thank you notes 7/14
i'm thankful i rescheduled my dinner plans from 6 to 6:30, since i was only finally able to get away from work at 6:27, even though my day was supposed to end at 6. i'm thankful for the weird cognitive dissonance, which, because i got out of work at 5 for years, makes me see 5 as the end of the day even though i still have another hour (and then some) to go. i'm thankful that yesterday was slightly less hard of a day than monday or tuesday, even though it was still very hard. i'm thankful that my coworkers all encourage me and tell me i'm doing a good job and to just hang in there, that it takes time. i'm thankful to always take the opportunity to exuberantly thank them for their help and support, which i think they appreciate. i'm thankful to hope that today will be slightly less hard of a day than yesterday, but thankful to know that even if it isn't, i will just do my best and i will still get through it. i'm thankful that we are more than halfway through the week.
i'm thankful for dinner at the cash only chinese place with one of my favorite faculty members and one of the visiting lecturers. i'm thankful that the restaurant wasn't very far away and that i got there quickly on my bike and wasn't too late. i'm thankful for the delicious dishes of stir-fried meat and veggies we ate off paper plates while we caught up on each others' lives. i'm thankful to have gotten to speak more frankly with them about other faculty members and coworkers than i could in the past, which i think they appreciated. i'm thankful they were interested in the particulars of my new job and laughed at my descriptions of how effortless my old job feels in retrospect. i'm thankful for our discussions of publishing or perishing, public perception of academia and its difference from "the real world," and politics. i'm thankful that we shared a group hug before i left and talked about how much fun we had and about spending time together again sometime soon, which i think we all meant genuinely and weren't just saying because it's the thing you're supposed to say at a time like that.
i'm thankful that after my burnt popcorn story, a friend recommended i get this microwave popcorn popper, which arrives today and which i'm excited to try. i'm thankful d liked one of her early birthday gifts, which was a stuffed sleeping pikachu plush. i'm thankful to watch the season premiere of mr. robot tonight and to see how they decide to follow up on the crazy season 1 finale. i'm thankful for the mirror thief, the book i am reading now. i'm thankful that the descriptions i read that enticed me compared it to david mitchell and/or "watching Game of Thrones on my laptop...[where] some scenes that are too dark for me to see, no matter how expertly I angle the screen or how hard I squint" (spoilers at that link). i'm thankful that it isn't quite the mindfuck i was expecting yet, but thankful to be early in the book. i'm thankful for the specificity of the descriptions and the beauty of the prose, which helps to gild old noir tropes into feeling fresh. i'm thankful that i don't know what is going to happen and thankful that i want to keep reading to find out.
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