![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I am grateful for a lot of things, today, though somehow my gratitude is coming out a little confounded with kvetchiness. Sorry about that.
I am grateful that I have my beloved laptop back and it works and everything from my fortuitous back up is reinstalled correctly and the new motherboard seems to work, and, fucking YAY. I didn't think I'd get it back until Wednesday or later and I wasn't looking forward to teaching/Zooming on the incredibly shitty cheap Acer that is my work laptop. At least I HAD that at home, if I'd had to Zoom on Monday without my MacBook Pro. I know Mac preferers are annoying. I know that. But god I love my laptop. I like how it feels to type on it. I like the incredibly clear, detailed, bright graphics. I like whatever I understand of the OS (not much, and I am so far not a fan of Ventura) but I don't care, I prefer it to Microsoft Windows.
(I am a little daunted at how much I missed it, and how much I do on it, and on the internet... I mean, I have a smart phone and an iPad, so you wouldn't think I'd miss it so much, but oh, I did. I don't have cable, so I stream stuff, when I want to watch something. And the Acer was just so unpleasant to use! I just tend to segregate my internet use... phone is for texting and talking and photos and quick looking things up -- no notifications of any kind, no email, etc.; iPad is mostly for reading, and a couple of stress relieving games -- WebSudoku, Bejewelled Blitz? Is that the name? I got to the highest level and just kept playing... Jigsaw World... this dumbassed one I got this year that has pretty art/graphics and some amount of anticipation -- June's Journey. And that's it. Also no email on my iPad. Though of course if I have to I can just go to gmail, ugh. Laptop: email, internet, music, streaming (also internet), writing, lesson planning, Zooming, two games I hardly ever play -- Civ VI, and Sims4... sometimes in the summer, I guess.)
I am grateful I have my music back, so I can unashamedly play Xmas music now that Thanksgiving is over. I am grateful for most Xmas music. Not the following: "Jingle Bells", "Frosty the Snowman", "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (possibly I just mean all songs referencing Santa Claus?)...
I am grateful that every year that I am anxious about going to my sister's for Thanksgiving, with her in-laws and her best friend, it turns out better and less alienating than I expect it to. This year was nice. I think Rachel's anxiety about and hatred of hosting and cooking for Thanksgiving partly communicates itself to me. I like our family's (read: my father's) rigid, historically set Thanksgiving menu*, and I cook it well. But Rachel doesn't want that menu, and doesn't want it cooked by me, at her house. It would be very difficult to cook and serve it in my apartment with its very small kitchen and smaller dining room table, which seats four. Rachel asked me how I would feel about ham for Thanksgiving and I flat out lied that what's important isn't the meal, but eating a meal with loved ones. She actually went ahead and did turkey and mostly regular stuff. She's a bit orthorectic... I'd say a lot orthorectic, but she's not actually unhealthy about obsessing over eating healthy. Just annoying. Stuffing in the bird: unhealthy; too fatty. Gravy using a lot of the drippings, ditto. And so on.
I am grateful that, having taken my first ever rapid Covid test (I am also grateful that Dani sent away for these government freebies for me and they were delivered to me, whatever the maximum was) -- it came up negative. I have the first congested chest cold I've suffered in about three years. But not Covid!
I am grateful that my second post-cancer check-up went well.
I am grateful for rain out here, though it doesn't rain enough and doesn't rain hard enough. I miss thunderstorms. Not sure I miss snow, though.
I am grateful for re-reading old mystery series.
I am grateful for Irish breakfast tea and half and half.
I am grateful for my Calamityware teapot and mug.
I am beyond grateful for my cat Devlin, who is the sweetest animal ever, ever, ever.
I am deeply grateful for my family -- my dad turned 80 this year -- and my friends, in person and online.
I am -- even though it is weird -- grateful to be teaching via Zoom.
I am super grateful for Internet Archive and all of the undigitized books that selfless people have uploaded so they can be borrowed.
I am grateful for the rabbithole that is Ancestry.com, even though they charge ridiculously for access to their searching.
I am grateful for this apartment. It's an excellent apartment, with a washer and dryer in the kitchen, carpeting (which I thought I'd hate, but have come to love), two bathrooms (well, a walk in shower and a half-bathroom... more accurate to say two toilets); three big closets; a huge balcony with the few plants I don't kill -- a gigantic jade plant someone left before they moved out, and a big pot of rosemary and another of lavender. The building ain't pretty -- it was built in 1979 or 1981, something like that. And the town is not aesthetic, to say the least. I miss Oakland. But it was, as my sister insisted it would be, $125K to $200K less for the same sort and size of condo in a building with an elevator and parking garage space.
I am grateful there was no overwhelming "red wave" (though still infuriated that Republicans get to claim that color... that is bullshit. They should claim... yellow. Or brown(shirt).)
* • a turkey, stuffed with sage-and-onion dressing (celery, croutons and I'm not fussy about fresh bread; I'll use commercial dried Pepperidge farm or whatever, lots of onions, lots of butter, salt, pepper, sage... lots of sage), basted while being roasted; • giblet gravy made from the drippings, flour, whole milk, diced liver and kidney, MAYBE the heart; • mashed potatoes; • sweet potatoes (strictly orthodox = mashed, I think? But Rachel made them curried one year, my first year out here, and they were so good I added them to the 1930s menu); • cranberry relish, one of the berries and one of the can-shaped molded jelly; • acorn squash, cut in half and roasted with butter, brown sugar, salt, and pepper; and two weird additions my dad insists on that almost no one eats, but since I didn't have to cook them, I don't care: Parker House rolls, and a jar of corn relish. Oh, and • pumpkin pie, mince pie, whipped cream, and coffee. And wine with dinner, which isn't my thing, but whatever. Again, I don't have to cook it!
