Giving Thanks

This year, I really want to remember and take a moment for the good things in my life. The things that I am truly thankful for. In no particular order, I am thankful for:
my wife
my mother
my step-father
my 17-year-old
my almost 13-year-old
our kidden
my 17-year-old's kidden
A.F.
O.W.
C.R.N.
Horrible Things
P.J.
T.R.
Pj.J.
sex
basketball
Labatt Blue
super spicy and juicy boneless wings from BW3
my bed
my iPod
movies in the theatre with my step-father
my monthly lunches with my mother
random dates with my wife, especially to hotels around the corner
drives with my 17-year-old
J.I.
H.H.
B.B.
A.H.
my computer
my wife's computer
my 17-year-old's iPod
my happy hat
my hoodie
my comfy pants
snuggles with my wife in the rumpass room
our wall-full of movies
our wonderful surround sound
Netflix
Playstation 3
pancakes
my shoes
prescription medication which works sometimes
my mother's halloween costume
my wife's halloween costume
seeing the boy's and their friends have a great halloween together
having a job that almost supports us
biscuits
BURGER NITE, BITCHES!
texting that keeps friends closer
the way my wife asks me to scratch her almost every night
my wife's boss
my wife's job
the original 1977 release of Star Wars
the original 1980 release of The Empire Strikes Back
the original 1983 release of Return of the Jedi
Run, Lola, Run
Bruce Lee
The Big Boss
Enter the Dragon
Fist of Fury
Way of the Dragon
Game of Death
Legend
Joe vs. the Volcano
Wolverine
The X-Men
Gandhi
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Rad Civic
The People Carrier
Big Gulps!
Slowly decreasing court activities
K.M.
positive memories
Yor The Hunter From The Future
Fall of Empire
donuts
cookie dough
NTN Trivia!
Ip Man movie
Ip Man 2 movie
dolphins
posters on the ceiling
ice makers
our recliners that are not broken, but well loved
our big screen TV
listening to my mother play the piano
hearing my mother tell the story of my birth on my birthday
my wife's butt dance
the way my wife gasps when I touch her
canned spinach
diet Mountain Dew Code Red
dreams of Portland
big pants
B.C.
H.L.R... except that might not be the right last name anymore
R.B.W.
improvisation
singing
smiles on other's faces that I've put there
wrestling with M.M.
my wife's fire pit
O.W.'s mother
Cadburry cream eggs
Ingrid's Kitchen
Louie's
A.F.'s son-in-law's health
cool weather
sleeping in our bed my comforter
rice
ramen
gum
Skyrim
The Incredible Hulk #181
The Uncanny X-Men #1
The Incredible Hulk movie
All the X-Men and Wolverine movies (yes, even X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: The Last Stand)
The Amazing Spider-Man movie
Gravity movie
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky
Sylvester Stalone
3 Guys Named Joe
The Second City
The Cabinet Theatre
SummerStage
my education
C-SPAN
NASA
The Mercury Seven
Apollo 11
Chuck Yeager
The Right Stuff movie
Amadeus
The Muppet Show
Monty Python
George Carlin
Bill Cosby
Eddie Izzard
Lenny Bruce
Dexter
Vince Gilligan
Quentin Tarantino
Steven Spielberg
George Lucas
holding my wife's hand
driving dates with my wife
the park where my wife and I go and hang out
our back deck
movies
ice cold beer
my wife's laugh when she REALLY laughs
my wife's toots when she REALLY toots
sound, peaceful sleep
"you don't have to snore tonight" when it works
my cameras
my editing equipment
all my lovely music
my guitars
my keyboard
Simon Pegg
Nick Frost
Edgar Wright
The Serenity Prayer
The Expendables
The Expendables 2
Predators
that perfect song at that perfect moment that makes your body melt and relax
That Mitchell & Webb Look
That Mitchell & Webb Sound
David Mitchell and Robert Webb
The Matrix
Michael Jackson
The Beatles
that road trip to College of Santa Fe with my mother
my freshman year English class
my senior year of high school
returning to my home state
the way my mother argues with me
the way my mother loves me
the way my step-father walks
my step-father's big, bushy beard
the way my step-father loves me
floaf
sloaf
that great feeling when you get into your cold bed and it's really too cold, but then you get under the blankets and snuggle into your wife and slowly starts to warm up
My Once And Future Lottery Winnings
when reason wins over noise
NPR
Eminem
Macbeth dreams
G-Spot dreams
sketch comedy dreams
unlocking my psychokenesis dreams
"bending the ceiling fan with my mind"
that moment when I wake up on the weekend and realize I have nowhere to go and nothing I have to do
waking up with my wife
my wife's songs that she makes up
my wife's art
Michael J. Fox
David Fincher
acceptance
Aaron Sorkin
Synchronicity
Thriller
Ten
The White Album
Abbey Road
Revolver
Rubber Soul
Trent Reznor
Brian Wilson
those who stay hungry and keep pushing for a better
ferrets
driveways
J.R.
Business As Usual and Cargo
Straight Outta Compton
Orvil and Wilbur Wright
24
health
truth and honesty
ceiling fans
sticky figures that are still stuck on our ceiling
our refrigerator
our home
our washer and dryer
all the air conditioning units in our home
the sounds of our 13-year-old screaming with his friends over video games
when I see my 17-year-old really relax
when my wife is playful and nothing gets to her, usually she does little dances everywhere and sings
wife kisses, the good kind
wife hugs
people who keep trying
that fire that hasn't gone out in me yet and is with me just one more day
hope


