Ten Things of Thankful #65

This has been a fairly uneventful week, really. Full of work, rain, and, um, kid stuff. Anyhow, it’s going to take some effort to get to 10, methinks. Here we go!!

One of the best things about being Baby C’s father are the small memories we make on a daily basis. For instance, on Thursday I let him play Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga on our Xbox because he had gone all day at my mom’s house without having an accident. He wanted to play a forest level, so I loaded the Battle of Endor. We got to a part where we needed to take a lift down from the Ewoks’ home in the top of the trees to the forest floor below. Instead of taking the left, Baby C kept repeatedly throwing R2 of off the platform because he found R2’s dying scream hilarious. It was incredibly cute to watch, but I’m not sure if I should be concerned that repeatedly killing R2 is funny to him.

What did I…What did I…What did I do to deserve this?

Then there are tiny magical moments like now, when I glance over toward Baby C, who was sitting on the couch eating an apple and watching Elmo’s World, and finding that he’s passed out, apple slice in hand. That child is immeasurably cute, but his cuteness factor intensifies a thousand-fold when he’s asleep.

I set a goal this year to raise $100 for the AFSP Out of the Darkness walk this year based on the amount of money I raised last year. I’ve been blown away this year and have already raised $210, and there’s still a month and a half to go until the walk. I’m so very thankful to everyone who’s donated and completely overwhelmed by all of your support. You guys fucking rock.

Click on the picture if you’d like to donate.

You know that moment when you like a song, but when you actually stop to listen to the lyrics you find out that those lyrics are speaking what’s in your heart and you fall instantly in love with that song and play it on repeat until even your three-year old is like, “WTF, dad?” Yeah, that.

I can’t even adequately articulate how much I can relate to this song. It speaks to me like an enchanted voice from heaven above. Or something. Seriously, though, I am in love with this song right now.

I know I’m late to the party, but I just signed up for Spotify the other day. I’d been using Pandora for the last few years (which is great for finding new music), but Spotify does what Pandora does and more. Spotify is amazing and I’m now unsure how I survived without it.

They tried to lose me right away, though. I got an email from them encouraging me to find my favorite artists. In the email were links to Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, One Direction, and Miley Cyrus. Spotify, I know we just met, but what the FUCK makes you think I’d enjoy any of that music based on the things I’ve listened to so far (all hard rock)? It’s like you’re trying to insult me before you’ve even gotten to know me.

The cool autumn weather has finally arrived. I’ve had all the windows in the house open the last couple of days. I LOVE IT!

I made a lot of progress in what I’m hoping will turn out to be a novel last weekend. I have five chapters uploaded and saved as drafts, and I’ll probably begin releasing a chapter weekly once I feel I’m far enough ahead to keep writing AND post chapters regularly.

This is the cover I threw together for it. Does it look intriguing at all?

Still haven’t had any alcohol! Going on a month now.
What if I told you there was a magical beverage you could consume when you’re tired and absolutely hate the world that would flip everything upside down? A non-alcoholic beverage, no less. It makes people less irritating. It makes the annoying chirping of the birds slightly more tolerable. It gets your juices flowing and gives you energy. I’m speaking, of course, of coffee. Lord knows I’d have been fired long ago without that magical beverage. (Yeah, I’m leaving this one here from last week because coffeh.)

Coffeh! I’ll probably be thankful for this every week.

Football is back! There’s nothing better than sinking into the couch on a Sunday afternoon to watch 300lb behemoths in skin-tight clothes beat the shit out of each other while play-by-play announcers spew inanity from their mouths while occasionally being interrupted by 30-second snippets of stupidity in the guise of trying to get us to spend money we don’t have on shit that doesn’t matter.

Man, I love football.

I’ve been reluctant to talk about it for fear of becoming derailed and jinxing myself, but in the last few months I’ve seriously reduced my daily caloric intake. In conjunction with eliminating alcohol from my diet and slowly introducing some light exercise into my daily routine, I’ve dropped almost 20lbs since June. I’ve been able to successfully lose weight in the past, but at some point I always lose my motivation…and then I find the weight again. Maybe this time I’ll get it right? Who knows? But here’s hoping.

What are YOU thankful for?