Fairy tale

Not quite three weeks ago, the following exchange happened on my Facebook page:

[bzzzzgrrrl] loves it when she comes home to find the sweater fairy has been to call!

• [Friend1] I want a sweater fairy!
• [Friend2] sweater fairy?
• [Friend3] Is THAT what they call those moths!?!
• [bzzzzgrrrl] Ha!
  No, [Friend3] and [Friend2], the sweater fairy is a magical creature that leaves nice sweaters between the storm door and the regular door of all the good little boys and girls who are lucky enough to live next door to people who are losing weight and whose old size is similar to said boys' and girls' current size.
  I believe her to be related to the beet fairy, which is a magical creature that leaves beets (and sometimes other produce) for all the good little boys and girls who are lucky enough to live next door to people who have a CSA share but also a houseful of mildly picky eaters.
• [Friend3] Ah, I seeeeeee. I wonder if I can find a $100 bill fairy??
• [Cousin Mouse] oh, at first I read that as "the swearer fairy"

Well the sweater fairy has struck again, and this time, she's left not only sweaters but also shirts and pants and shorts and a vest, and she had to leave them in the garage because there were way too many to leave between the regular door and the storm door. I will not need to shop again for a year.

Day 28 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for the generosity of the people around me, particularly of my kind and loving neighbor. I aspire to that level of thoughtfulness.

Chocolatey goodness

I'm running the Hot Chocolate Run next weekend — a 5K for Safe Passage, an organization that provides services for women and children who've experienced domestic violence. It's a good organization that does good work and if I'm going to run in New England in December, I'm glad to be running for them.

Plus, hot chocolate.

Day 27 of my month of gratitude: I'm thankful for whichever of you has already anonymously sponsored me. If you'd like to do just like that donor did, go to PledgeReg and look up my name. If you don't know my name, consider donating to Safe Passage directly.

Mmm mm good

You know how there are foods you love, that other people don't get, or dislike, or assume they'd dislike without trying it? I had a friend in college whose favorite was "special spaghetti," which was spaghetti with ketchup and Velveeta.

Day 26 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for anchovy pizza with tomatoes. And orange sherbet with hot fudge.

Yankee Doodle

There's an old thing people say up here (what do you call it if it's too long to be a saying and not funny enough to be a joke?):

• Non-Americans know any American is a Yankee.
• But Southerners know the real Yankees are from the Northeast.
• But other North Easterners know the real Yankees are from New England.
• But other New Englanders know the real Yankees are from New Hampshire.
• And other folks from New Hampshire know the real Yankees are the ones who eat apple pie for breakfast.

Day 25 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for pie for breakfast. The amazing feast I had today is not yet digested, but I am already looking forward to having pie for breakfast tomorrow. It might be my favorite Thanksgiving-related food tradition.

Listen up

A lot of the drive from Lake Placid back home is through Vermont. And in a lot of Vermont, the only radio option is NPR.

You know what NPR loooooves? Storycorps's National Day of Listening. And that love proves to be contagious. You spend all day listening to good stories told by good storytellers on the radio, and you start thinking of the storytellers in your own life. And you think about the amazing stories that are so far unrecorded. And you wind up at Walmart on the second Thanksgiving Day in a row, this time buying a digital recorder and batteries (OK, and pajamas, because you forgot those, but whatever).

And you bring the voice recorder to Thanksgiving, and you're delighted by the fact that your family stories include the Vichy government and arguments about Inuit women chewing shoe leather and what it feels like to remove a brain from a cadaver and the fact that a five-year-old can spell her friend's name (which is more impressive because that friend is named "Ellerbe"). And you suddenly stop being able to think about talking with your family without a recorder running, though you will probably be able to do it some time.

Day 24 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for stories and storytelling traditions that I get to be part of, including but not limited to my family's dinner table and spending some part of every Thanksgiving scanning the radio for Arlo Guthrie — found him this year. If you can find a link to the excellent interview I heard on NPR, you should send it to me. But meanwhile, here's what I thought I was looking for until I found the excellent interview and all the talk about the National Day of Listening.

