduate)


• a light end-of-the-semester to do list


• this email (which means I do not have to update the pdf version of my thesis):

"Your ETD submitted paper looks great and is error free. My records indicate that we still need a signature page from you. Please make sure to submit one ASAP."

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I'm off to "teach" in a minute here. Several people in my class are already on their way home for the holiday, so I imagine there won't be much actual teaching happening. There may be a game of pictionary, though. Do all students love drawing on the chalkboard, or just mine?

After that, I'll be heading out to Mom and Dad's house and will probably be there until Friday. When I first got my driver's license, I loved the trip between Mom and Dad's house and Akron. Sometimes drove it six times a week in a 1980 Lincoln Continental that got 8 miles to a gallon and leaked oil. Opened my sun roof, cranked up the radio, and barrelled down the high way at 79 miles per hour (I was convinced if I didn't go over 80, I wouldn't get pulled over. And I didn't get my first ticket until long after my trusty Lincoln was in the land-yacht grave yard.) I had school in Akron, and friends in Akron, and I was happy to drive to see them. These days, I try to see as many people as possible while I'm at my parents' house so I don't have to drive back and forth. Sometimes my plan back fires, though. Last Christmas, I went out there and then got a call that my friends from high school were hanging out in downtown Akron. I called ahead this time. (And to the left, a slightly embarrasing picture of me with the brown beast. I called her Bessie.)

Anyhow, I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving. I imagine it's going to be pretty quiet around the blogosphere for the next few days, so we'll see if I can stay away as long as everyone else does.