Thankfulness

Hey, remember me? I'm that person that sometimes used to blog here. Yeah, that's right, Valorie. Uh huh. Yeah, I'm alive. Where have I been you ask? Oh, well, that's a pretty long story. How about I try to catch you up while I catch up and list the ten things I was thankful for this Thanksgiving?

I'm thankful...

1. For my family. I drove home last Tuesday to surprise my parents (I was supposed to go home Wednesday) and earned a scream from my mom, who was on a conference call with her boss when I walked into the house. We then drove to Arkansas to visit my Dad's family and stayed there until Saturday, which was simply wonderful. I have a big family but I rarely get to see any of them because we're all so spread out. Like a dummy though, I didn't take a single picture the whole time so I can't show you them. Lame, eh?

2. That I don't have to write another paper this semester. No, seriously, I actually silently said thanks for this at the lunch/dinner table on Thanksgiving. I really do love to write, but I *hate* writing research papers. My only one this semester was due last Monday -- now I just have to wait and see how I did.

3. For my friends. I saw most of the ones I'm really close with over the few days I was there -- it was wonderful. Very few of my close friends actually go to A&M, and I don't really have the money (or the time) to be driving all over the state of Texas to visit all of them. Though I do have plans to visit Cyndi in Houston next semester. I'm excited. :)

4. For dayquil. I've been sick on and off for the past week, so dayquil has been a life saver; without it there's no. way. I could have gotten out of bed for classes today or last Tuesday. Though, if we're honest, the liquid dayquil tastes awful. Absolutely. If anyone involved in the production of dayquil is reading this: step it up. Also, why is it burnt orange? That's pretty much the worst color ever. (Gig 'em, Aggies! [Yes, it was necessary.])

5. For Black Friday. I got some pretty suh-weet brown "leather" boots that day. As well as a really bad a set of 10 picture frames for $12 bucks. And a couple cheap-y necklaces that will break by the end of the week, but that's okay because I paid less than $5 for them, as well as a purse that better not break by the end of the week, though I did pay less than $20 for it. And a bulletin board, though I'm not actually sure why I bought that since I don't know where the heck I'm going to put it. Caught up in the shopping fever I guess.

6. For Barnes & Noble coupons. They send me some pretty much once a week, but last week there was an email for 50% off and another for 40% off waiting in my inbox, like a little reminder that it will all be okay, that the world isn't coming to a halting stop before exploding into a fiery ball of doom. Needless to say, I made a trip over there immediately, and now have a copy of Superfreakonomics and a beautiful leather bound journal that will eventually be used for #55, once I can bring myself to destroy it (which is, of course, the whole freaking point).

7. That I'm still in school. During my catching up with all my friends, I was caught up on all the old high school gossip (don't look at me that way, you do it too), and I realized just how many people that were supposed to go off to college and become successful lawyers and doctors and teachers and whatevers... are now bums, smoking pot and doing nothing with their lives. The most important thing any of them do is wait tables and play at the coffee house on Tuesday nights. On the one hand, it's like, 'okay cool, do what makes you happy.' But they're not going to be young forever, eventually they'll need to make more than $7.50/hr. Maybe I'm being judgmental.

8. That I haven't actually quit Mary Kay yet, though I still have every intention to. I'm actually going to have a big 25% off sale starting on December 1, which I'm extending to you guys through this website. I just feel like it would be easier to sell all the product than return it to the company. (If you have any questions about the sale, feel free to email me -- beautifuliconoclast [at] gmail [dot] com.)

9. For extra credit projects in my Chinese class. And for going to class on Tuesday even though most of the class skipped and finding out that I have an extra credit project. I'm already half done with it and I only spent about an hour on it last night, so it should really work out. The fact that it's giving me somewhere between 1 and 5 points on my final grade it pretty stinkin' wonderful. :)

10. THAT IT'S ALMOST TIME TO START CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS. I love Thanksgiving, really, it's one of my favorite holidays (right after Halloween), but there's just something about the Christmas season that really makes me happy. But, I do really hardcore believe in not celebrating Christmas before December 1, so it DRIVES ME CRAZY when corporate America is like "oh it's November 1? It's almost Christmas! Put up the decorations now! We've got to suck consumers dry before the holidays really even start!" Consumerism isn't even what Christmas is supposed to be about... But that's for a whole different post.

Does that catch y'all up enough? How were your Thanksgivings?