Going beyond transition

Category Archives: Life

Day 105: Whiskey Aging… DONE!

Posted on by Posted in Life .
whiskey1

The final good stuff!

 

So after nearly 3 and a half months it’s done! I ended up with a bottle and a half of sweet, dark whiskey. It’s amazingly easy to do. At this point, I’m going to let the remaining alcohol evaporate and then refill the barrel with raw agave and fresh blueberries as an experiment. I may even mix in a little Glenmorganie as a starter to the white dog whiskey that I’ll be using.

With luck I may have it ready for my work’s next offsite and share it, along with some good cigars, with some dear friends. 🙂

Small House Idea

Posted on by Posted in Dreams, Life .
Initial Idea

Initial Idea

So I discovered this online app called Floorplanner.com. It’s a free site that helps you to do up designs and floorplans. There are paid versions for this (I got the $15 per year version as it’ll suit my needs for mucking about without a huge cost, particularly the exporting of designs). I was trying to describe, last night, my ideas to K and couldn’t quite get it across. I think this helps.

The way I have it laid out in this design, the bedroom is basically on the same level as the kitchen, just raised on a paritial floor. The other option would be to move the bed into a loft with a small staircase to the top (there would be storage in the staircase for things like books, shoes, etc.). It would be something like Tumbleweed Tiny House’s Whidbey Design (although I’d add extra square footage to the bathroom and kitchen. And would remove the 1st floor bedroom, giving that space to the Great Room and add in the staircase.

One of the things I’d like to do is actually build this sucker. K and I discussed it last night and when we get closer to making this a reality (it’s about 3+ years away), we’ll take a couple of workshops on building small houses. Tumbleweed offers these around the US and in Canada. I like the idea since it means it’s done at our pace (I’d probably do a whack of PTO in a row to get the bulk of the house ready). I’m still debating whether to have a basement or not. I’m thinking it may be worthwhile for cold storage of important things like toilet paper, paper towels, potatoes, carrots (other root veggies), wine, etc. You know. The necessities. 😉

I still think it’s doable. We’re still “downsizing”. We currently fill, very well, 800 sq feet. We basically need to halve that. Most of our “stuff” is books. I’m currently purging those in favour of shelf space and to reduce my current shelving units. And seriously considering getting additional Kindles (one for fiction, one for Computer books, one for philosophy/buddhism, etc.) It’s my one big complaint about the Kindle Paperwhite — very limited space for books (only up to about 1000). Keep in mind, I’ve had upwards of 3000+ books at times (!!!!). There are certain books that I’m keeping hard copies of (my mom’s music book, her handwritten book of poetry, etc.) but the ones I’ve read already and won’t re-read again (I rarely do this) or technical books that are more for reference make no sense to have hard copies. The traveling I do make it hard to use printed copies and lug them with.

As I continue to Walden (Henry David Thoreau), I’m reminded of this quote:

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

Tiny steps still move us forward (long post)

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, Life, Traveling/Work .

Well.. not THAT busy.

 

 

So, life has been busy of late. Not stupid busy like last year (last year I flew over 90,000 miles in the continental US/Canada; this year only I’ll clock only about 65,000) but still busy. I suppose it’s a bit of a mid-life crisis (although I could have sworn I had one of those about 15-20 years ago) but I’ve been re-evaluating where I want to be and settle down at. Right now I have 3 main areas: Edmonton (Alberta); GTA/Ottawa (Ontario); Halifax (Nova Scotia). There are pros and cons to each (most pros are related to family/friends that are in those areas). I also have to consider that ultimate “What-if I lost my job” and what opportunities would exist. This is one of the bigger cons for the Halifax area with weather being the 2nd thing (I can handle only so much rain and gray skies). But then there’s the ocean and the sound and smells that come with the Atlantic (very different from the Pacific). And, of course, being closer to family in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as well as getting back to my Acadian roots.

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Forever in memory

Posted on by Posted in Buddhism, Life .

Today I look to Thich Nhat Hanh for advice on grief. He once said:

I hold my face in my two hands.
No, I am not crying.
I hold my face in my two hands
to keep the loneliness warm –
two hands protecting,
two hands nourishing,
two hands preventing
my soul from leaving
me in anger.

