7/11

i'm thankful that at the end of my lunch break yesterday i was walking back to my desk and stopped, as i do maybe 5 - 10 times a day when moving through the house, to give d a kiss, and d didn't really kiss me back and i was worried, because usually d not really kissing me back is a leading indicator that she's angry at me, the kiss as a temperature check, so i asked her if she was, and then she (to the best of her ability) smiled and mumbled that she wasn't, that she wasn't really kissing me back because she had crest white strips on her teeth. i'm thankful to have laughed in relief and am thankful that when i asked her later whether she thought i really needed to use crest white strips too, she said no, which was a relief because my mom with the best intentions forced my brother and i when we were teenagers to use teeth whitening trays and then white strips to cover up a youth of drinking iced tea and soda and i absolutely hated them, the taste of the bleach-like substance melding with my spit, the feel of them shoved against the inside of my lips, not being able to drink water while waiting for them to finish. i'm thankful to know they might not be as bad as an adult but i'm thankful to not have to find out (yet at least).