Thankful For Things That Don’t Suck

This is the time of year when people like to do “gratitude posts” on social media. It all ties in with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up in another week and a half. I’ve been thinking about my own list.

I think it goes without saying that I’m thankful for family and friends and all those good things, but these are the things I just happen to be thankful for this week!

I don’t work for Satan’s Butthole anymore. I had breakfast with The Lunch Bunch on Sunday. The other two ladies are still working for Satan’s Butthole because they are right on the cusp of retirement and they’ll get a pretty little severance, too.

That is, if the job doesn’t kill them first.

After listening to them fill me on the latest, I’m extremely grateful I left when I did. I used to compare it to The Hunger Games but it has now de-evolved into The Walking Dead: A bunch of zombies trying to eat your brains while you fight them, and the other survivors, off.

Some members of upper management think they’re Negan and they’re going to use their baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, named Lucille, to beat you into submission. Or make your eye pop out of your head like Glenn.

I’m thankful my proverbial eye doesn’t pop out of my head anymore.

Oklahoma liquor laws have changed.

I know I mentioned it before, but we no longer have archaic liquor laws in Oklahoma and we can now purchase strong beer. In addition, we can purchase cold beer and wine at our favorite local retailers and not just the liquor store.

So I was picking up a few things at CVS and I discovered they sell my favorite wine there:

Cupcake brand Moscato.

I know. I write about drinking and liquor more than I should and I probably give the impression I’m a lush, so full disclosure: I really don’t drink as much as I write about drinking. Not that I don’t enjoy getting my wine on, but I’ve gone long periods of time without drinking. Years even.

I grew up in a dry household. I don’t ever remember a single bottle of liquor in my house the entire time growing up. It had something to do with a New Year’s Eve party my mother hosted and my Dad got pretty knackered, passing a bottle of Jack Daniels around the kitchen table with his brother and sister-in-law. The evening apparently ended with my mother putting a beat down on him to keep him from taking the car keys to make a drunken and impromptu drive to Juarez in the middle of the night.

Then he got the silent treatment for three days.

He promised my mother he would never drink like that again, and my father was a man of his word. Except for the occasional can of beer on a camping trip, I never saw him take a drink.

I did my share of rebellious drinking in my teen years and early twenties, but the allure of it went away altogether until I was in my thirties, which coincidentally is precisely when Satan’s Butthole became Satan’s Butthole.

Anyway, I can now buy my wine at CVS. I’m thankful I can pick up all my “prescriptions” in one-stop-shopping.

I have a warm house.

Today was the first snowfall of the season.

I know most people love snow. It’s so pretty. It’s so fun to play in. It makes everything feel so….wintery!

I’m from the desert, people. El Paso. The Sun City, where it’s literally sunny 300 days out of the year and winter lasts two months and the rest of the year is just hot, hotter, and hottest.

But it’s a dry heat, you know.

Snow was a novelty. We’d get snow once or twice year that would look really pretty for a few hours, which would shut down the whole city, and then it would melt by noon.

Then, I moved to Tulsa.

In he middle of January.

In a blizzard.

In a Saturn Sport Coupe with wiper blades that didn’t work well.

I quickly developed a love/hate relationship with snow that very quickly thereafter turned into a hate/hate relationship from having to drive on it and having my car slide around on the road like Michelle Kwan at the ’98 Olympics.

You see beautiful, white, fluffy snow.

I see Death Flakes.

And when the Death Flakes come early in the season like they did today, I am thankful for a house with four good walls and a decent roof and an almost new furnace.

My readers.

I’m not saying that to suck up. Y’all are seriously the best!

This is my 150th blog post. Some of you have been here since Day One and some of you joined later, but you’ve all been fantastic with your comments, your support, and your encouragement.

Some of you know me in “real” life and have been really consistent in reading my blog and supporting my desire to be a writer. Thank you. I love you all.

Some of you are bloggers yourselves. I’ve really come to appreciate the blogging community I’ve become a part of. Thank you all so much for promoting my blog, leaving comments, and spreading the love. There are too many to name but here are a few who have really helped me along the way!

Allen at The Midnight Goose

Lori at Come Hell or High Water Blog

M.L. James at Wayward Sparkles

Pip at Pip’s Tips

Adie at From, Adie With Love

Katie at Fatty McCupcakes

River at River’s World

Until next time…Stay weird, my friends. Normal is boring.