It’s been 21 years since my mom’s death and I found sanctuary in dealing with it in thought and meditation. Today seems harder than other years (I don’t know why; perhaps part of me is letting my attachment to my successes get the better of me, especially since she never recognized them when she was alive and she cannot do so now). Either way, Thich’s poem reminds me that death is part of life, even when it was a violent one).

So where have I been..

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, Life .

Well, I’ve been here but I’ve been swamped. Not that it’s an excuse or anything but it’s been a bit of a reality. Things are starting to slow down. It’s funny how in this position I was supposed to be “on platform” (that is, teaching in front of customers) about 35% of my time. Between the teaching (50%) and other stuff I’ve been doing a lot beyond that. It’s part of why I feel so exhausted the last few months and I’ve started now to try to adjust this a bit. One of the things that has been taking up a bit of time is a book. Not a novel (although I still have the desire to do that) but rather a technical one. I can’t quite talk about all the details of it but I will say that I have a whole new respect for those who write books, especially novels. With a novel you have to think up all the content and imagine it. With a technical book, like the one I’m doing, I can easily pull a variety of info from a variety of sources (e.g., existing documents or actual product use) and don’t have to really create material. I have to “translate” from dry to something exciting and understandable. But holy shit! It’s hard.

I think my biggest challenge is focus. I can certainly talk about the product in question but focusing it into a topic that makes sense based on the proposal I gave the publisher is a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I’m still working on some chapters and have to redo some of the screenshots but focus is still something I need to work on.

<insert long pause from August to today>

Ya. It was that busy. I did well over 93,000 airmiles this year.

That’s not a typo.

93K in one year in just the US and Canada. I didn’t even go across the water, in either direction.

If I had gone home (home in the sense of back to New Brunswick to spend the holidays), I would have hit the highest level of American Airlines elite status. As much as I missed family, I’m very exhausted. It’s nice to visit cities but the challenge I run into is that I often have work to do after I do whatever has me visiting that city (e.g., teaching a class, meetings, etc.). So my day goes from a 5am to 5pm to a 5am to a 10pm. And then add on additional work on the weekends.

I found one way to address some stress and that was with an app I got from the Apple Store: Simply Being (the developer website is here: http://www.meditationoasis.com/ ). It’s a meditation app that helps you meditate. I use it to help me relax before going to sleep and helps me sleep deeper because it helps me rid my mind of all my thoughts and worries of the day.

As I had mentioned earlier, I’ve been spending part of the year writing. And I’ve learned how difficult that is. There are so many distractions out there in the world. I suspect that part of it is my mind trying to sort through how to put the material down. Once I get going, I’m good and usually can a fair amount done. But then life interferes. Thankfully, I’m getting close to the end of the core writing and will have some last bits to finish up on. I think if I get asked again to do a book, I will say no or limit myself to doing a chapter or two rather than the whole thing (especially as a soloist).

And on that note, back to the grind.

 

Rumors of My Demise are Greatly Exaggarated

Posted on by Posted in fitness, Life, transition, vegan stuff .

Life have been extremely busy of late. From about the end of July to now I’ve been doing 60-80 hour weeks. My paycheck loves it but I’m starting to wear a bit. I knew it was going to be like this and it will likely continue to the end of the year. In a lot of ways, this is great! It means I’ll be happily employed for a while yet (and to be honest, I don’t expect that to change but with the economy as it’s going, anything is possible). In other news K got a job (finally!) in her field. After nearly a year and half (with over 1,000 applications and only 2 interviews) she got a call back for a temp position in the VA. I suspect that she’ll be there longer than the 2-3 months they initially said it would be (they keep giving her more cases) so that’s good. Even better, she’s really happy about all that.

On a lark yesterday, we went to the Open House that the place next door was showing. It was perfect! 3 bedroom (or rather 1 bedroom, 2 offices or 1 bedroom, 1 office and maybe 1 nursery?), had a nice backyard (for the puglettes), a 2nd floor large balcony, granite counter tops, new appliances and a center aisle kitchen workspace. The biggest downside was lack of A/C. And that’s a deal breaker in L.A. Although where we live is actually very temperate there can be weeks where it gets regularly above 100F. The other downside was price: $600K. We could do it but I’m hesitant until the green card is done. And once we’re confident that K’s job is perm, I think we’ll look into it. I don’t know that $600K is achievable. I’ve always thought that $250-300K would be more appropriate but who knows? With rates so low it may be a good time for us to lock into a long term mortgage. One of my long term dreams was to have a house. Not for financial reasons but for permanence and to settle down.

