Thanksgiving (A self-indulgent blogathon, updated throughout the weekend) Last update 11/27 at 5PM

I'm not a big fan of designating a day to stop and express thanks and list off things that one is thankful for. I am, however, a big believer in doing that on a regular basis.

I've probably rambled on about this before, but in my youthful effort to "find myself," one of the things I discovered is that (1) my immediate response is always to take something at face value, before I start to attach meaning, motivation, or anything else to it, and (2) most people don't do that. I'm not saying one is better than another, it's not like I'm doing it on purpose. It's just the way my brain works and it's something that makes me different. This has many ramifications, not the least of which is my sense of humor, which is very much based on my taking things as they're said as opposed to what they mean.

Another result is that because I have to stop and think about everything, (including, to give a small but absolutely true example, what is the proper response when I pass someone I know and they say "Hi" to me?) that I actually think about everything. I don't recommend this taken to my peculiar extreme; it's exhausting, but it does have the advantage that I never take anything for granted and am therefore thankful for the gifts that life brings me on an almost continual basis. What I would recommend to people is that they at least every once in a while (and once in a while doesn't mean every 4th Thursday in November) stop and think about what happened to you today. There's nothing profound about this and you don't actually have to do anything, but I think if you stop and review your day you'll find many things to be thankful for, even on the worst of days.

So as the weekend progresses, I'll start listing stuff I'm thankful for, in no particular order.

Potato chips (I told you it was in no particular order)
baseball
tape
snow
The Beatles
word processing
comfortable clothes
trash removal
The Coopermarket
flashlights
Monty Python

I'm thankful for Tofurkey. Not that I want Tofurkey, but it's nice to know that if I wanted something turkey-like that wasn't turkey, that I'd have that option.

I'm thankful for the death of the sitcom.