2/19

i'm thankful that we went to tj maxx and target yesterday morning. i'm thankful for the enormous fluffly white pillow d bought for our eventual couch. i'm thankful for this odd snack treat which i bought at a deep discount. i'm thankful that we got a shoe rack for the mud room and am thankful that it fits perfectly and makes things much neater. i'm thankful for the child i overheard in target insisting to his mother that he had been born in new york and and his mother reminding him for the nth time that he had been born in indiana. i'm thankful to remember being a child and wishing that i had been born in a more interesting place like the characters in the books i loved had been. i'm thankful that to have learned that when john ashberry met gary indiana, ashberry said, "hi, i'm lowell massachusetts." i'm thankful to have heard a dad at tj maxx tell his child "you can't be trusted with playdoh yet."

i'm thankful that i am going to make a big pot of bolognese this afternoon so that d will have dinners to eat while i am gone (i'm thankful we also bought a frozen pizza). i'm thankful that food is one of the love languages i'm fluent in and i'm thankful for the opportunity to speak it. i'm thankful we went out to our favorite restaurant last night and ate too much. i'm thankful for the perfect raw oysters with mignonette and lemon juice. i'm thankful for the poke, which i always enjoy, and for a poached pear salad. i'm thankful that our entrees were hit or miss and were too heavy and filling for us to order dessert, which was annoying in the moment but is a good thing to know for the future (we will just order appetizers and dessert, which will be both cheaper and more satisfying). i'm thankful to know that we have so many future meals to spend together, which makes me feel hopeful and happy. i'm thankful that d had a sake martini which she enjoyed and am thankful for the ginger beer i had (i'm thankful i didn't have a second drink). i'm thankful for the tiny gold foil wrapped version of reese's peanut butter cups which i agree with d are the ideal delivery mechanism.

i'm thankful for terrace house, for a) the panel's INTENSE love affair with one of the cast members, who is an architect and b) the discussion of vegetables that took place in the most recent episode. i'm thankful to almost be done with parable of the sower, which is still great. i'm thankful to have taken my first long bike ride in a while yesterday afternoon in the warm breeze. i'm thankful for how the bike ride showed how much stamina i've lost since i don't commute on my bike every day or take long rides often. i'm thankful that i was still able to pull myself along at a slow pace. i'm thankful that the roads were mostly quiet. i'm thankful for the steep hill i go down on the way to the lake, which is faster than any other time i go and which is both scary and exciting. i'm thankful for the relief of getting up to the top of a steep hill and seeing that i was finally back in town and that it wouldn't be too long until i got home.

i'm thankful to have listened to old harris wittels podcasts on my phone while biking. i'm thankful on the anniversary of his death to celebrate his life. i'm thankful that this death is probably the celebrity death that has made me the saddest of any of them, since most of the celebrities i care about who die die when they're old and when they've stopped making cultural products that feel essential and important to me, whereas he was very young and had so much potential to create future joy. i'm thankful for analyze phish, which as a non phish fan is one of my favorite podcast series and which i have listened to many many times, which is full of funny and touching and inventive (i'm thankful for the fourth episode, in which the hosts provide a field recording of going to a phish concert together and trying to get very high). i'm thankful to subscribe to the howl app so that i can any time i need it easily access his warm and friendly appearances on who charted and am thankful for the farts and procreation podcasts he did with chelsea peretti and adam scott and scott aukerman, which make me laugh harder than anything else in his (or most people's) ouevre. i'm thankful for his two interviews with pete holmes, especially the long second one which is about his problems with opiate addiction which will make you laugh and cry and feel some things very strongly (at least if you are me). i'm thankful for this touching tribute to him just after his death by aziz ansari. i'm thankful that i have listened to most everything he recorded many times, but i'm thankful that there are a few things that i haven't and am saving for a rainy day. i'm thankful for this video of him playing "gangnam style" on an acoustic guitar. i'm thankful for the liberation of silliness.