An Early Thanks-giving

I'm not really into Thanksgiving.
I'm not really about celebrating the wanton destruction of an entire race of indigenous people, under the guise of "civilization".
And on a purely personal note, it's never seemed like much of a 'holiday' to me, more of an excuse for a bunch of people who don't like each other, but are bound by ties of DNA and marriage, to sit in a room and snipe at one another.

Maybe your family had warm, loving Thanksgivings in which you ennumerated the things you were thankful for, and the foremost was the comfort of family around you- making Thanksgiving a favorite holiday for you.
I didn't, and it's not.

Of course, you probably haven't had loving, sensual Beltaines spent entwined in your lovers and friends' arms, so who am I to quibble?

Anyway.
Thanksgiving.
I'm not really into it.

But today... today I could be.

My life has been shit on so many levels lately. It's been a week, and I still don't have a functional hot water heater. I've been bleeding for well over two weeks (three now? I started when Terry and Lucivar were here, and haven't stopped since) and have ruined multiple pairs of jeans and panties. I somehow ended up with a codependent rescue dog with a fetish for my coffee table legs and our (borrowed!) airbed controls. I have a paper due tomorrow and no idea if I'm even going to manage to write it. My godson has my car and I have no idea how to get it back without making his life (and mine, therefore) needlessly difficult. My partner's car has a radiator leak, and I'm pretty sure some invisble maniac stabbed an invisible ice pick into my hip. Oh yeah, and this is November, the anniversary month of the deaths of my Mema, my mother, Ranger, and Vainkitten.

Yeah.
Suckage.

But.
And there's always a but. (And in the case of my darling Jack, a very yummy butt)
But this afternoon, as I write this, I am sitting on the veranda of Rev and Chef's house. My laptop is playing some of my favorite songs, and it's warm enough that I'm barefoot, in jeans and a long-sleeved tshirt. Their beautifully landscaped backyard (isn't that such a stereotype?! But true here...) is bathed in long streamers of sunlight, with that warm red-gold color that you only get in autumn when the air is cool and crisp and the sky impossibly cerulean blue.

I'm not into Thanksgiving.

But this year, when I sit down with my chosen family, made up of dearly beloved friends, I will say a small prayer of thanks-giving.

• For Rev and Chef, who have been such amazing friends to Jack and I- up to and including opening their home to us while our hot water heater is out.


• For Bama Bully Rescue, who promised to help with Sarah's heartworms, and Friends of the Mobile Animal Shelter, who are helping me to get her spayed.


• For my teachers, for being insanely understanding about my insanity this month.


• For being able to help a very dear friend at the same time as myself.


• For the Navigator, who came back into my life this week and has promptly resumed being an awesome friend.


• For Spryte, who just plain rocks, and whose scene with us I have yet to write about.


• For Kat, who's tolerantly and lovingly put up with my distance over the past few weeks as I've struggled against my life and the demons its raised.


• For Lucivar, whose steady presence has been more of a blessing than he realizes.


• For my godson's return to my life, and the incredible young man he's becoming.


• For the girl in my Poli Sci class, who randomly handed me the means to get through the month.


• For Fridays spent horseback riding, laughing into the wind with 800lbs of muscle between my thighs.


• For all of the incredible people, and things, in my life that remind me even at my lowest that I am an incredibly lucky woman.

Thank you. Thank you so incredibly much.

ETA: Navigator, you so incredibly rock. Holy shit. Really? You so incredibly rock. Wow, you're awesome. Yay for having another vehicle, and even one that I can use to get rid of furniture!!!