Needless to say, the house next door definitely fit into what we were dreaming of as a house. It would need a little work (and some major heavy duty cleaning! I could tell where they tried to hide it) but it’s something that could easily be done. More importantly, is that we’d be able to stay in a community that we like and we could get to know more of it.
In other news, apparently the Health Insurance company is claiming that my surgery isn’t coverable (even though their own policy says that it can). I think they deliberately make it hard to obtain coverage. So to help me with this I enabled help from CKlife.org to get through the red tape of health insurance. I think one of the biggest challenges in the US (that I’ve faced) is the overwhelming amount of red tape that everything has, from taxes to health care. The fact that, as an intelligent adult, I need help to navigate all this crap is incredible. I suppose that is how one keeps a large population at work — by tracking things via paperwork (and it’s mostly paperwork; it’s surprising how many do not have good online account systems). But I still find it all frustrating. I am still recovering to a degree and have decided to postpone my planned trip from Vancouver, B.C. to Los Angeles next year to the year after. So it’s now a goal of 2013 rather than 2012.

That should give me enough time to get back into shape (other than round) and get back to fully vegan. I’ve been gradually moving back to it. Watching and reading about the whys reminded me why I so much did it in the past. Sometimes we need that before we can get back to where we were. At this point, I’ve gotten to about 95% vegan with some vegetarian meals here and there (I’m trying to empty the fridge of stuff without having to toss it). I was also considering a gym membership with maybe a trainer (it’s a UFC gym) but perhaps what I need is just the trainer bit. I don’t think I need a gym since my body is weight enough and if I do the exercises right, I can use that. I just need to figure out where in my schedule I should put this. It may be a matter of scheduling 30-60 min a day just so I can have that time to do exercise. I am, at least, walking the dogs early in the morning before work starts. I may need to get up a little earlier to do the weight stuff and then do the dog walk afterwards. Hrmm…

A Month Later

Posted on by Posted in fitness, Life, transition, Traveling/Work .

It’s been a month since the surgery. A lot of the swelling has gone down and it’s nice to not have to wear a binder any more. That said, however,  I’m still sleeping on the Lazy Boy simply because I’m less likely to roll on my sides.  And since I still have a bit of swelling on my sides, it’s safer and easier for me to sleep on my “back” while in the Lazy Boy. The doc says it’ll be another couple of weeks before that swelling is completely down.

The weather is getting warmer here in Los Angeles. I was surprised how much I finally am ok with what I see in the mirror (although I’d like to get rid of my beer gut). I still can’t do full exercise but I have been trying to walk the dogs at least once a day for about 30 min. I’m hoping that I might be able to do some simple pushups, situps and simple free weight exercises in a couple of weeks. And then after a series of business meetings in the San Fran area, I’m hoping to get back into running and cycling again.

One of the things I’d really like to do is barefoot running but I probably won’t since I’m a bit of a wuss and fear cutting my feet (even though I know that with barefoot running, it can be easier to address those kinds of injuries). At the least, I’d like to do minimalist running — much like I did last summer in NYC. I truly enjoyed it and might even consider doing a 5K in the fall if I’m consistent enough with the running. To that end I’m probably going to start getting up earlier. Say around 4-5ish so that I can run/bike earlier without interfering with my work day. If I’m not teaching, that’d give me a couple of hours to do what I need. And then later in the afternoon I can do things like the situps/pushups and/or weight stuff.

I’m not sure about my bike trip for next year given what I’ve seen of people’s driving behaviours here in L.A. I still want to do it but I think I need to investigate some things more. In particular, I do need to read on other’s experience on doing this trip. It’s consider intermediate to expert. My biggest concern is timing and whether I will have enough time — 30 or so days, including weekends — to bike from Vancouver to Los Angeles. It’s the part of going over the mountains and the like that may slow it down. I may decide to avoid the issue of the border and start in Seattle instead of Vancouver. Then again, I may just push the trip back a year. One of the challenges is that I didn’t think that the recovery would take this long. I had planned on a few weeks (3-4) but more realistically, I’m looking at 2-3 months in total before I’m fully recovered. I still want to bike from L.A. to San Diego and back again over a two day period.

