thank you notes 8/21
i'm thankful that when i got up from reading a magazine on the couch yesterday afternoon, i looked out into our overgrown backyard and saw our landlord's cleaning and maintenance person standing there, looking at her phone. i'm thankful that our landlord had emailed us earlier in the day about getting us a new (used) range since ours is broken, but had said "not sure about delivery times," which i took to mean maybe sometime next week. i'm thankful that m, the cleaning and maintenance person, is a very nice person and thankful that she had stopped to drop off the oven, which was at the edge of the back of a u-haul in the alley behind our house.
i'm thankful that though the oven was very heavy, d and i, with a little help from m, were able to get it out of the truck and down the stairs into our yard, through the mudroom (i'm thankful it fit through the door) and into the kitchen. i'm thankful that i didn't have the proper wrench to unscrew the oven's hose from the gas line, since i did not really know what i was doing anyway. i'm thankful (i guess) that our landlord is coming over with a proper wrench tomorrow, even though i know the phrase "we can do it ourselves" in her email means "you will do it, justin, while i watch, because i do not want to pay for a professional." i'm thankful for how her email ignored d's question "what should we do with the old oven?" which probably means that d and i will be hauling it through the mudroom and up the stairs and down the alley and into the garage. i'm thankful to feel nostalgic for c, the maintenance man for our old apartment building. i'm thankful that though moving an additional oven through a rainy day and into the kitchen messed up the floor i had cleaned on friday, it didn't take long to get it cleaned again.
i'm thankful for blond(e), which i am listening to on speakers on the couch in the living room and which is really incredibly beautiful so far and which i can imagine myself listening to many times happily into the future. i'm thankful when things are worth the wait. i'm thankful to have spent $10 on it. i'm thankful i didn't buy no man's sky, another long-awaited cultural product: i'm thankful it makes other people happy, even though it didn't do anything for me in the few hours i played it this weekend after renting it at redbox. i'm thankful for the most recent issue of n+1, which i read half of yesterday in a lukewarm bath. i'm thankful for sarah nicole prickett's essay on "the stanford letters," which made me uncomfortable but in an interesting way. i'm thankful for essays that aren't obvious and that aren't afraid not to hold your hand.
i'm thankful also for holding hands. i'm thankful for this poem. i'm thankful that andre 3000 just appeared, double-timing against dissonance and then disappearing into a present silence. i'm thankful for this map of "maps." i'm thankful that though i haven't been able to settle on what book i want to read next, i've flitted in and out of some nice things, which feels dilletanteish and summery and which i'm okay with. i'm thankful for the container of a dozen krispy kreme donuts i bought at the supermarket, even though they weren't (couldn't) be as good as i wanted them to be. i'm thankful to remember how there was always a long line at the krispy kreme in the underground mall off the subway station in korea. i'm thankful to remember when d and i were in north carolina and my dad bought us donuts and we ate them on a hotel bed while watching cable tv: i'm thankful i had told him only to get a few but that he came back with many. i'm thankful for the concept of a baker's dozen. i'm thankful for the word "extra."
i'm thankful that though my tire went flat on my bike ride this morning, it went flat early in the ride, when i was still within (long) walking distance of home, rather than out in the country. i'm thankful it was a beautiful day today and not too hot. i'm thankful that when i was going up a hill before my tire went flat (i'm thankful i mistyped that as "before my time went flat"), i looked up into the blue sky and saw the moon. i'm thankful whenever that phenomenon happens, for the magic surprise of it. i'm thankful that in the moment, walking my bike, i pushed myself toward gratitude that i was getting to walk through a cool breeze beautiful day, that there was nothing wrong or bad about this. i'm thankful that it wasn't that hard to push myself into this, even as the edges of pedals of my bike scratched my calves or my shoulder ached from the awkward position i was putting it in to walk my bike. i'm thankful for the garage i walked by where a dad was listening to "bohemian rhapsody."
i'm thankful that i got home in time to make d fried eggs and hashbrowns for lunch. i'm thankful to remember how when we were in grad school, i made us eggs and toast for breakfast every day, which was nice, and i'm thankful that now we eat cereal in bed, which is nice in its own way. i'm thankful that i had a protein shake and some fruit, since i am not a big fan of big savory breakfasts. i'm thankful for how gleeful she was at the supermarket to buy wavy lays to go with our chili dogs. i'm thankful for the saltiness of those chips and of the morton's i bought for my neti pot. i'm thankful for nectarines and thankful for bananas. i'm thankful for raisins and thankful for coconut almond honeybush tea. i'm thankful for organs and electric pianos, for plinks and hums and strums.
Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to thank you notes: