thank you notes 9/12

i'm thankful that it was a gorgeous sunny day with a cool breeze. i'm thankful for the episode of the weeds podcast i listened to as i walked, which was about inequality of compensation between genders. i'm thankful for the podcast, which is refreshing because it's a podcast about policy and not optics or polls (though i also like those). i'm thankful for the fancy grocery store, where i stopped to buy a fuji apple for me and roasted seaweed for our dinner. i'm thankful for the sign in the lawn of a church i passed, which read "KIND WORDS MAKE KIND ECHOES."

i'm thankful that i got home in time to make d lunch and am thankful for the grazing i did to feed myself while her hashbrowns browned. i'm thankful for whatever hormonal imbalance i was experiencing yesterday afternoon after the walk, which made me feel unexpectedly peaceful and calm. i'm thankful that at first i found this strange, but then just accepted and enjoyed it. i'm thankful to have read golden hill in the tub. i'm thankful to have puttered through the afternoon reading (i'm thankful to have finished golden hill, which was wonderful) and relaxing before making dinner.

i'm thankful for our "new" oven. i'm thankful for how well it retains heat, which is impressive and important considering how sensitive our smoke detectors are and the poor air circulation in the house. i'm thankful to be able to run it at 500 without sweating or having to seal off the other parts of the house. i'm thankful for the gas burners, which are not as powerful as the gas burners on our old stove and usually have to be lit manually with a lighter or a match instead of lighting themselves but which, despite this, are still better than electric burners. i'm thankful to have been spoiled for the rest of my cooking life by the gas stoves of the cheap rentals of the midwest.

i'm thankful that journey was a "free" game for playstation plus this month. i'm thankful that it made me feel like a child more than any game has in a long time. i'm thankful for the giddy sensation of sliding down huge sand dunes and then flinging my dervish into the air, floating by the power of hieroglyphics. i'm thankful that the game is an escape from language, is instead about the body and about the soul and how they can be nourished by movement and sensation. i'm thankful to have watched the tracks my feet left in the sand, for the particles of it i kicked up behind me.

i'm thankful for the multiplayer aspect of it, how much more connected i felt to the other player even though we couldn't talk to each other. i'm thankful for how when the other player sat down in the middle of a snowdrift, i thought he knew a move i didn't and started jamming buttons, only to see him dissolve into dust in front of me, because he'd left the game and i was alone. i'm thankful that a few minutes later, as i braced myself against an obelisk to survive an icy wind, i saw a glimmer of light and was joined by someone new. i'm thankful that we braced ourselves together and then moved forward.