Giving of Thanks

This is about the fourth time I've started a blog. My first attempt was during grad school. I had every intention of keeping it up during my summer at Cal Poly because I thought I would have all kinds of adventures and fun stories to tell about living in California for eight weeks. Turns out Pomona is far away from everything fun, crazy-hot and I quickly picked up the bad habits of my workaholic boss so my summer consisted of 14, 15 or 16-hour days and lounging the pool for the rest of the time. Needless to say, my summer didn't exactly inspire me to write posts on a daily basis.

My second attempt at a blog was actually more successful, both from a writing and economic status. I was paid to write a blog during my second year of grad school which was little more motivation to continue. However, I only had a year contract so when it ended I didn't really think about keeping it going.

My third attempt was during my second year at LMU. I was going through a lot of personal stuff and I thought it would be a good outlet for too many thoughts and not enough time to process them. It turned into more hassle than it was worth so I wasn't going to continue something that was going to be a source of stress rather than a break from it on a daily basis.

You may be wondering what the hell I'm doing trying this again. To be honest I actually got the idea from my FROSHWorker. She is an amazing student and is also in my Leadership class. She was talking in class one day about ways that we refresh ourselves and make sure our proverbial buckets are full. She said that once she started college she started journaling. While this was pretty standard, she went on to say that the thought of doing a nightly diary was too much of a commitment so she just sat down one day and wrote down everything she was grateful for in her life and decided to continue it on a daily basis. What a great idea!

I often do this activity with my staff and it serves as a great source of reflection, but I would never think to do this on a continual basis. No pressure to come up with a funny anecdote. No pressure to write every day. No pressure that someone that you wrote about may stumble upon a post and then you'll have to to deal with that mess. Just pure, unadulterated thankfulness. And I've always thought in list-form so bullet points are my friend! Given the fact that it is Thanksgiving Day Eve, I can think of no better time to start! So here's my first list of things that I'm happy about:

• Other people's blogs. Seriously. I caught up on Carmen's which was oh-so-entertaining and Kafele's blog literally left me crying from laughter. Not only are these great ways to keep connected with my friends, but are genuine forms of entertainment.

• Finally being willing to make a fool of myself in public. There was a time in my life where I would have given anything to not draw attention to myself in a public space. Call it growing pains. I think I'm finally over that which has been absolutely wonderful! A prime example of this happened today in the grocery store. AJ, Briana and I were running to Ralph's to grab some last minute items for Thanksgiving. We needed two carts so I grabbed one and gave it to them and then grabbed another one to use for myself. It just so happened that my cart was a total dream to drive and AJ's needed a serious adjustment with the alignment, transmission and could have used a detailing job as well. Naturally, AJ tried to steal my cart and I wasn't having it. In the middle of the bakery we got into it and although he is quick, I'm determined. He ran down the stuffing aisle and I was in hot pursuit. Briana said that she had never seen me move so fast, but I wanted the good cart, dammit! It got the cart and kept my self-respect even though lots of people were staring.

• Cable Television. As a child, we had six TV stations. No, I'm not 80-years-old. We had CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX and two, count 'em TWO stations of PBS. (Double your Lawerence Welk pleasure, double your fun!) We also went most summers without TV completely. This is such a foreign concept to me now, but my parents were adamant about making sure their kids were getting out of the house, playing with friends outside and as corny as it sounds, using their imaginations. Therefore, my summers consisted of creating a Batcave from boxes, playing school, house, Post Office, grocery store, shark attack, mountain climber and talent show. I made beach scenes to pose our family cat Holly in and rode bikes for hours with my best friend Denielle. Luckily, there was a 0% crime rate in my hometown of 896 people so my mom would say goodbye to me around 9am every day, see me for lunch, dinner and then bedtime. The rest of the time was for adventures and shenanigans. While this was great as a child, it also meant I missed out on a lot of pop culture standards from the late 80's and early 90's and believe me, there was a LOT! The only reason I knew about New Kids on the Block was because Denielle was obsessed with them. I had no idea what Dawson's Creek meant and didn't know who Felicity was or why it was a big deal when she cut her hair. I only knew about Devon Sawa and Joey Lawrence because I had a subscription to Seventeen magazine. One of my favorite Christmas gifts was when my parents decided to get the Disney channel for a year in the fourth grade. Once we finally got cable (which, for the record, was not until high school) it was like I had been in a desert without water for years on end and had just found myself smack dab in the middle of an endless pool of goodness. I could not stop. It was a pop culture smorgasboard and I had an empty plate and one hell of an appetite. I can remember staying up until 2 or 3am (on school nights! the horror!) just zoning out on cable. I wasn't picky. History Channel's weeklong dedication to the Civil War? Sign me up! TLC's random assortment of medical oddity shows? I couldn't get enough! MTV decided to re-air every single Real World season ever recorded? Not only did I watch every single one, I taped (yes taped....no Tivo in the Walton household!) ones I had to miss and caught up were I could. It was impossible for me not to watch. This cultural craving has stayed with me, which is evident through such things as a my Google reader or my lifetime subscription to Tivo. I'm not ashamed to admit that I watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy before I go to sleep every night or that I have spent entire weekends catching up on things I had to miss throughout the week for meetings or programs. Right now I'm watching TLC's "The Little Couple" and plan on watching Modern Family (then Grey's of course) before I head off to bed. My point is that I am indeed quite thankful for cable TV. I have learned more and absorbed more information, for better or worse, through TV than through any other medium.

With that I christen my first blog complete! Hopefully this will keep up!