Whimsical

Sometimes, I am reading a blog, and the blogger has written a long list of things she's thankful for. I mean, a long list. So I might be maybe a little hoping she'll give me ideas I can steal for my month of gratitude series, and then all of a sudden I'm in her blog as a thing she is thankful for.

Whoa.

That's, like:

• so meta
• so sweet
• so cool
• so weird

I should say a little about Whimsy (the aforementioned blogger). I don't know her. Never met her. The things I know about her are what she writes on her blog, so, mostly about her daughter and her husband and her deep friendships and some travel stuff. Her blog landed in my reader initially because she was funny and smart, and though that is still true, I read a lot of funny smart stuff, and a lot of funny smart stuff has been streamlined out of my reader. She stays there because her blog exudes this amazing, consuming love — in addition to the smart and funny. I like having that kind of love in my day.

It's Thanksgiving Day, and I'm also one post behind, so you'll likely be getting another post from me. But I also have to drive several hundred miles, and maybe go for a run, and enjoy a big meal with some of the people who've known me longest and best and who love me much (as I do them), so, you know, maybe there won't be a lot of time for posting. Whatever you do with your day today, I hope that you are happy and safe and well-loved, and that someone lets you know you are cared for.

Day 23 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for people who make the internet not only funnier and smarter, but also warmer. I am thankful for people who let me into their lives and then make me glad of it.

Amazing

Those of you who know me in person know I can be kind of a jackass. So can most of us, I assume/hope; it'd be awful to be the only jackass around here.

And being an occasional jackass, it has happened more than once this month that I've thought about posting "gratitudes" that do not come from a place of grace, but from a place of, um, meanness. There have been days I've wanted to post to highlight my superiority over someone else, days I've wanted to post about how I, unlike some people, am capable of whatever it is.

Now there's a weird observation to get to make about yourself, right?

That even the most basically good small thing I can think to do should be examined for perversion?

But examine it I do, and I won't lie, there have been days on which I can think of nothing new and non-mean to post. Not today, mind you, but some days.

Day 22 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for those small better impulses I do have, which don't always let me get away with being a jackass. I am thankful for grace.

Plame game

Today at lunch, an 11-year-old engaged me in a detailed conversation about whether 9/11 was an inside job (we think not) and whether it was a flimsy excuse for a war (we think so). He then listened with rapt attention as I explained the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson situation, to the point where, when we were interrupted by something more important, he demanded that I continue to tell him the story later.

I liked it.

You know what I also like? The glee on my 17-month-old niece's face when she sees I'm wearing a necklace suitable for tugging, or when she manages to grab the glasses off my face (and then attempts to mash them back on).

Day 21 of my month of gratitude: I am grateful to have children in my life, in meaningful and less meaningful ways. And I am grateful for the one who's coming soon — a new niece or nephew at the end of June. Awesome, and many congratulations to my sister and her husband.

Morning glory

I woke up this morning in a round room with windows along about one side. There's new snow on the ground and the Adirondacks are my view.

I got up and added to a room-sized compost pile, which involves chopping compost and shoveling wood chips and quick walks on snow-covered ice.

Day 20 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for the newness of mornings, and the new things each one brings.

Remote control

One of the best vacations I ever had was with my parents and sister on the island of Iona.

If you haven't been, you should totally go. Here's how:

• Fly to London
• Connect to Glasgow
• Take a train to Oban
• Take a ferry to Mull
• Take a bus across Mull
• Take another ferry to Iona

As my mother says, you really feel like you've gotten away.

And I know my city friends think I have moved to nowhere, but I am in a city of 23,000 people, on a campus of 5,000 people, with neighbors I can see from my windows in all directions.

