What am I thankful for this year?

Well, a job for one. Actually, mostly I'm thankful for the paycheck. Sure, it's a fraction of my former paychecks, but it's a lot more than I was getting paid to wander about the planet aimlessly taking pictures and hitting on hot Swedish girls. Unfortunately, the "job" usually accompanies the check. I haven't figured out how yet to solve that particular problem. But I'm working on it.

I'm thankful I'm still on good terms with the two beautiful women who made so much of last year so special for me. Special, of course, is one of those great catch-all words. It covers both the warm, happy, frequently naked nights and the days that I wanted to run my head through a plate glass window. But truly, I love them both, and I was blessed to have them in my life, then and now. I am a better man because of them.

I'm thankful that my brother came back from Iraq relatively intact and managed to leave everyone there the same way.

I'm thankful I can still scratch and crawl my way up Joshua Tree roof cracks, even if I do leave large chunks of skin along the way.

I'm thankful that despite the two pounds worth of glucosamine and chondritin I now take daily, not to mention the occasional ice packs and Advil and Relafin I endure, I can still hobble my way out to those roof cracks - even though the knees occasionally buckle from pain when I bend down to tie my shoes.

I'm thankful I'm still here amongst the living after a ridiculously close encounter with the front bumper of a fast moving Mazda. I used to think that I had a horrible run of bad luck this summer, what with wrecking Todd's truck, killing the neighbor's dog, blowing out my back, busting a TV, a computer, a camera, a printer, and seemingly dozens of other expensive little toys. In the end I've come to realize that both Josh and I walked away relatively unscathed after getting HIT BY A CAR. All the rest of the shit this summer? That the just the universe falling back into balance after my stroke of exceptional good luck.

Finally, I am wildly thankful for the copper-eyed mushy-face sleeping quietly next to me tonight. Josh is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life, and I feel extraordinarily blessed to have him. I'm additionally thankful to Anna for insisting that I look at him. His presence here is perhaps entirely due to her persuasion. I do love him so.

And even though I woke up this morning at 3:30 only to find him sprawled across my chest shaking, I love him.

And when I kicked him off the bed only to find out that he was on top of me just to get my attention because he was suffering from a sudden bout of doggy diarrhea, a horrible, rotten, toxic diarrhea he could no longer contain and thus promptly and loudly and forcibly evacuated all over my bedroom carpet, I still love him.

And even after I spent an hour scrapping wet, vile kibble poo out of my bedroom by the bag load, and scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing with carpet cleaner and baking soda and laundry detergent and lemon Lysol to remove the stain and the smell (God the smell) only to find my carpet and subsequently my room smelled like lemon-scented diarrhea, I still love him.

And even after I had to postpone my plans to spend the day in Joshua Tree so I could spend $300 to clean my defiled carpets, the carpets my sick puppy tracked diarrhea through when I urgently ran him out the front door at 3:30 in the morning so he could continue to poop in the street, I still love him.

Only maybe a tiny bit less.

Happy Thanksgiving.

PS: I'm thankfull I still have the desire to write in this blog. Althoug I wish it didn't take a big pile of dog shit to motivate it.