Thanksgiving seemed to come at us fast this year. Which can be seen as a good thing, as we're all more than ever in need of a day during which we stop in the midst of all the 2022 adversity and runaway-roller-coaster craziness to count our blessings and take up an attitude of gratitude.
If all has gone as planned, today my husband, Dre, and I are going into Thanksgiving Week with a visit to my "mother-in-love," grateful not only for her love and her company, but, well, her cooking. And I would have been remiss had I not left you with my annual Things I'm Thankful For list, the things that — besides God, spouse, family, friends, "three hots and a cot," the midterms being over, period — have left me grateful in these last days of the Year of Our Lord 2022:
◼️ Being too old, too surgically unable, too married to someone else, and too sensible to even dream of becoming one of Nick Cannon's babymamas.
◼️ The Christmas-theme commercials. Such a welcome change from the campaign ads.
◼️ A shocker for longtime readers here: Those Hallmark Christmas movies. Such a welcome change from the campaign ads.
◼️ Noncampaign-circular junk mail. Such a welcome change ... you get the picture.
◼️ That none of us should be made to feel any shame about birthday photo shoots because hey, look, the King of England did one!
◼️ For our TV streaming devices, which for several years have shown us that they far surpass cable in providing zillions of channels/subchannels but somehow still leave us with nothing to watch.
◼️ Houseplants that even I can't slay.
◼️ That it's sundress-and-swimsuit season somewhere. Unfortunately (I write with a sigh, as I reminisce about spending my wintertime 60th birthday in such cruise destinations as St. Maarten, San Juan, St. Kitts/Nevis and Grand Turk), I can't act on this as easily and cheaply as the booze enjoyers do when they declare "It's 5 o'clock somewhere."
◼️ Not to work at Hobby Lobby during Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Even were I younger, I couldn't hang. (I must give a shout-out to those who work at the location I frequent, the North Park Mall store in North Little Rock. You guys were doing all you could to hold it together at 9:30 a.m. on a recent Friday that was already 2 p.m.-Saturday-busy.)
◼️ To have gotten at least somewhat better at not biting off more than I can chew and not counting chickens before they're hatched ... something for which I can only wish some of this year's headline makers could say they are thankful.
◼️ That I haven't taken over the captaincy of any sinking ships. Ditto.
◼️ That I don't get hung up about Mercury retrograde, not in small part because I'm forgetful/my technical gadgets thumb their noses at me/my sleep patterns are screwed up all throughout the year and not just during retrograde times.
◼️ That the inability to sleep at least gives a boost to my having to get up in time for 5 a.m. Zoom workout classes.
◼️ Not caring where I am on the Peloton-class leaderboard — just that I'm in the Green or (preferably) Yellow zone on the MyZone heart-rate-monitor system.
◼️ That it was only after I saw "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" that I came across all these "spoiler alert" articles that gave practically the entire movie plot away. Geesh!
◼️ Spoiler alert, sorta: That the antagonist in the aforementioned movie hasn't prompted Dre to run out and buy a pair of "hoochie daddy" shorts.
◼️ That mirror selfies are sooo much more delightfully more slimming than photos shot by someone else.
◼️ That I didn't invest in cryptocurrency ... but instead chose to deal with the good old, traditional, USA fiat currency!
◼️ That "accepting cookies" online at least doesn't involve calories.
◼️ The ads created by these cookies ... because I can always get off the online news story making me sad/angry/disgusted/frustrated and just shop!
◼️ Speaking of shopping: That some senior discount granters give breaks to those younger than 65.
◼️ Good news. There's still plenty out there.
◼️ The chance to create good news for, and bring good news to, others.
Still thankful for email: hwilliams@adgnewsroom.com