Curious Notions

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Before I head home to Houston, I’m going to squeeze in a third Gratitude list.

If you missed the first two here they are:

- 10 Things I’m Currently Thankful for
- 10 More Things I’m Currently Thankful for

1. A full time job! As I mentioned once or twice before, I landed a job and will be working at my Alma Mater. I start next Tuesday.
   

   I went to the lab to talk about the job offer last week and as I was hanging out I saw one of my old professors. It’s kind of a funny thing to see professors after you graduate and be inundated with academic memories. Some not so good ones! I had to suppress an urge to shrink away. Anyway, I digress. I gots a full time gig after not having a full time gig since June.

2. Reunions over Thanksgiving! I have a handful of friends I haven’t seen in months and I get to see some of them in Houston this weekend for Thanksgiving. Although, it’s going to be challenging to time budget between friends and family in just 3 days, I think it’s not too shabby of a problem to have.
3. My car.
   
   My first baby.
   
   My baby Civic

   I bought my car summer of 2007 after getting in a car accident. Ever try to imagine your life without your car? I wouldn’t be able to get to work (my current part time position is 45 minutes away by car.) I wouldn’t be able to drive to Houston to visit. No fun trips to restaurants, etc. Austin isn’t a pedestrian city. My car makes it possible for me to play, work, and explore. Yay car!

   I’m also grateful I didn’t play around and paid off my 5 year car loan in 1.5 years. This made the last 5 months of unemployment easier without having an extra 200 dollars a month to expense for a car payment.

4. My Washer/Dryer. I remember the days of hauling my laundry to the laundromat and setting aside hours at a time to get laundry done. I’ve filled up COUNTLESS journal pages people watching as I think it’s extra interesting to see what people wash. Heehee. I haven’t had to use a laundromat for years now. I had a roommate 2007 with a washer/dryer. In 2008, Miss Jamie let Alan and I borrow her washer and dryer and we helped her “store” it. When I moved to my own place last year, I thought I’d forgo fun purchases and spend almost a thousand on a set. It was money well spent. There’s freedom in owning your own washer dryer.
5. Trip to San Fran and Boston! I’m incredibly lucky to be able to travel a little bit this year considering my stint with unemployment.
   

   I took a trip to San Fran with Alan right before putting in my notice at my previous full time position. It was kind of a celebration of a new beginning for me and was also the first trip Alan and I took together. San Fran is one of my favorite cities now. I was also extremely blessed to have such a loving BFF/FFB who gifted me her flight miles to go see her in Boston. I hadn’t seen her in Boston for a few years and it was good timing for us. I can’t wait to go back to see her new house! :)

   I’m always thankful for any kind of travel I’m able to swing.

6. Those who read what I write. I’m thankful for my regular readers (mostly friends and boyfriend). I’m thankful for the comments you take the time to write and just over all taking the time to read my humble little blog. I’m thankful for the mentions you make when we chat, for the followers, and the subscribers. I’m thankful for you!
7. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. I’m thankful for great memories and hard lessons from my past. I’m thankful for the photos and the journals that help me not to forget.
   

   I’m thankful for today and being alive. I’m thankful for the possibilities that lie in the future and my capacity to dream and plan.

8. Friends.
   

   It would take me all day to name them all by name but I’m thankful for them all. I come from a small isolated family. We hardly have any extended family. My friends are my extended family. They want the best for me and are my cheerleaders in life. I’m forever thankful.

9. Living in Austin. Did you know this year we hold the accolade of least stressful city in the US? I love living in Austin. I love how pretty it is with the lakes and hills. I love the events hosted by us. I love our downtown area. It’s a wonderful, fun, smart, and young city.
10. Books
    

    I cannot wait to own my own place and have my library set up! Books and bookstores are foolproof sources of comfort for me. I grew up around a lot of books so they conjure up a feeling of youthful awe. I also grew up seeing my dad with a book EVERY NIGHT, and every moment he had free and anything that reminds me of my dad also releases a lot of dopamine in my noggin. All the positive memory associations aside, books nourish me. They’ve molded my philosophies in life, provided understanding, clarity, education, inspiration… the list goes on. I love books. I’m thankful I’m in a country that limits censorship and that my parents raise me to value and appreciate the written word.

Rules also defined my wacked search for love. With my thoughts so tempered by the quality of a man’s character, his steadfastness, his commitment to providing a quality education for children we didn’t have, his loyalty to people I didn’t know, his love for family I’d never meet, I became totally oblivious to the short-term factors that typically define good relationships: whether he’d pay for dinner, whether he’d be good in bed. If he was smart enough to quip back. If he was capable of keeping up. After 2 dates, I had a very clear sense of who was in and who was out. And after three? They so rarely got to three that it’s hard to know for sure what the rule for three was. Still even those who fit the royal flush of good men, good partner, and good prospect had trouble getting past me.

- Shannon O’ Keefe, “Twenty-eight is the new eighteeen.” It’s a Wonderful Lie: 26 Truths about Life in Your Twenties.

Me.

Last year this month, I came across a fork. I could have easily become a flight attendant. According to an airline company I had the perfect personality to be a flight attendant. (Really, what does that mean?) I could have relocated to Chicago and travel for a living. I chose to rough it out in Austin. Since then, I worked at 3 jobs. I thought I was finally settled for a good two years at least at my current position(before I go back to school), but then today I was given a business proposition that would be a complete career change.

In a sense, I’m a yes-girl. You have an idea? Let’s do it! You want to skydive? Let’s do it! You want to get married in Florida? Okie dokie! Forks are trickier. Especially when you’re happy where you are.

Unlike choose your own adventure books, you can’t cheat and go back and redo the decision making. I keep telling myself it doesn’t really matter what you choose to do in life. You’ll always gain something. You’ll always lose something. What makes it bearable is that you can never be quite sure what exactly it is you’re foregoing. Ignorance is bliss. So what then matters? I think it is whether you can stand who you are as you’re going.

Right?

I bought a bedroom set today. Our lease ends in June so right now it’s on layaway till we have our new address. But the salesman talked me from a 500 dollar mattress set to a 1200 dollar mattress set. It was divine. I’m upgrading from my used full size bed I bought 5 years ago to a more spacious queen bed. That on top of the bedroom set, I spent 2400 in one day. My most expensive buy ever.. minus the college education (for which I’m still paying.) Yay for no interest for 2 years.

I was going to buy myself something from Tiffany’s but thought this would be more responsible.