I've been spending some time hanging out in a much smaller town lately, and I'm headed to North Country School in Lake Placid next week. I love, love, love, the quietness of not having cell phone reception all the time.

Day 19 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for remoteness, for places without a lot of people, for opportunities to feel like I have really gotten away.

Fashion, forward

My friend Genny posted this style q-and-a to her blog nearly a month ago.

Thanks to the magic of procrastination, you get mine now. Fun, right?

(Note: If you actually go back and read Genny's responses, you'll see she included some questions I skipped. I only answered the fashion and style ones; if you want to be sure to answer all the questions, you should copy from her, not me. And either way, you should post to your own blog and link here, or do your answers in the comments.)

My biggest influence when dressing: Mood. And what's clean. Not necessarily in that order.

My signature scent: Most days, I just wear deodorant. So, daily, Tom's of Maine Long-Lasting Lemongrass. For special occasions (which can mean, "occasions on which I happened to notice the bottle"), I wear Ma Griffe by Carven.

My Go-To Flower: Peonies. I am not sure I understand what go-to means in this context, but I love peonies.

Style Icons: I have so many, most of them people I know (including Genny herself). Among the famous people I emulate when I'm thinking about it: Katharine Hepburn, Mary Tyler Moore, and, if I ever have the arms for it, Michelle Obama. OK, yes, and probably still the cast of Friends. Shut up.

What should every woman have in her wardrobe? Something that feels like her. Nothing is simultaneously sexier and easier to be around than a woman who is totally at home with herself, in her skin, in her gender, in her outfit.

What do you splurge on? Almost nothing. I buy things as inexpensively as I can. I have taken to wearing more expensive, designery jeans lately, but I buy them on the cheap (usually second-hand).

Every woman should own: Didn't we cover this already? Anyway, more specifically, underwear she feels good in, whatever that means for her.

I can't live without: Well, that's dramatic. But a good pair of black heels.

What's not worth the investment? Practically everything, fashion-wise. But especially: fancy layering Ts or tank tops. You can get them at Target (or your inexpensive store of choice), and as long as you try on to get a good fit, they'll look as good and last as (not very) long as more expensive ones.

Favorite Eyewear: I rarely wear sunglasses. But I am in love with my day-to-day glasses right now, and almost every frame made by Kliik.

Worst Current Trend: Understand that my idea of "current" is slightly warped by living where I live, but when can Uggs be over?

Best Current Trend: Same caveat as above, but layering saves my life and ability to get dressed every day.

Things I Buy in Bulk: Any staples I find cheap. Great bras on clearance at TJ Maxx? I buy every one in my size. A tank top that fits just right? I buy one in each color (and probably more than one in white).

What's the secret to looking polished? If I knew, would I look like this? I feel like the devil's in the details. For me, I gesture differently and fidget less if my nails are done. That's gotta help somewhat, right?

Movies that have inspired my fashion: You don't want to hear any more about my good fashion choices. You want to hear about the bad ones, that are (one hopes) behind me now. Breakfast Club. Thelma and Louise. Cinderella (luckily, that only inspired one nightgown decision, and I was six). The Bad News Bears. Singles.

What's the secret to making yourself stand out? In my experience, weirdness. Sometimes that works out well, sometimes less well, but it always stands out. Think Lady Gaga's meat dress. Or Madonna's cone bras. Or me in high school wearing a tie a few times a week.

Must-have clothing: Jeans.

My Go-To Accessory: Hoop earrings.

What are your favorite jeans? Right now, a thrift-store pair of Luckys. Do people say "Luckys"?

Day 18 of my month of gratitude: I'm grateful for fashion, for the funness of playing and reinvention and chances to look better — or just different.

The Judy Blume Award for Awkward Puberty

Watch the full episode. See more Mark Twain Prize.

Day 17 of my month of gratitude: I cannot help but feel grateful that I put a bag of pretzels in my purse. And also, for humor. I pretty much never watch awards shows, but someone said I needed to see the uncut version of this thank you speech, and she was right. If that one's too long for you, the two-minute version is here.

