yesterday was thanksgiving. usually one of my more favorite and under-appreciated holidays, since it involves family & food. and ideally, pumpkin cheesecake.
this year ended up being alright, but pre-plans always go awry, don't they? i'm housesitting 16 miles north of town, on a road that doesn't get plowed by the city or borough, only by the graciousness of good neighbors. thankful moment #1: i have a reliable, reasonably-powerful, 4-wheel drive subaru with studded snow tires. thankful moment #2: the neighbors in this area have trucks with plows that plow the road down to the highway, and also driveways, for other neighbors to traverse safely. yesterday, after said neighbors plowed the driveway of the house i'm sitting for the second time in the past week (we had atleast a foot of snow, and the last few inches were slushy so it was kinda slick), the older gentleman up the hill who is dying of cancer stopped by and knocked on the door. he thought i was the wife of the couple i'm housesitting for, as i'd mentioned last weekend that the husband was out of town for a month and so his truck didn't need to be dug out of the snow any time soon. the neighbor asked if i was on my own, and invited me to thanksgiving dinner w/ his family, even though he doesn't know me at all and has only met the real wife once (they moved to ketch just a short while ago). awwww! thankful moment #3: generous and caring people who go out of their way to help make you feel welcome.
thanks to the plowing, i was able to drive into town to have thanksgiving with my family, and as luck would have it i arrived early enough to witness mom's annual breakdown in the kitchen. she puts the world's problems upon her shoulders and then freaks out from the stress. i always forget about those moments until they're happening, but once you're there, there's no escaping it. i could've just stayed out north & ate cheesecake for thanksgiving (oh darn) but i didn't and survived. mom made a comment that it might be our last (semi) full-family thanksgiving since my brother is headed to fairbanks for school in january and who knows when (or if) he'll ever come home again. all i know, is that the doors in our house will get a break from being slammed in anger and frustration, and beyond that we'll just see what happens.
today is the new "holiday tradition" of black friday, which can mean midnight shopping sprees for some. for me, it meant sleeping in until 7:30 (woot, 2 extra hours!!) and driving into town as the sun was headed for its peak - it was quite literally a winter wonderland. the sun was melting the snow on the tree boughs and they were raining down on the side of the road, just like glistening rainfalls. thankful moment #4: this island is one of the most beautiful places in the world, despite the challenges of living here. i was heading to the winter arts faire, my favorite ketchikan tradition alongside the blueberry festival. sadly, this year there just wasn't a lot of wares that called my name and i left with empty hands.
lunch with grandma & mom before taking mom out south for a haircut and checking on the cats i'm sitting (8 miles out the other direction from where i'm living - all in all, a 23.3 mile, 44 minute drive. considering our road from one end to the other is 30.9 miles, in 1h 8min according to google maps, i'm pretty much driving the whole island to take care of houses & animals). as i was leaving the house, it started raining. not just light rain. torrential slush rain. which sucks to drive in, let me tell ya. the roads are worst when we've had snow and then it warms up & turns to slush - cars start to slide and spin out, and if it freezes over at night (which is usually does), you're asking for trouble by leaving the house. i got us home safely and headed out north, right into a wannabe snow storm that looked like the millenium falcon flying into hyperspeed (although last week's storm was worse, it was pretty much a blizzard and i could barely see the road at 20 miles an hour). thankful moment #5: my car is a trusty steed, and no other drivers have been real jerks yet as i've been driving atleast 10mph under the speed limit. coach chad has done a 360 and 180 on the roads already this week in his jeep; i'd like to keep my experience count down to the one i had during a college break.
today i thought of a plan - i often have quotes as my "facebook status", but i was thinking of coming up with a thankful moment each day instead...it's the small things in life that often get overlooked and taken for granted, but are the truly important things that bring joy. it might be my new year's resolution, or maybe i'll get started early. i know one thing that'll never make the list is 7am saturday swim practice, like i have tomorrow...
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