I had to work today, which knocked me for a loop when I learned my fate as it's been ... seven years since I had to work on a newspaper's schedule. Which means someone has to work, every day, and if you are new and have no vacation time to spend, you work on a day almost everyone else has taken off. I'm working downtown tomorrow for a couple of hours, too. But it was not mandatory and when I was asked to come in, I gladly agreed.

So I just finished off some leftovers from the Shea family Thanksgiving dinner, a meal proclaimed by everyone to be the best one yet. Gram and JP teamed up on the turkey, and Gram made the world's best sweet potatoes. JP made turkey gravy so rich that I actual heard it whisper to me from the gravy boat, "Say goodbye to your size 10s, toots." Lynette crafted homemade dinner rolls, the leftovers from which I refuse to touch until Sunday morning when I eat them for breakfast.

Viva la carbs!

Despite the absence of my sister Devyn and her brood, the entire day was the best holiday I can remember us having in years and before I knew it, it was 7:30 p.m. and I had to get back to Chicago, and Glin, and an impromptu hour of whiskey and good conversation at what I think was the only open bar in Wicker Park. It was such a delightful 24 hours that it made getting out of my comfy, snuggly bed this morning more of a chore than ever.

Last year, Glin Pup recapped the state of things for the ejshea.com Thanksgiving entry, and this year she's refused to be my monkey. She effectively told me to "suck it" this morning when I asked her if she wouldn't mind pitching in on the blog, then ran off to the back porch to sulk and gnaw off of her umpteenth rawhide curl. Despite her penchant for the swingingness of moods, she remains the most awesome of dogs.

I'm grateful for so many things this year. Last night before drinks at Pint, after sulking and moaning about going out after I'd already commenced with the Tums and one-piece pajamas, I realized that what I was most grateful for this year was grace. I'm shown grace by the people in my life by the truckloads and I'm not always deserving of it. Later on, after I'd ceased with the dramatics, my friend said to me, lovingly and calmly, "I'm so thankful for you." And this was said without a hint of sarcasm.

See? Grace. Given unselfishly and totally undeservingly. I smiled and laughed and apologized for being so ungrateful and stupid. This happens in my life more than I care to admit.

In addition to grace, though, I'm thankful for various and sundry things, and they are as follows, in no particular order:

1) All of the beautiful babies that have been born this year. We've got three in my family alone, and four of my friends have had kids.
2) Juliana Hatfield. I forgot about how much I love her.
3) Tea Tree Oil.
4) The Weight Watchers Monthly Pass. Seriously. I shouldn't have to spend almost $60 a month to lose weight.
5) My grandma, who gave me the old Nintendo 8-bit system yesterday IN ITS ORIGINAL BOX.
6) My new job and the improvement it's had in my quality of life, a quality I didn't even realize I was lacking.
7) 100-Calorie snack packs. Good eatin'.
8) My sweet and patient agent.
9) Unlimited, in-network text messaging.
10) My friends and family. My sister, especially for buying me hot dogs at Portillo's last weekend.

I love hot dogs. Yum.

Posted by Erin at 01:17 PM | filed under: Odds and ends