Deep breaths

Some days you get cute stories, some days you get maddeningly vague gratitude with explanations to come later — maybe much later. This is one of the latter days, though I ain't no saint.

Day 16 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for terrifying change, and the opportunities it presents.

Three tomatoes are walking down the street*

I do not thrive on pressure, quite. I do not function super-well under stress, necessarily, although I do OK with it. But something about that stress and pressure must serve me somehow, because I've been creating it since I was a kid.

If I had to guess, and I'm sure this is an oversimplification, I'd guess that I do it in order to have the sweet release that happens when you're finally not stressed, when everything that should be completed is completed, when you can finally heave that sigh of relief.

Day 15 of my month of gratitude: I'm thankful to be caught up. Not on everything, of course, but on a few pretty important things. Now to tackle the rest.

*Here's video, for those of you who didn't get the reference in the title.

He's not heavy; he's my brother-in-law

I mentioned my brother-in-law's birthday earlier.

Naturally, there was a party. It was a family party, and it was just. So. Fun.

In attendance were:

• My brother-in-law
• My sister
• Their daughter (16.5 months)
• His mother
• His sister
• Her husband
• Their kids (4 and 6)
• My brother-in-law's cousin
• His girlfriend
• My parents
• Me

Apologies to anyone who had a hard time figuring out the pronouns and antecedents up there.

Anyway, the party was a blast. There was karaoke and chess and meatballs and hot dogs and hamburgers and noodles and two kinds of cake. There was the cool older cousin having a good time with the kids, and the grownups rocking out to 80s music. It was just really, really delightful.

Day 14 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful to have family around — that I like. Truly, I don't have the one aunt everyone hates or those awful bratty cousins no one can stand. I am so blessed to have so much family that I really enjoy spending time with.

The mourning, after

It's taken me a little while to write about the election, because, well, it's hard for me to find a lot of gratitude there.

But Thursday, I was in town, buying a birthday present for my brother-in-law, and ran into a woman I know not-as-well-as-I'd-like. She's one of those activists I'd like to think I could be — but am not. She practices what she preaches, and she works very, very hard, for causes like health care, living wages, affordable housing, and sound energy policy. She runs a non-profit toward that end. She's one of my local heroes, and she knows everyone in town, and she's everyone's local hero.

I didn't see her at first, but she saw me, and greeted me cheerily. And I asked how she was, and she said, "I'm good. I'm done with mourning, and ready to start fighting again. How are you?"

To which I replied, honestly, though I hadn't been thinking about it at all when I asked how she was, "Not done mourning, but working on it."

And actually, probably, a lot of the difference between us is that, pre-election, she worked really, really hard. She gave everything she could, left nothing on the field. And me? I am left wondering if what I could have done — but didn't — might have made a difference.

She was absolutely ready to keep going. I just hope I can gear up to get started.

Day 13 of my month of gratitude: I am so thankful for people who work hard to ensure this world is as good a place as it can be.

Try to remember the kind of November

Fifteen years ago, I was working for a woman whose daughter was about my age. The daughter lived in California, and we struck up an occasional correspondence.

She wrote me a note around this time of year, asking about the weather in New Hampshire. She loved November in New England, she said — "it's so grey and skeletal." I loved that phrase — enough that I've retained it for 15 years.

November is just starting to get skeletal this year, but it is not yet at all gray. The weather's been gorgeous, with blue blue skies. And as much as I miss the incredible reds and oranges of a few weeks ago, I love the views that their absence affords. And in a few weeks, I'll be very ready to cover those views with snow.

When I lived in D.C. and came home, it was often the weather that would make me homesick (sorry, family).

Day 12 of my month of gratitude: I'm thankful for changing seasons, and for the nostalgia I get out of every fluctuation in the temperature, every new bud and falling leaf and too-deep slush puddle.