I am grateful that I have my beloved laptop back and it works and everything from my fortuitous back up is reinstalled correctly and the new motherboard seems to work, and, fucking YAY. I didn't think I'd get it back until Wednesday or later and I wasn't looking forward to teaching/Zooming on the incredibly shitty cheap Acer that is my work laptop. At least I HAD that at home, if I'd had to Zoom on Monday without my MacBook Pro. I know Mac preferers are annoying. I know that. But god I love my laptop. I like how it feels to type on it. I like the incredibly clear, detailed, bright graphics. I like whatever I understand of the OS (not much, and I am so far not a fan of Ventura) but I don't care, I prefer it to Microsoft Windows.
(I am a little daunted at how much I missed it, and how much I do on it, and on the internet... I mean, I have a smart phone and an iPad, so you wouldn't think I'd miss it so much, but oh, I did. I don't have cable, so I stream stuff, when I want to watch something. And the Acer was just so unpleasant to use! I just tend to segregate my internet use... phone is for texting and talking and photos and quick looking things up -- no notifications of any kind, no email, etc.; iPad is mostly for reading, and a couple of stress relieving games -- WebSudoku, Bejewelled Blitz? Is that the name? I got to the highest level and just kept playing... Jigsaw World... this dumbassed one I got this year that has pretty art/graphics and some amount of anticipation -- June's Journey. And that's it. Also no email on my iPad. Though of course if I have to I can just go to gmail, ugh. Laptop: email, internet, music, streaming (also internet), writing, lesson planning, Zooming, two games I hardly ever play -- Civ VI, and Sims4... sometimes in the summer, I guess.)
I am grateful I have my music back, so I can unashamedly play Xmas music now that Thanksgiving is over. I am grateful for most Xmas music. Not the following: "Jingle Bells", "Frosty the Snowman", "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (possibly I just mean all songs referencing Santa Claus?)...
I am grateful that every year that I am anxious about going to my sister's for Thanksgiving, with her in-laws and her best friend, it turns out better and less alienating than I expect it to. This year was nice. I think Rachel's anxiety about and hatred of hosting and cooking for Thanksgiving partly communicates itself to me. I like our family's (read: my father's) rigid, historically set Thanksgiving menu*, and I cook it well. But Rachel doesn't want that menu, and doesn't want it cooked by me, at her house. It would be very difficult to cook and serve it in my apartment with its very small kitchen and smaller dining room table, which seats four. Rachel asked me how I would feel about ham for Thanksgiving and I flat out lied that what's important isn't the meal, but eating a meal with loved ones. She actually went ahead and did turkey and mostly regular stuff. She's a bit orthorectic... I'd say a lot orthorectic, but she's not actually unhealthy about obsessing over eating healthy. Just annoying. Stuffing in the bird: unhealthy; too fatty. Gravy using a lot of the drippings, ditto. And so on.
I am grateful that, having taken my first ever rapid Covid test (I am also grateful that Dani sent away for these government freebies for me and they were delivered to me, whatever the maximum was) -- it came up negative. I have the first congested chest cold I've suffered in about three years. But not Covid!
I am grateful that my second post-cancer check-up went well.
I am grateful for rain out here, though it doesn't rain enough and doesn't rain hard enough. I miss thunderstorms. Not sure I miss snow, though.
I am grateful for re-reading old mystery series.
I am grateful for Irish breakfast tea and half and half.
I am grateful for my Calamityware teapot and mug.
I am beyond grateful for my cat Devlin, who is the sweetest animal ever, ever, ever.
I am deeply grateful for my family -- my dad turned 80 this year -- and my friends, in person and online.
I am -- even though it is weird -- grateful to be teaching via Zoom.
I am super grateful for Internet Archive and all of the undigitized books that selfless people have uploaded so they can be borrowed.
I am grateful for the rabbithole that is Ancestry.com, even though they charge ridiculously for access to their searching.
I am grateful for this apartment. It's an excellent apartment, with a washer and dryer in the kitchen, carpeting (which I thought I'd hate, but have come to love), two bathrooms (well, a walk in shower and a half-bathroom... more accurate to say two toilets); three big closets; a huge balcony with the few plants I don't kill -- a gigantic jade plant someone left before they moved out, and a big pot of rosemary and another of lavender. The building ain't pretty -- it was built in 1979 or 1981, something like that. And the town is not aesthetic, to say the least. I miss Oakland. But it was, as my sister insisted it would be, $125K to $200K less for the same sort and size of condo in a building with an elevator and parking garage space.
I am grateful there was no overwhelming "red wave" (though still infuriated that Republicans get to claim that color... that is bullshit. They should claim... yellow. Or brown(shirt).)
* • a turkey, stuffed with sage-and-onion dressing (celery, croutons and I'm not fussy about fresh bread; I'll use commercial dried Pepperidge farm or whatever, lots of onions, lots of butter, salt, pepper, sage... lots of sage), basted while being roasted; • giblet gravy made from the drippings, flour, whole milk, diced liver and kidney, MAYBE the heart; • mashed potatoes; • sweet potatoes (strictly orthodox = mashed, I think? But Rachel made them curried one year, my first year out here, and they were so good I added them to the 1930s menu); • cranberry relish, one of the berries and one of the can-shaped molded jelly; • acorn squash, cut in half and roasted with butter, brown sugar, salt, and pepper; and two weird additions my dad insists on that almost no one eats, but since I didn't have to cook them, I don't care: Parker House rolls, and a jar of corn relish. Oh, and • pumpkin pie, mince pie, whipped cream, and coffee. And wine with dinner, which isn't my thing, but whatever. Again, I don't have to cook it!