12/8/15
i'm thankful for morning stretches, which prepare the body to bear the weight of the day. i'm thankful for the pack of little boys who rumble down the alley on their way to school each morning. i'm thankful that most of the time, it doesn't matter if i'm a few minutes late to work. i'm thankful to be able to tumble my clothes in the dryer to harden their armor against the cold. i'm thankful for fleece blankets.
i'm thankful that i finally rescheduled my dentist appointment for after the holidays. i'm thankful that so far no one has submitted agenda items for the department meeting on thursday and so it might be canceled. i'm thankful that a clerical task that i had put off because it felt lengthy and onerous actually only ended up taking like an hour. i'm thankful for the zen calm that putting together mailings can create in me. i'm thankful when i am struck with easy inspiration for a post for our work social media.
i'm thankful that yesterday at the gym at lunch, they had registered me as not having checked in my lock on friday, even though i know i checked it in. i'm thankful that one of the students who is a major in our department and who i banter with occasionally works for the gym and, when i jokingly asked her to vouch for me, said, very genuinely "i'm sure justin's telling the truth—he's really really nice!" i'm thankful that the student on duty listened to this testimonial and then took my id card and wiped out the record of me not having turned in my lock and gave me a new lock. i'm thankful that, two thirds of the way through my run, the cool runner i talked about last week smiled and waved at me from the side of the track as he was stretching and i'm thankful, because i was tired and wouldn't have been able to keep up with him even for a lap, that he decided to run outside. i'm thankful that, though i worried, as my mind wandered during my run, that the student on duty had felt peer-pressured to make an exception for me and might get in trouble, when i came back to the equipment checkout desk to drop off my lock and towel afterward, she said she'd found my missing lock in their storage and that the person on duty the previous day must have just forgotten to check it in.
i'm thankful for the goodness and sweetness of the students i work with. i'm thankful for the warm soft focus photos that a faculty member posted on facebook of a dinner the department held for a group of undergraduates last night. i'm thankful for their dressy sweaters and their styrofoam cups of hot chocolate. i'm thankful for the shy, quiet chinese student with the bright smile who came in to the office yesterday to borrow a book from a professor which he'd left on my desk and then posted up on the burgundy couch on the other side of the office with her laptop and the book and started to work, as students sometime do. i'm thankful that she worked there for hours in silence and then, about an hour before the office closed, started to pack up and walked over to return the book to me. i'm thankful that though i felt bad because she misunderstood that the professor had sure intended to lend her the book so that she could take it home, when i told her this, she said it was fine and that the office was actually a good place to work! i'm thankful that the professor dropped in by chance just as she was walking down the hallway and, despite his bad knee, lunged in to grab the book so that he could give it to her before she left. i'm thankful for his laughter as i related the story to him.
i'm thankful that though i made a bitchy comment at my coworker yesterday afternoon because i felt annoyed at her need for attention and praise (where I would usually just nod and make affirmative yet disengaged noises), she was in such a good mood that it bounced off seemingly (hopefully) without her noticing and i'm thankful that in a slow motion split second i realized my break from decorum and being a decent person (which is not the same as decorum) and regained my composure and papered over the rift in pleasantness with laughter and a compliment. i'm thankful that, even if i sometimes get annoyed with aspects of her personality that don't feel compatible with aspects of my personality, my coworker is smart and works hard and is a good person. i'm thankful that she is going on a long vacation next week, both for her sake and for my own.
i'm thankful for my work friend t. i'm thankful for the game we play of trying to surprise each other in some way when we say hello to each other in passing during the week. i'm thankful that yesterday, grasping at straws for something to do. i put two large pink postits on my glasses covering my eyes before i entered her office. i'm thankful for her laughter and then, as i peeled off the post-its, my shock at the fact that she had shaved her head over the weekend. i'm thankful for her immediate invitation to rub her shaved head, which felt interesting, and for the anecdote another person told me in their office about how she sweetly went around and asked whether anyone else would mind if she shaved her head. i'm thankful they all said "no, of course not," and i'm thankful she confessed to me that would have shaved it even if people had said yes.