Anyways, on top of all that I’ve had my performance review and that went well. I’m still waiting to see what’s happening in regards to the green card. I was pleasantly surprised when my HR department started the process for me without me probing for it. I’m hopeful that it will come through and make somewhat easier for me here in the US. I wanted to take some Spanish courses at a local community college but they require that I live at least a year in California before I can apply. So I’ll be waiting until this fall before starting basic Spanish. In the meantime, I can — at the least — finally try for my driver’s license. It’s been at least 20 years since I last tried and while L.A. drivers on the freeways are scary, I think I could handle regular street traffic. I think I’ll look into AAA membership and see about taking one of their defensive driving classes.

Anyways, that’s the update so far. Life is definitely good right now.

 

Life in California.. ain’t that bad, really.

Posted on by Posted in fitness, Life .

I’ve definitely got to say that I’m enjoying the California weather. It occurred to me today as I biked down to and along the Strand that normally I wouldn’t experience this kind of nice weather in Canada until say mid-May or early June. It was a perfectly sunny day with little wind. And I’ve now found the perfect route to get there without trudging up and down this one huge hill that I had been doing before. Granted it adds about 2KM each way but that’s fine. It’ll make my usual ride about 42KM instead of 38KM. For now I’m still using my beater single speed bike but I will have to get back on my proper touring bike at some point (it did get a nice tune-up so I should actually ride it).

It’s interesting living here in Southern California. K had asked me recently if I like it and I have to say that I do. It’s weird but the small suburb that we live in feels somewhat like a small city. It’s hard to imagine that we belong to one of the more populated cities in the US. For example, last night I took the pugs out on a walk. It was a pleasant warm night with little breeze. We take the same path as many other dog walkers, cyclists and runners do. At one point I stopped and looked up.  I could clearly see and identify the Little and Big Dippers. This was something I couldn’t do in Toronto nor NYC. (When I lived in Burlington, I could do it when I walked along Lake Ontario). I imagine that come summertime I’ll be able to see even more stars in the summer sky.

Back to the cycling. If it wasn’t for work, I’d bet I could do in a year here what would normally take me 3-4 years to do in Toronto. I’m kinda excited about that. I still have to venture out farther and I need to figure out where in San Diego I want to stay. I’ve found the path I want to take to get down there but I do want to find a place to stay overnight. I was pondering camping but the choices seem limited and the KOA prices are a tad high for a tent (sans car). I mean, at $50 a night I might as well go for a cheap hotel at $100 — especially since it would be only one night. Right now, my bigger challenge is all the travelling I’ve been and will be doing for work. At the end of the month I go to Austin, come back for a weekend and then will be off to Orlando for about 11 days. And then I have two weeks of online teaching (although that means early start with early finish so I could bike once class is done).

In other fronts, K got me World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I so want to play but with it taking 25GB of space (!!!) it’s a bit much for this system. And I really do need to get my own computer again. I’ve been debating between getting a Mac or a PC (I love my work Mac Book Pro). And then to add more challenge to it, debating on laptop vs desktop. I like the laptop option as it means I could be outside playing but the desktop option allows for more customization. Then again, who am I kidding? I tend to be the one who gets it maxed out and nothing to customize anyways. I may just go for a MacBook Pro and get the iPad 2 when it’s finally released. Certainly my wireless is decent enough. I think it’s actually faster than the cable connections I had in NYC or Toronto. Anyways, that will probably wait until after tax season. I’ve had some money set aside for taxes but I may not need all of it (I over-estimated what I owe on some stocks I cashed). That’s a “to be reviewed later” pile.

The one thing I will need to do is figure out if I can get top surgery finally. My insurance is definitely one that will cover it; I just need to find a doctor that is, ideally, within network. This whole in and out of network stuff is the stuff I hate. I’d rather just go to a doctor I’m comfortable with, regardless of anything else, and use them. Meh. Anyways, I think on my next visit I’ll ask her if she can recommend anyone for the surgery and if so, I’ll check them out to see if they can get it covered under the insurance. Then I’ll just need a letter from her and I probably could get a letter from my old NYC doc  to get the insurance company to cover it (as long as it’s deemed a medical necessity they will cover it). I’ve reached a point where binders are becoming annoying and I know once I really get into the cycling I won’t want to where those any more. Even now I find it too constricting but I also, at the same time, feel rather self conscious of it.

