Giving thanks

This year, my family had 16 people for Thanksgiving, ranging in age from 8 to 90 years old. The oldest attendee, my great-great-aunt, is the most vibrant old lady you'll ever meet (my little sister described her as "cheerful for her age"). Every week, she "looks in on the old folks", bringing seniors - sometimes 30 years her junior - home-baked goodies, gossip and company. She's quite the character!

After dinner, she said something that stuck with me. She said she was thankful for electric lights because when she was a girl, growing up in a very rural area, they would have to scrub the chimneys on the kerosene lanterns every day before they were refilled.

That blew me away! Do we ever think to be grateful for electricity, let alone dishwashers, microwave ovens, the internet, washing machines, cell phones, refrigerators and all the other conveniences of modern daily life?

It's remarkable to think that not only did our relatives and ancestors live without these conveniences in the not-so-distant past, but that millions of people still live without them today. One of my favorite blogs is written by Maggie Doyne, who runs a children's home for orphans in Nepal. She often writes about the struggles she faces just to provide a safe, healthy home for her children in an area with high poverty and illiteracy rates, limited medical care and little contact with the outside world.

In a society where Blackberries are practically glued to our bodies at all times and we feel isolated if we can't check Facebook or Gmail for a day (I'm definitely guilty of this as well!), I think it's important to remember to appreciate what we have - from running water to the internet - especially in the upcoming holiday season when consumerism is king.

This weekend, I am...

...venturing out in the storm to attend a mandatory training. My shoes were soaked through within the first 5 minutes of standing on the train platform...not a great start to the day.

...enjoying myself at that training despite soggy feet - I ran into a college friend unexpectedly, which was lovely. Also, the promised free pizza at said training turned out to be from Bertucci's and utterly delicious!

...cozying up in bed with a package of double-stuff oreos, which I love even though my co-workers tease me about it.

...devouring several new books. I bought The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society last weekend, and it's turning out to be delightful so far. I also got The Mists of Avalon out of the library this week, and I'm going to try to read the whole thing. I'm a little daunted by the size as well as the number of people I know who have given up partway through, but I'll do my best and report back!

...eagerly awaiting the arrival of several packages in the mail containing Christmas presents and, more importantly, the materials to make more Christmas presents. How, I ask you, am I supposed to start my gift knitting without the yarn???

I won!

I am very excited to have won a giveaway on the lovely blog kind over matter! The drawing was for a print by the incredibly talented Lori Portka - I chose "lift her to the sky", although it was very hard to pick.

My new apartment is so empty and bare, I'm so excited to have some new art to hang up!

Thank you very much to the ladies at kind over matter and to Lori for the giveaway!

The most frustrating thing ever...

...I have run out of yarn while doing the picot binding on the shawl I'm knitting.

I'll report back when I figure out a solution. :(

Wildly awesome

The webcomic Cowbirds in Love is generally pretty awesome, but this particular drawing had me in stitches. It's now my desktop background and it makes me smile every time!