1/14/17
i'm thankful for the most snow we've had in years. i'm thankful that d and i went out for a walk in it yesterday and then i got to go for a run in it this afternoon. i'm thankful that snow never stops feeling magical to me. i'm thankful for the quiet of the snowscape, both the aural quiet but also the visual quiet, the broad expanses of negative space. i'm thankful in the field to be the absence of field.
i'm thankful to report the conclusion of my latest poll, even though it didn't turn out the way i wanted and d's position proved overwhelmingly more popular. i'm thankful to posit a mascot for "grease monkey" who is a cute smiley cartoon monkey ala mailchimp in an old fashioned fast food apron and white paper hat. i'm thankful for the aggressive don draper pitch i gave her in the cafe of the bougie grocery store where we had lunch mid-walkand were negotiating the terms of the poll to be posted, which i will paraphrase here:
"imagine that we're on vacation in an unfamiliar city and we've been walking all morning and are hungry and tired and a little overwhelmed from the noise of the crowds and we aren't sure where to eat lunch and we come around a corner and there's a restaurant called 'grease monkey' and a cute cartoon monkey mascot painted on the window and someone opens the door and out of it into the cold air comes this cloud of warm rich earthy smell, roasted meat thick with drippings, fryer oil, caramelized onions and mushrooms, and you're telling me that in this scenario, you wouldn't want to eat at this restaurant because it's called 'grease monkey'?"
"imagine that we're on vacation in an unfamiliar city and we've been walking all morning and are hungry and tired and a little overwhelmed from the noise of the crowds and we aren't sure where to eat lunch and we come around a corner and there's a restaurant called 'grease monkey' and a cute cartoon monkey mascot painted on the window and someone opens the door and out of it into the cold air comes this cloud of warm rich earthy smell, roasted meat thick with drippings, fryer oil, caramelized onions and mushrooms, and you're telling me that in this scenario, you wouldn't want to eat at this restaurant because it's called 'grease monkey'?"
and i'm thankful that i could tell she was somewhat moved by this fantasy to accept "grease monkey," even though she also argued (fairly) that it would be unfair to introduce something like that into the poll. i'm thankful for small victories as well as large ones.
i'm thankful for the woman at the bougie grocery store who approached the deli counter to ask, in a voice trembling with anxiety, whether the detox salad bin at the salad bar was going to be refilled or whether it was just gone. i'm thankful for her palpable relief when the employee went into the back and said that they were working on it and it would be out soon. i'm thankful to hope that the salads we need for our anxiety will always be out soon.
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