It’s a weird thing that I’ve noticed that as I continue further in, my gender dysphoria is increasing and I’m more aware of the slight difference. Most people seem to ignore the F on the passport (still my only ID — given the work schedule I don’t know when I’ll be able to finally get lessons for driving) and refer to me as Mr or Sir but for me, personally, it’s becoming a health issue (back pain and interferes at times with workouts and such) and something I need to get addressed. Fingers crossed that this year will finally be the year.

The Start of a New Year…. Finally.

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, fitness, LGBTQ, Life, Novel writing, transition, Traveling/Work, vegan stuff .

I can honestly say that I’m tired of rain. Heck, at times, it’s been colder in Los Angeles (and wetter!) than in Toronto or other northern cities. Whether the cause is Global Warming or not, isn’t that important. What is important is that the weather patterns are a-changin’. K and I went to Montreal for the festive holidays and ended up staying an extra 3 days thanks to the blizzard that hit the Northeast. It’s interesting how all the Canadian airports had no issue with the storm (even though they handle these kinds of storms regularly) but the big 3 in question — JFK, LaGuardia and Newark — completely fell apart.

I’m thankful that we were staying with family and they had room for us for the extra days but I did feel bad about imposing on them for this extra time. I know that it impacts on the daily routine and sometimes that can be trying. It was still a fun visit, nonetheless. I introduced K to poutine (if you’ve never had this, it is an experience: basically, it’s french fries, cheese curds and gravy). We also indulged in some New Brunswick lobster (tastes very different from Maine or elsewhere). This trip was our last omnivore meal. We’ve reached a point where we want to return back to a vegan diet and primarily one that is a raw vegan diet. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do 100% raw vegan (and, if I could, it’d do 3-4 green smoothies a day) but I’m going to aim for at least 50% if not higher.

I haven’t been back on my bike since we got all the rain and I had all that travel but after my trip this week to San Jose, I should be able to start some cycling for a couple of weeks. One of the things I still have to do is coordinate with a hotel gym when I travel or walk where possible. Given that my next 3 trips will be San Jose, Austin (TX) and Orlando I think walking may be in my future.

So, given that it’s the start of the new year, I suppose I should put up some resolutions. I was going to compare them to last year’s but it appears I didn’t really post any. I suspect that was because I knew things would be somewhat in flux with the move and the visa really being the biggest concerns. Ok.. so here goes.

1. Return back to a vegan lifestyle. I truly can’t take meat or processed foods any more. There still is a part of me that wants to be pescaterian (damned Acadian genes!) but I’m going to avoid that as much as possible. As I said above, I want it to be primarily raw vegan (ideally up to 80%) where possible. I have found that my body is having a harder and harder time with processed foods in general. I’m also cutting out all soda, diet or otherwise. If it ain’t water or whiskey, it’s gonna be a tea.

2. Cycling 3-6 times a week. This will depend on how much on the road I am but if I get what I asked for (once a month) then I should be fine. In addition to this I want to ensure that I do 25 pushups a day and 50 situps (no necessarily all at once but in a series of reps). This would be the basic exercise for every day and should help build some of my core muscles.

3. Do a full completion of the P90X program. I have the DVDs and the space. I just need to do the damned things. I know a lot of trans guys who have done this and they say it’s the best at building up muscle, especially pre-surgery.

4. When not doing P90X or cycling, go for a run. I actually had enjoyed running with my FiveFingers and want to get back to doing that again. I think it’d be a nice alternating exercise to the cycling for me to do as a way to lose weight.

5. Do two centuries to San Diego and back. Nothing gets me on my bike more than having a goal. A century (100 miles in a single day) to San Diego would be a good way to gauge how I’m doing.  Doing it twice — once in May (?) and once in August (?) — would be a good way to gauge how my fitness levels are doing. It can also allow me to explore the area more.

6. Get my driver’s license. At 40, I’m weird in that I’ve never gotten it. And I’ll be honest in that the Los Angeles freeways scare the crap out of me. The average speed is about 80-100 mph (well into the 130-150kph range). I don’t know if I’ll ever use the freeways themselves but there are a lot of secondary freeways I could use. I’m aiming to see if I can get this by my 41st birthday or around there.

7. Walk the pups once a day when I’m at home. This will be particularly helpful for Jan to April since K will be working at her dad’s (an accountant) and that’s prime tax season. It’ll also help me get a little more exercise and keep them from being too wild. I particularly want this to be a 45-60 min venture. Pugs don’t need a lot of exercise but it does help keep these two from fighting with each other (they do this dominance thing a bit and the walks reduce that a lot).

