9/14

i'm thankful for this pointed, rigorous, and eloquent thread about the lie that the way to reduce abortion is to prevent women from accessing it and for the dismantling of the ways in which men are the sole cause of unintended pregnancy (and thus a need for abortion) because we privilege a slight increase in our own pleasure over the possibility that we might forever change the life of our partners.

i'm thankful that i had my last meeting with my current manager yesterday. i'm thankful to be really excited that he's getting to move into a role that's more focused on the things that truly excite him, even though i'm sad because i loved getting to work with him. i'm thankful that in our last call we said nice things to each other about what we appreciate about each other and it was warm and good. i'm thankful for one of the things he said he appreciated about me, which was how whenever i think about process or policy or design choices, i am able to project myself into other people's perspectives and think about how those choices/changes might affect them emotionally and psychologically, which he said is a rare and good thing and something i should be proud of. i'm thankful that his movement into this other role, even though it's bittersweet, is also encouraging, not just because i'm happy for him personally but because it's another illustration (as was with my previous manager, who followed the same trajectory) that i work at a company that encourages growth and development for the people who work there, that, to use a banal corporate phrase that is actually true in this case, "invests in people." i'm thankful for my new manager, who was one of the first people i met at this job and who i already have a great relationship with and am excited to get to work with.

i'm thankful that in my pairing session with the kind engineer yesterday, we started the call by talking about our dogs and about his home improvement project and i'm thankful that at the end of the call, after he showed me how a value i had constructed this unwieldy (but functioning) apparatus to fetch could be grabbed in a much more direct and simple way, he said that he was happy we had talked about personal stuff first and we agreed that we should do that more often. i'm thankful that this weekend i'm going to buy some local beers to send to him as a thank you for all his help and encouragement. 

i'm thankful for the good incense d bought, which makes the air in the living room thick and rich and fragrant.