Happy Veterans Day

I am not sure I have ever expressed to anyone who reads this blog the complicated nature of my relationship with the military.

I have:

• gotten recruiting calls from West Point (for no good reason; seriously, my grades in high school were terrible and my SATs were very good, but not amazing)
• been a pacifist
• considered joining the Reserve
• dated someone whose father was a retired two-star general
• numbered soldiers and Marines among some of my closest friends
• been scared to death on and after September 11
• lived very close to the Pentagon
• been simultaneously horrified and delighted by the weekly Twilight Tattoos on the National Mall
• opposed every war the U.S. has entered in my lifetime

So, yeah, it's a little complicated.

But you know what?

Until my adult self is ready to be the kind of unambivalent pacifist my 15-year-old self was, and is willing to deal with the consequences of what it would mean if my nation suddenly gave up its military, I have no business being anything but undyingly grateful to the men and women who serve our country in all of the jobs our military takes care of.

I am deeply proud of my friends in uniform, and I am honored that they serve to protect me and my freedoms.

Day 11 of my month of gratitude: I am grateful for people who do the work I can't do. Happy Veterans Day.

Lord, beer me strength

The day this post should have been posted, I ran 2 miles and lost at arm wrestling before 8 in the morning.
Possibly relevant extra facts:

• I hadn't run in a month before that.
• The woman I lost at arm wrestling to is 18 years older than I am.

Possibly relevant extra extra facts:

• She's in really good shape, seriously, and her profession requires a certain amount of upper-body strength.

So, you know, mixed bag.

And on the day I'm actually writing this? I went for a three-mile walk first thing in the morning, went for a hike with my dad, and am headed to the gym for a session with my trainer.

Day 10 of my month of gratitude: I'm thankful for my temporarily able body. Let's all hope that it carries me into the week after the month of gratitude, when I'm theoretically running this 5K. Because, you know, hot chocolate.

Good food

When I was in high school, I had a Jewish best friend whose mom was a phenomenal cook.

From him, I learned to make good matzoh ball soup.

I probably make better matzoh ball soup than any goy you know.

Here's how:

• water
• cooked chicken
• celery
• carrots
• salt
• pepper
• onions
• garlic

Those are essential.
To that, add:

• all the fresh, frozen, or canned veggies you have around
• whatever herbs and spices you want, probably including some random condiments
• matzoh balls made according to the directions on the matzoh meal box

Day 9 of my month of gratitude: I am grateful for soup, especially in the fall. Seriously, so, so good.

Boozy business

I went to a lia sophia meeting the other night, at which I was handed a check for $50 and a margarita to drink right there.

I can say without reservation that that has never happened to me at a work meeting before, ever.

Day 8 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for the cash, jewelry, and fun that lia sophia has added to my life. When does it ever happen that you get to have two good jobs at once? Hey, also, who wants to have a lia sophia party with me?

Plus, you know, all the keggers

In the last few weeks, I've gone to:

• a lecture on emerging adulthood
• a workshop on rank and class in the workplace
• a dialogue with the legendary Vincent Harding
• a discussion on Native American mascots
• a discussion on how environmental disasters disproportionately impact the already underprivileged
• a health screening that checked my BMI, cholesterol, glucose, and blood pressure
• a lecture by Naomi Tutu (daughter of Desmond) on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• a discussion on bullying and GLBTQ youth isolation
• a whole bunch of free meals

...all at my job. You?

Day 7 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful to work on a college campus — and in a college town.

Wonder full

Is there anything better than finding the new thing that goes in the "Funny ha ha" folder in your reader?

You know you may get bored with it in a few days, but right now, it's the funniest thing you've ever seen.

My two most recent:

• Damn You, Auto Correct!
• Our Valued Customers

Yours?

Day 6 of my month of gratitude: I'm thankful for the magic of new discoveries on the internets. God bless faddish snark.

