11/24

i'm thankful that d and i have been catching up on this season of keeping up with the kardashians. i'm thankful for something that the show does better than any other show, reality or drama, which is to demonstrate how much of our lives we spend looking at our phones, one foot in the physical present and one in the digital. i'm thankful that this is not only on the plot level (although it increasingly is there—reacting to instagram videos or tabloid allegations), but layered through the mise en scene, hands tapping screens, eyes half glazed.

i'm thankful that during vacation, we are more inclined to watch movies together, something we don't do as much during our normal lives because the time/energy commitment seems so large for a weeknight (even though it's not actually larger than us watching, say, two episodes of an hour long TV show—i'm thankful for that mental discrepancy). i'm thankful for baby driver, which was a fun piece of bubblegum. i'm thankful for war of the planet of the apes, which i ended up falling asleep during because it was too long but was captivating at first, especially because the hardcoded korean subtitles for all of the ape dialogue made it a kind of silent movie that d would occasionally translate but which honestly didn't need much translation. i'm thankful for buster's mal heart, which was an occasionally affecting bummer of a movie about the horrors of capitalism and was also a perfect example of the fight club typecasting of rami malek. i'm thankful that we're going to go on a walk to the movie theater today to see something there, which we haven't done in a long while.

i'm thankful for roasted brussels sprouts. i'm thankful for this, which is my all time favorite brussels sprout recipe; i'm thankful that though sometimes out of cheapness or laziness i skip the mint and cilantro, i got them this time and they really do add something significant. i'm thankful that last night i ate the end of the tiramisu that d made for my birthday–i'm thankful for the ecstasy of eating it every night but i'm also thankful to stop indulging so much. i'm thankful for the fancy kombucha i bought from the expensive grocery store which has flavors named after grateful dead. i'm thankful that i don't live in the northeast or deep midwest.

i'm thankful to have ordered a few new shirts on sale from uniqlo. i'm thankful for the new york times list of notable books for the year, even though there are too many short story collections on it. i'm thankful that soon it will be time for music end of year lists, which are my favorite kind of end of year lists. i'm thankful to imagine juicy j smoking a blunt in zero gravity. i'm thankful to hope that every object, every being, can be a jar full of delight.