I know there's more.

I hope you have much to give thanks for this year.
I hope you have more to give thanks for next year.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Maintaining Friendships

My mother is still friends with people she grew up with. I went to college with several people who maintained friendships from their high school and elementary school days. I have one childhood friend that I "keep in touch with" (read: I go out to dinner with him when he comes back to town with his wife and three kids and he has the opportunity to call me and make plans that I don't cancel for whatever reason). I met my wife in high school. But the rest of my friends from those days are gone. In fact, I haven't maintained friendships from elementary shool, middle school, high school, any of the three colleges I attended, my years in New York, over a decade in Michigan, or my previous job that I had only three years ago. What's the secret to finding people who don't suck? Or is it me that sucks? My wife liked when she went to a bigger school because that gave her more choices of people to befriend. She seemed to know pretty early that she didn't fit in with many people, and it took somebody special and unique to be her friend. I never had that revelation in my life. I always felt like my world consisted of the people that I went to school with, played sports with, played in bands with. Those were the people I had to choose from, and if I wasn't friends with them, I was out of luck and had no friends. Which was pretty close to the truth. I don't remember having many friendships outside of those institutions. And many of the people I spent lots of time with in Michigan not only don't talk to me, but have actively said bad things about me. Sometimes people really really suck. I'm just gonna put my wife and mom and step-dad and our two kids in a basket and go someplace that has good shelter and food, and we'll all live there and be fine. Fuck everybody else. They all suck.

Ridiculous

I fucking hate everyone. They should all die. I should pound them and feel their bones crumble under the pressure of my fists as I grind their faces into the pavement. What kind of fucked up shit am I living in? I fucking hate everyone. I get a pay cut in January. Because insurance rates are going up. We value ignorance and noise over information. We value violence over intelligence. Any idiot with thumbs now has a platform to espouse his idiocy ideology (yeah, I'm no different from any other idiot). "The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." Except there are no good guys. Not one. "See?! We told you Obamacare would be a failure!" It's a fucking software glitch, you fucks! Attack the software. Attack the servers. But as of yet, you haven't seen Obamacare in action, so to say that it's a failure only illuminates your ever increasingly obvious stupidity. You don't want to help others. You don't want to help the planet. You don't even really want to help yourself. You want money. You've been duped into thinking that's what we all need. And, ultimately, you're right. This planet runs on money. We've built a system around a middleman who isn't looking out for anyone. At this point it's impossible to change. We will continue to fail in our attempts to take care of ourselves, no matter how hard we work or how many doctors we see or how many miles we walk or how much broccoli we eat or how much caffeine we cut out. We are a cancer. Money intensifies and exacerbates our desire and willingness for self-destructive behavior. We are not long. And I fucking hate you all.