My best pun was about a horse and carriage, and I couldn't pull it off

Sometimes, when I have a hard time thinking of what I'm thankful for, I ask a friend.

I know where you think I'm going. Yeah, yeah, friends are great, but we'll save that for another post.

Twice, my friend said "handsome butches."

And it was probably just because she is a handsome butch, but she's not wrong.

Side note: The only other suggestion she gave twice was "otters," but she was wrong there.

Day 5 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for handsome butches and other gender outlaws, both those who enrich my life personally and those who just make the world better for all of us.

Protecting anonymity

Hey, Anonymous commenter on my last post.

I'm apparently bad at this.

But I know how it is. You know me in person and you're concerned, or you stumbled here from somewhere else and really hoped I'd keep it going, and then? Disappointment.

Thanks for keeping me honest.

Day 4 of my month of gratitude: I'm thankful for the folks who keep me honest, even when they don't want me to know who they are. This post is for you, as are the next six.

The cop-out post, already

As I mentioned in my last post, I missed Day 2. So today, you get a bonus to keep me on track.

Bonus Day of my month of gratitude: I am grateful for mulligans, for all those second chances I get without thinking about them.

Video killed the broken heart

The irony of my missing my second day of a month of gratitude is that I actually have a few post ideas stockpiled so I won't have any trouble doing one a day. Stockpile does not help with the remembering to just do it, though.

A friend of mine from college and so many experiences beyond college I don't know where he's a friend from anymore used to say that most of what people talk about is other people they know and television. We discussed why that was a lot, but the idea is, we're all looking for discussion topics in common, and if you don't have friends in common, you probably have TV people. Luckily, he and I had (and have) lots of people in common.

And then a podcast I listened to after my last difficult breakup — on the subject of handling breakups — suggested the TV series on DVDs as a strategy. The idea there is, you always have people you know waiting for you at home that way. You can watch Mary and Lou and Rhoda, or hang with Chandler and Monica and Joey and Rachel, or whatever. I took that to heart at the time, and it worked. In fact, in retrospect, TV series in syndication got me through every rough part of my childhood and adolescence — and although many people had much worse childhoods and adolescences than I did, I needed those friends from M*A*S*H and Welcome Back, Kotter and Happy Days. I really do gravitate to shows about circles of friends, not because I didn't (or don't) have friends of my own, but because there is comfort about a circle, a group, that you can call on when you want them. TV gets a lot of blame, and it probably deserves it, but we watch it for lots of reasons, and there's one of them.

Oh in case you were concerned, I just finished watching all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That's what brings this to mind, rather than any fresh wounds. Don't worry.

Day 3 of my month of gratitude: I am grateful for TV. Blessed, blessed TV. Any suggestions for what I should be watching next?

k thx

It's not that I don't like blogging, you know. I love it. I love it more when you read what I write and tell me how funny and smart and awesome I am.

But sometimes, in life and on the blog, I get distracted, overwhelmed, unmotivated, for about a million reasons, almost none of them interesting. And then I don't do anything well.

But the cool kids are doing this month-of-gratitude thing. And I'm hoping that, if I post my gratitudes here, every day for a month, I will:

• Get back into the swing of blogging
• Get more motivated generally
• Get happier generally
• Be more deliberate about what I do and engage with
• Reengage you people, who I miss, a lot

Now, it's still me. I'm not sure I'm capable of a month of mushiness, even if it is warranted. So, with a little luck, I'll be able to be a little creative in the ways I express my thanks. Maybe there'll be:

• Photos, or bad drawings
• Funny stories at my expense
• Funny stories at others' expense
• Religion
• Politics
• Sex (OK, probably not.)
• Links to other places on the internet that are even more interesting than this one.
• Bulleted lists

I don't know. But I'm ready to give it a shot.

Day 1 of my month of gratitude: I'm grateful that I have this space, and that you — yes, you — are reading. And will be extra-grateful if you'll tell me what kind of stuff you want to read, this month and all the time.