Time to be Thankful

Things I am thankful for:

On a macro level, I am thankful to live in the United States. This is not a perfect place, and there are a lot of problems, but less fortunate people all over the world would love to live here. I'm also thankful to be a Californian. Sometimes I identify more as a Californian than as a U.S. American. I say U.S. American because that's what they called me in Germany, to distinguish us from other Americans - Canadians and Mexicans. Makes sense!

I'm thankful that Obama was elected President!

I'm thankful that I live in a nice place, have a comfortable bed to sleep in, and have more than enough food to eat every day. Seriously - way more than enough food!

I am thankful for my family - they are living close by, they are successful career-wise, and healthy. I am lucky to have a mom and dad who are very supportive. Sisters – have become friends and are cool people to talk to and spend time with. Brother – need to work on re-connecting with him.

I'm thankful for my awesome and amazing group of friends, in Sacramento and far beyond! My friends ARE my family. What's great is that I've gotten to choose them and hopefully – they choose me too. I love them so much and have such a wonderful network of close and peripheral friends who are great people and enjoy going out and having fun and spending time together. I don't know what I'd do without them – they mean the world to me.

I am thankful for my pet cat – so cute and adorable, even though bratty and annoying sometimes. How sweet to have a cute and warm cat curl up and sleep at the end of your bed every night and be a cuddly little companion to love.

I am extremely thankful for my job, at a time when many people have an unsure financial future and the unemployment rate is growing every month. Sometimes I complain about it, but I know I'm incredibly lucky to have this position. A lot of people would like to be working where I'm working. I'm thankful for earning a (relatively) generous salary with great benefits while working regular hours and not being stressed out. I am thankful for the opportunity to have a good work-free time balance and not have to worry about working on the weekends, or whether my organization is going to have enough funding to keep me around (hopefully). I'm thankful that my position allows me a great deal of flexibility and opportunities to travel, both within CA and overseas (2nd China trip coming up in February!).

I am very thankful for my house – after one year, I'm still loving it. I adore the house, think it's very cute and cool, and love going home to it every night. I am thankful that I have a little yard to spend time in, trying to get things to grow and stay alive. I'm thankful that I don't have a big yard to take care of, as that would be too much of a burden. I never thought I'd have a house all on my own, I always thought it was just something you invest in when you get married. Thank goodness I saw the light and realized that home ownership wasn't some romantic thing, it's an investment and usually a wise one.

I'm thankful for my freedom and independence. I'm glad that I have occasional romantic relationships (emphasis on occasional) because it's a nice ego-booster when a good-looking guy wants to spend time with me, but I am so used to being on my own, it's hard to imagine all the sacrifices and compromises I would have to make in order to make a long-term commitment to someone else. I still hold out a little bit of hope that I'll meet someone one day who will have similar or the same goals and ideals as me, and who wants the same things out of life. Until then, I'll just appreciate what I have while I have it and enjoy my freedom.

We all get frustrated and annoyed at little things every day - that's human nature. When this happens, I try to remind myself how lucky and fortunate I am, compared to most other people in the world, and my problems seem so miniscule in comparison. For example - look at what is happening right now in Zimbabwe and the Congo. Horrifying - and looking at the situations over there makes me realize I have nothing to complain about. Even here in Sacramento, people are going hungry and waiting in lines for hours at the food bank to get a holiday meal package. There was an article in the paper today showing a long line of people, mostly elderly, waiting in line for their Thanksgiving food package. One of the ladies was crying, she was so frustrated and tired from standing in line for hours. How heartbreaking. On Thanksgiving morning, thousands of people, including me, will be participating in a charity run/walk with proceeds going to the Food Bank. I can't donate much, but it's something.

Keeping things in perspective is important - gratitude and thankfulness is something that should be part of our lives every day, not just on Thanksgiving. It's so easy to be selfish because that's what our culture encourages.

Long Shot

I felt compelled to submit an application to be considered for a presidential appointment. I have no desire to move to DC, or to change jobs right now, but figured what the hell. I'm so excited that we are going to have a Democratic president again, and even more excited that GW Bush is outta there. I would feel incredibly honored to serve in the Obama administration, especially now that Hilary Clinton has been appointed as Secretary of State. Yay! What a great choice, and I'm glad that she has decided to accept. I think it shows great strength of character on her behalf. I would love to have the opportunity to work under her and help improve our country's reputation internationally.

The application process was very simple. I went to www.change.gov and filled out some basic information indicating that I was interested in applying for an appointed position. A few days later, I was forwarded a special link that said only I could use. I filled out the online application, which requested basic information career and academic experience and also had a number of areas in which applicants could indicate which agencies and even specific positions they are interested in. I wanted to appear to be as flexible as possible, and selected State Department, Commerce Department, US Trade Rep, and several others. There were a couple of opportunities to write something, and I said I'd also be interested in overseas diplomatic postings.

The chances of even getting selected for an initial phone interview are, I'm sure, extremely miniscule. But, you never know if you don't try. No idea what I would do if I were actually to be offered a job. First of all - I have this house, and there's no way I could sell it. I don't want to sell it, anyway. I could rent it out for probably half of what the monthly mortgage costs. So I would have to live in a college-student type of housing situation in DC, like I did when I was going to grad school. Live in a house with a bunch of other people and just rent a room and furnish it from IKEA. Good times. But - nothing I have to worry about at this time.

The Last Two Months

I realized tonight that R. moved to town two months ago, and that's when my life changed a bit...definitely for the better. I think the main difference is that I've had less time to myself, which takes some getting used to. But I don't mind, because I am pretty crazy about him and really enjoy having him around. I never would have thought I'd be dating a guy who is: from Alabama, a Republican, a gun owner, and an ex college football player. Who drives a huge Chevy truck AND rides a Harley. Doesn't exactly sound like my type! But, he is also adorable, sweet, generous, smart, thoughtful, adventurous, and pretty much up for whatever I want to do. Since he's arrived, we've done the following: spent a weekend in Tahoe with a bunch of my friends, gone camping in the Sierras with his brother's family, spent a fabulous weekend in Napa Valley with some of his other family members, gone to Apple Hill, went bowling, saw female mud-wrestling (it was a fundraiser!), attended a celebration for Taiwan's national day in SF, had cocktails at the Starlight Room overlooking SF at night, and a bunch of other stuff. Oh - and he convinced me to go for a ride on his bike. As in, motorcycle. I was scared to death but didn't want to admit it! Never again...I get heart palpitations just thinking about it! Crazy.

This guy is talking about future plans...like taking a trip together after Christmas, and planning a ski weekend for his birthday in January. I feel a little apprehensive about stuff like that, but I take it as a good sign that he plans on sticking around.

Thing that perhaps freaks me out the most - he purchased a toothbrush for me! That I can use when I'm at his place. I thought he was joking at first. He was over here last week and asked me if I had a toothbrush for him. I was like "...uh...", wondering if he was serious (he was!) and went to go find one. Sure enough, he did buy one for me. I've used it already. It's a "medium" and not a "soft" like I prefer, but I'm not complaining. I actually re-organized my medicine cabinet to make room for his toothbrush (the one I provided for him). Weird.

This blog might be a bit boring for a while, if I keep on just dating one guy!