thank you notes 3/8
i'm thankful for targeted ads, which provide constant reminders of the reach of the (corporate) surveillance state. i'm thankful that the other night, i was lazily looking at ribbon mics on my phone on amazon (not logged in to either my browser or to amazon) and that when i logged in to the work facebook account this morning, which i never log into on my phone, i saw targeted ads for ribbon mics, even though i've never searched for ribbon mics on my work computer. i'm thankful that this particular instance of targeting happened while i was looking at ribbon mics, which are a very antiquated technology.
i'm thankful for the discussion d and i often have after one of us says something particularly catty in gchat, which is to envision a black mirror style scenario where google is hacked and everyone's entire personal email/chat archives are made public. i'm thankful that the question we struggle with is whether the upheaval and suffering we would experience because of people reading catty things we'd said about them (as well as private things we'd said to each other, and other people), would be balanced out by us having the ability to read the contents of anyone's email/chat we wanted, which, because we are nosy voyeuristic people would be a form of entertainment better than tv, books, or movies and would seemingly entertain us forever, since there are so many people's emails/chats i would like to read. i'm thankful that it's fun to fantasize about this but that it hasn't happened (yet at least), so i can still enjoy other forms of media. i'm thankful i'm almost to the end of the thing itself, which has been fun and great, like a less woo woo version of cloud atlas.
i'm thankful for kylie jenner's snapchat story from last night, in which she and tyga were sprawled out on the couch eating jellybeans and browsing netflix (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). i'm thankful for the way that her snapchat story represents this experience of browsing netflix and struggling to agree on something to watch (i'm thankful for d's comic on the same topic). i'm thankful for the moment in the story when they get into the amazon video app and tyga has highlighted the icon for the new yorker presents which for a second i imagine they're going to watch, which is for whatever reason hilarious to me, before tyga tabs over to something else and it is revealed that they're confused about what app they're in and may not understand the difference between netflix and amazon video (which because of the terrible amazon video UI on our tv is very apparent to me when i am toggling between the two services). i'm thankful for art that reflects the mundane textures of contemporary life, like the way in that episode of love with the restaurant date they thank the waiter so many times as they're seated and how there's a moment of seeing the animated ellipsis that shows someone writing a text and then it disappears and the characters think and comment about what this might mean. i'm thankful that tyga always seems like such a sweetheart on kardashians and in kylie's snaps. i'm thankful for the moment in last night's snap story he expresses nostalgic love for garfield and gently teases kylie about not being a garfield head like him. i'm thankful for kylie's rejection of a brown jelly bean (i'm thankful for my own rejection of all jelly beans, which i think are gross), which seems to trigger a minor existential crisis, and for her lust for the frozen supermarket pie she eats while standing at the counter in her pajamas later in the night. i'm thankful for the term "icebox pie," thankful for the word "icebox," which is such a better word than refrigerator, and thankful that it always reminds me of that william carlos williams poem.
i'm thankful it was warm today so i got to do yoga and meditate outside today in the arboretum for the first time all year. i'm thankful for the sweetness of the breeze. i'm thankful that even though my meditation wasn't as transcendent as i wanted it to be, i was still sitting outside in the grass in the sun, which is something to be grateful for. i'm thankful for how much better i've gotten at warrior three and tree pose and other one foot balance poses. i'm thankful that the reason for this, i think, is that now i take more seriously, both mentally and physically, the concept of rooting my foot into the mat/"earth" at the beginning of the pose. i'm thankful that i thought this was just some hippie bullshit at first but it really does seem to make a difference. i'm thankful that i even enjoy the hippie bullshit aspect of it, to be honest, to imagine myself as a tree and my foot as the roots. i'm thankful i went running in the sun on my lunch break today. i'm thankful how despite the variations in elevation here, i can always run father faster and more easily outside than i can on the treadmill. i'm thankful for the way that all the things there are to notice in the world distract me from the pain of fast motion, for the antic fun of weaving through crowds of students on sidewalks, for the variations in terrain and the little parkour-y moves i sometimes have to pull to transition between them or get around people or objects.
i'm thankful for these three essays by emily witt, who is one of my favorite essayists. i'm thankful that my favorite blogger has been back lately and that yesterday she posted a review of a cookbook in which, in response to a recipe calling for pickled rose petals, says "why not fairy dust?." i'm thankful for kelly conaboy's bay leaf trutherism. i'm thankful for casey johnston's repeated advocacy for a certain form of protein powder, which made me decide to replace my lunch peanut butter with a protein shake. i'm thankful for how tasty the protein shake is and how i feel fuller than when i was eating the peanut butter and also like it might not be as tough on my stomach (though that may be a psychological thing). i'm thankful d bought us new electric toothbrush heads.
i'm thankful this morning while i was filling up my water bottle at the fountain in the hallway, i saw c from another office and said good morning to her and asked her how she was doing. i'm thankful that she let out an elaborate sigh and said she'd be better when she was awake, and i amen'd her on that. i'm thankful that as soon as i got back in the office, i heard a loud clatter in the hallway. i'm thankful i rushed back and saw cindy sprawled on the floor, with a pained look on her face. i'm thankful she wasn't seriously hurt and thankful that she took my arm and i helped pull her to her feet. i'm thankful that when i picked up her bags from the floor and gave them to her, she thanked me and called me "sweetie." i'm thankful that she did an impression of herself falling and we laughed at it, which let me know that she was okay.
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