thank you notes 6/8

i'm thankful that i am getting better at handling the conversations in which people express sadness (or, even more awkwardly, sadness in the form of mock-anger) that i am leaving this job. i'm thankful, even if the conversations are sometimes awkward, that i appreciate the sentiment behind them. i'm thankful that my boss sent out a mass email about me leaving so i don't have to deal with telling people over and over again. i'm thankful that i'm not a lame duck and was able to help one of the visiting lecturers edit a powerpoint and a poster about his dissertation research for a conference he's attending next week. i'm thankful that the temp is coming in for more hours than usual next week so i can train her on responsibilities related to my position. i'm thankful for my manager, who was helpful in a characteristically amazing way related to my leftover accruals of sick and vacation time.

i'm thankful that my stomach is feeling better after a bad bout of reflux yesterday that was so distracting i couldn't meditate or do qigong or yoga. i'm thankful that i was originally upset about this but thankful that i eventually accepted the discomfort and that helped me to feel it less. i'm thankful that on my break at work but unable to do the things i do on my break at work and rather than go back and stare at the same websites on my computer screen, i went outside. i'm thankful that outside i saw a pebble on the sidewalk and decided to kick it. i'm thankful for the way it skittered ahead of me, further than i thought it might, and thankful that made me happy. i'm thankful for the shape of the pebble, which reminded me of a crushed cardboard box. i'm thankful that i went around for the rest of my break kicking the pebble around the sidewalk and over the planters and up and down hills. i'm thankful to find meditation even when i can't meditate. i'm thankful that yesterday evening i practiced a bit of juggling since my stomach hurt too much for yoga.

i'm thankful on my run at lunch to have gone by a man in a steamroller very carefully backing over a lane of fresh asphalt to flatten it. i'm thankful for the chorus bicycle bells and call and response guitar duel in the song "bicycle race" by queen. i'm thankful for the quiet intimacy of kevin barnes's voice in "an eluardian instance" after the horn fanfare and drums fall away and he sings "I remember riding bikes on Koster Island / Plotting midnight raids on the Swedish plum trees / That summer / It was too cold to swim, so / We climbed upon the rocky shore and freaked out on / The mountain goats / But they were not impressed or scared of us / Do you remember? Our last summer as independents?"

i'm thankful for the beginning of the wikipedia entry for "flapjack": "A flapjack, muesli bar, cereal bar, or granola bar is a sweet tray-baked oat bar made from rolled oats, butter, brown sugar and golden syrup. The item is known as a "flapjack" in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and Ireland and as a "muesli bar" or "cereal bar" in Australia and New Zealand. In other countries, including Canada, the United States, and South Africa, such products are referred to as "oat bars", while the word "flapjack" is used to describe a pancake. In the UK, the term "cereal bar" is often used to describe products which contain fruits, nuts, other cereals apart from oats, and, occasionally, chocolate." i'm thankful for flapjacks (both definitions), muesli bars, cereal bars, oat bars, and cereal bars (and for the oatmeal raisin walnut clif bar i had this morning as a snack).