5/10/17

i'm thankful that i had a good day at work yesterday. i'm thankful i finally got to the end of a long and complicated thread with a customer that had stretched over multiple days and i'm thankful for the customer's kind words for me at the end of our discussion. i'm thankful to have had nice dm conversations with two of my teammates who were both having bad days/feeling a bit overwhelmed with the intensity of our work and i'm thankful to hope that i helped them feel better. i'm thankful that though i understand and respect one of our company values, which is to try to be transparent as much as possible (i.e. send messages in public in slack rather than in DMs), i think there are real tangible benefits (both personally and organizationally) to "private" (i don't have any illusions that the dm conversations are actually permanently private) one-on-one conversations sometimes that we can't get from public conversations. i'm thankful to my friend e for sending me a nice video in our own DMs.

i'm thankful that last night while doing some work on an app, i was listening to "stephanie says" by the velvet underground, which is such a beautiful recording (the crystalline lead lines, the gentle strings that kick in with the verse, the glockenspiel chiming) and to have remembered when i was in college and recorded using my cheap logitech microphone a version of the song for kimberly, this girl i was pseudo-dating but we were both very anxious especially around making plans and contacting each other and so this didn't result in a lot of actual tangible dates so much as intense and extended pining. i'm thankful that i recorded "kimberly says" and emailed it to her and she loved it and drove over to my house immediately and sat outside in her car but didn't come in because she was too anxious and i didn't know she was out there until it was too late (or did and i was too afraid to go out? a blur of cringes in my memory). i'm thankful that both d and i were bolder and braver when we met than k and i were then.

i'm thankful, while retrieving "kimberly says," to also have come across my old cover of the mary tyler moore theme song. i'm thankful for this poem about love and gum. i'm thankful that michelle still loves barack. i'm thankful for this fucking crazy online dating story. i'm thankful for this weird cast iron pan forum. i'm thankful for this etsy review. i'm thankful for stevie nicks kicking ass in high-heeled boots in her bodyguard's self-defense book. i'm thankful to have listened to "mask off" a bunch yesterday. i'm thankful for this thread of a sled dog being "chicken trained." i'm thankful for this pup being babied. i'm thankful for bees' bums sticking out of flowers. i'm thankful for "beetlebum."