11/10/19

i'm thankful for the quietness of weekend mornings. i'm thankful that miso basically wakes me up at the same time on the weekend that she wakes me up during the week, since i am a morning person and i like being up and awake and doing things (even if the things are small and quiet, like writing these notes) in the morning.

i'm thankful that yesterday, d and i sat in the front room and listened to music on speakers for most of the day, but i'm also thankful at a certain point to have turned the music off and listened to the silence. i'm thankful for meditation, which is a way to hear silence. i'm thankful for the way that the silence now is different than the silence of a few minutes ago. i'm thankful for john cage. i'm thankful for nils frahm. i'm thankful for solo piano by gonzales (https://open.spotify.com/album/58yvWhYmF5D492OZ86SvLn), which is on eternal rotation.

i'm thankful for the most recent wilco album ode to joy (https://open.spotify.com/album/0RR7qfOCOOHXbPAO1P3G5b), which is warm and soft and lovely (i'm thankful to realize that this is a repetitive description of the comfort object music i often write about here; i'm thankful that i like loud and angry and challenging music, too, but i'm also thankful for balms, which are what i need most a lot of the time (i'm thankful for music as medicine)). i'm thankful it feels like summerteeth but for autumn, autumn both literally and metaphysically.

i'm thankful that though i broke my expensive ereader, i bought a protection plan for it when i got it because i know myself and so i can get it replaced. i'm thankful to have caught up on bits i skipped back issues of the new yorker yesterday. i'm thankful for this profile of todd haynes (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/11/todd-haynes-rewrites-the-hollywood-playbook), for this examination of the economist and liberalism (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/11/liberalism-according-to-the-economist), for this depiction of amazon (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/21/is-amazon-unstoppable), for this encomium of charles wright (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/11/the-many-voices-of-charles-wright)(which got me to buy his selected poems, because i want to read more poetry and his sounds like something i'd connect with), for this discussion of how our minds are wired for habits (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/28/can-brain-science-help-us-break-bad-habits). i'm thankful that r got a ps3 and some great games and for the possibility she might eventually write about them, which would be a dream

i'm thankful i only have Official Work three days next week and then am going to an offsite training on thursday and friday. i'm thankful that though i'm nervous about the training because nobody i know will be there, i'm also thankful that my work is paying for it and thankful to get to focus on learning qua learning rather than picking up what i can halfway and piecemeal as i Get Things Done at work. i'm thankful that while watching the video they gave us as homework of a keynote conference talk where an important new API was announced, the talk begins with the programming genius giving it getting stuck with how to get his computer's screen mirroring set up in presentation mode and he has to give up and ask for IT help, which i found relatable and charming. i'm thankful to continue to work on asking for help, which is the professional skill i need to develop the most.

i'm thankful that the arm i got my flu and tetanus shots in is less sore today. i'm thankful that i did a longer than usual run on the treadmill yesterday. i'm thankful for the legs up on the wall yoga position. i'm thankful for refrigerator cheese tortellini. i'm thankful that today i think we're going to go to hmart and trader joe's. i'm thankful that it's a rainy day, but it's not raining right now.