(kflo)(7)

Thankful for last week's Monday. Waking up slightly rejuvenated after a night of back-and-forth Netflix-ing and reading exam reviewers. Waking up before an obnoxious alarm, feeling like a champ for having "cheated" time. Remembering to drink water first thing in the morning, which could have been a so-so act at any given day, but on a Monday morning it felt special.

(In lieu of water-drinking: thankful for Twitter, where I can remind my friends, especially, but strangers and internet-kins also, to hydrate, even though I sometimes tweet-remind to also remind myself to hydrate.)

Thankful for the convenience of cooking food for myself. How grandma made sure I had stocks of biscuits, milk, eggs, noodles—the typical college kid implement—before she went to the province earlier this week. How I think I'm enterprising and full of potential when preparing food. How this little act of providing nourishment for myself, especially during exams week, is indication that I love and care for myself. Even though I don't necessarily, continuously feel it.

Thankful for my dog, Pandak (the mother of my late best pupper pal Daisy), who is "in heat" lately. Who keeps howling at 9PM to remind me that I better watch out for her, as she does for me, to be her wingwoman in this time of need. Thankful for her patience and care. Five years ago I wouldn't have believed this concept of patience, care, or love from an animal, but right now I'm living the sweet reality of it. Thankful that I may never know what she thinks of me and how I'm fine with it because I make sure everyday she knows what I think of and how I feel about her. How this also applies to human relationships.

Thankful for candles, my own kind of after-hours fun. Lighting them after school; school being a place of one too many bright fluorescent lights. Deliberately choosing candle colors while grocery shopping with my grandmother to curb a little bit of what I think she thinks is weird of me. (Thankful that I'm only ever the weirdest version of myself when I'm around her!)

Thankful for records that allow me reprieve from the sometimes soul-sucking, muscle-tensing, physically-taxing stress of school. To come home, rip the uniform off my body, and dim the lights. To come home to an emotionally-succinct, fluorescent record (looking at you, Melodrama) and wilding out to it in pure abandon. To sleep and wake up to an overreaching, almost satin-like album from the dreamiest of dream girls, the realest of the fakes, and DM-ing a friend about it. Both agreeing that we can't bear to listen to Lust for Life when outdoors. Both withholding reason for the matter.

Thankful for Twitter and thankful to rid myself of it for a while. Thankful that for me this means I'd walk around school campus blindly, any university announcements made on Twitter unknown in my deep, dark heart. Thankful that today there was a memo for the suspension of afternoon classes, which I did not know of until lunch, having eavesdropped said news in the uni cafeteria.

- kflo (7/25/17). 
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what are you thankful for?