8. Read a book a week and write at least once a day. I “hermitized” during 2010. I withdrew a lot because too much was going on and things are settling down quite a bit now into more of a routine. There is still a part of me that aspires to be a fiction writer. I used to want to write sci fi and part of me still does but given how much mystery I read I may lean that way. Or just combine them. I missed out on the 2010 NaWriMo but want to participate this year. I also have an intention of writing a technical book. I’ve been asked a few times to do a couple and there is one that is pending that I need to work on an outline with a colleague and get that started. I also need to be more diligent on my blogs and that is something I should be doing.

9. Get top surgery (at least) but perhaps a hysto as well. I’m thinking I may try to do this before the GOP repeal it (although I just read today how they are going start off the new session with that). I’m hopeful that my insurance provider will still keep the standard they are (as long as it’s consider a medical necessity by a doctor, they will cover it). I’m finding that my GID has been worsening in regards to physical appearance. Although I pass 100% of the time, I’m very self-conscious of certain things. And I’d like to have the top surgery before I do my big trip in 2012.

10. The actual weight loss goal — lose 60lbs by end of 2011. This means dropping from the 240lbs I had in 2009 (at 5’1″, it’s 50% body fat) to about 180lbs. I’ve been steady between 220-230 the last month or so. That is good but I need to continue to get that needle to drop more. My ultimate goal would be 150-160lbs. Although BMI and others say that still overweight, for my body type (stocky/compact) it’d be too much.

All of these are doable for this year. And now that I’ve written them out, I’ve basically made myself accountable to myself to complete them. In addition to all this, I will be migrating this blog (along with the others) to a new internet provider. I recently got an account to have my sites hosted on a virtual server. This will allow me to install and configure things the way I want it. When I get back from San Jose I will begin that process and post up a new link to the new address (it’ll be an IP to start with until the domain gets resolved to the new address).

Bring on 2011!

Giving Thanks today and every day

Posted on by Posted in Gratitude, Life .

So today, on American Thanksgiving, we are often reminded that we should give thanks for all the people and things we have in our lives. I don’t think we should be limiting it to a single day, however. I’ve been blessed daily with many things that I’m eternally grateful for.

1. Kristen, for one, makes life more whole, fun and loving. Sure we have our little bits and moments of disagreements but on the whole we complement each other. I have to admit I’ve never laughed as much as I do with her. For that I am grateful.

2. My health has been better this year than in past years and seems to be getting better. My recent foray into a whole raw food diet (thank you VitaMix and Victoria Boutenko) has been very promising. Once the next few weeks of travel settles then I should be able to resume it full force again and go back to a full vegan diet.

Additionally, moving to California has inspired me to return to cycling and I’m planning for my trans-continental ride from Vancouver to L.A., and perhaps right to the Mexican border.

3. While nearly 10% of the US populace is either unemployed or underemployed, I’m lucky enough to enjoy full employment (even if it does include may days of overtime). With this comes the health benefits I need as well as a pay that takes the stress out of day-to-day finances. I’m still recovering from the cost of the move but I’m more ahead now than I was before.

I’m also lucky that my company is willing to cover the cost of my work visa, even in these rough times (granted, unlike others we post some high percentages when it comes to profits).

4. Although many transsexed individuals face discrimination, ridicule and worse, I’ve been blessed with friends, family and colleagues who are supportive. Even those few that read here have been supportive and I’ve been pretty lucky to never once receive hate mail. (whether this has to do with me being an FTM or not I don’t know, especially given what Chaz and other prominent transmen face).

5. And without my friends, life would be very lonely indeed. My recent trip to Toronto showed me how lucky I am to have the friends I do. Even though I haven’t seen my two closest friends in a while (2-3 years) I was able to visit and stay with them and catch up with a former student of mine who I hadn’t seen in nearly 6-7 years. Even though I’m admittedly horrible at writing friends and family they still love me anyways.

6. Finally, the furrkids: Bobcat, the cranky cat; and Lily and Fawnda, the silliest and incredibly densest pugs around. The laughs and joys they bring by being themselves makes life that much more enjoyable and stress free.

So I do have a lot to be thankful for, not just today but every day. To all my American friends and adoptive family: Happy Thanksgiving/Gobbler Day. To everyone: thanks for being a part of my life.