thank you notes 5/16
i'm thankful for my parents' subscription to hbo go, which since game of thrones started has made sunday nights a thing to look forward to rather than to be bummed about. i'm thankful that today is my only day of work this week and then i'll be on vacation until next week. i'm thankful to have made up a packing checklist of things to take, which is both a helpful thing to do and a fun one (since by thinking about packing you're thinking about the fun of your trip). i'm thankful that the flight is not very long and that on the way there, we'll benefit from a shift in time zones, so we'll have time in the afternoon tomorrow to do and see things.
i'm thankful that i'm not afraid of flying and that though d is sometimes a little afraid of flying, i'll be there to comfort her. i'm thankful for the ability to store my boarding pass on my phone. i'm thankful that they don't make you turn off your kindle during takeoff and landing anymore, which means i don't have to bring a book or a magazine. i'm thankful i took the step of clearing a lot of junk off of my phone to make room on it for pictures and etc. i'm thankful that i'm not taking my computer (i'm thankful that i don't have to take my computer), so my notes from tomorrow through sunday will be handwritten and photgraphed and/or sound recordings.
i'm thankful for excited googling of twin cities things this morning. i'm thankful that i booked a sensory deprivation tank session for thursday with the world's chillest receptionist. i'm thankful for yelp, which is not perfect (i'm thankful to know that crowds are not always wise), but is helpful nonetheless if you're in a new city and want ideas (i'd be thankful if any of you have recommendations, which you should send me if you do!). i'm thankful there's an affordable weekly transit pass and that there's light rail that takes us from the airport to a station less than a mile from our hotel. i'm thankful that there are parks apparently sewn through the land of the city, which i'm excited to experience. i'm thankful there are 4 art museums i want to go to. i'm thankful that we might go to the mall of america if it rains, which is a place that the child version of me dreamed of going after seeing it on tv. i'm thankful that because of meditation and medication, i've gotten much better at enjoying myself on vacation, since travel used to be so fraught with anxiety and fear, full of ways to feel stupid and inadequate. i'm thankful that i'm only excited about this trip. i'm thankful for walking through a new city, which can be sensorily overwhelming, both in good ways and bad. i'm thankful for the solace of returning to the hotel room and getting into the heavy, over-starched linen and watching cable tv.
i'm thankful for good user interface design, which i appreciated yesterday evening while looking for something to watch after dinner. i'm thankful that both the netflix app and the amazon video app show five choices in a row, but thankful for how the netflix app highlights and gives information about the second choice from the left, whereas the amazon video app highlights and gives information about the third choice from the left. i'm thankful that it doesn't seem like this should matter, but that because of the input lag of the slow TV's processor, it means that in the amazon video app, when your eye settles on the image/title for a movie that your interested in, you've already thumbed over to the next item without realizing it and so have to go back, breaking your momentum, whereas because of the choice made for the netflix app, the highlighted item is the one you want information about. i'm thankful typing this out how minor and stupid this seems but thankful for it nonetheless.
i'm thankful that d wasn't made that i accidentally started the washer while she was in the shower yesterday, robbing her of water pressure. i'm thankful that i had said before she got in the shower that this time i would make sure to wait before she got out of the shower to turn on the washer, thankful that i said this as much to embed it in my short term memory as to communicate it to her, but then fucked up and by reflex closed the washer to start it after i had loaded it. i'm thankful that she said it didn't change the temperature dramatically (which is the worst), just the flow. i'm thankful for the "intergalactic" bath bomb from lush, which i used in the bath last night and which is one of my favorites i've experienced yet, both for the visuals (hazy candy-colored streaks of foam that melted away into cryogenic blue water) and sensations (popping candy exploding like tiny meteors, peppermint tingling my skin).
i'm thankful that i am continuing to enjoy reading stoned and at the existentialist cafe. i'm thankful that i found out from the new york times book section this morning that a new geoff dyer book had come out without me knowing it and so i bought it for my trip. i'm thankful that i haven't gotten into a new novel yet, but that i will have quality time this week to do so. i'm thankful that because of ebooks, i don't have to weigh down my luggage with bulk dead trees. i'm thankful that i have gotten much better at not overpacking over the past few years.
Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to thank you notes: