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Thanksgiving was different this year for me. I’d been in sort of a funk over some situational things and had to gear myself back a bit. I’m usually pretty cheerful, but holidays are wickedly weird or in my cranium, I make them weird.

Yeah, that’s about right.

I’ve been thinking about expectations that we put on ourselves. We spend a day with our families, taking several days to prepare for the day ahead of time. We rush to get to different places, we set the expectations of what we are supposed to do and how to do it. Then we get to our location only to find that we might, and probably should, let these people in our lives know the other 364 days of the year how we feel about them. Yet, we live in a society that sometimes frowns, or at least emasculates and mocks, the showing of affection.

Got deep on you there, didn’t I.

So, let me tell you about things that make me thankful on the day after Thanksgiving.

• I’m thankful for my friends. The close ones and the acquaintances that put up with me, that I live being with and who act like they like being with me.
• I uploaded pictures from my Blackberry onto Flickr yesterday that I liked and SQ’s mom was complimenting some of them, which made me feel good. I like it when someone is kind to me about my silly distractions. My goal is to continue this action with someone else because it feels nice. Nice isn’t bad, campers.
  

  You are beautiful. Remember That When You Want Out

• I got all wiggy yesterday in my head. You see, in the morning I accompanied the boss to an event in Bradford where 400 meals were prepared for shut-ins and people who were alone on Thanksgiving. It was quite wonderful as a bunch of people showed up to help from politicians to bikers (who delivered the plates) to little old ladies. One of the little old ladies was enamored with the bikers’ leather chaps, which was charming and we met a soldier who was heading to the Middle East next week who just wanted to help out.  But later in the day, I became somewhat obsessed about people spending the holidays alone. It bothered me. I talked to the boss who called late in the afternoon to thank Squirrel Queen and I for going to the event that morning and talked to him about the morning.  He said, “Maybe you need to talk to folks who are doing this in Hoots. Find out if someone is doing it, and if they aren’t, then you help make the change.” For the record, I don’t think I’ve ever had a boss call me on a holiday to say Thanks. You know, that meant a lot to me. And it was good advice. So thanks back at you, Bossman.
• Because I am a day late and a dollar short, I just saw my first James Bond movie with Daniel Craig. He is badass.
• I have reconnected with some friends and members of my family on Facebook. That’s pretty cool. Pretend for a moment that you aren’t snarky about social media programs like Facebook and how that really makes a difference when you’ve lost touch. Especially on a holiday when your traditional family is visiting other family members that don’t get to see a lot. You do feel connected.
• Beer. Just cause I like it.
• This list from Big Stupid Tommy which is very similar to my own.

So we live, we learn, we find out new things.

I realize that there is always a story underneath what appears on the surface. Maybe I should go find Mr. Jimmy and see what he has to say about life. He tends to enlighten me when I can’t find the way even though he doesn’t know he does.

That’s why things work. We don’t know when we make a difference with other people.

And maybe that’s the point.