Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving! I thought I'd take a few moments to list some things I'm thankful for.

• I'm thankful that I have a loving, supportive family.
• I'm thankful that my sister and I have been getting along quite well for the last few years, and I'm no longer afraid she'll kill me in my sleep ;-)
• I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to continue going to school and the ability to afford it.
• I'm thankful that I have a stable (though crappy) job that allows me to pay for school and fun things, too.
• I'm thankful for my wonderful boyfriend :)
• I'm thankful that my close family members have had few health problems as of late.
  
• I'm thankful that I have 5 more-or-less healthy pets (when I chose to forget Halo's obesity)
• I'm thankful that I was able to keep my adorable kitten Alice that we found this year :)
• I'm thankful that I haven't moved in almost a year! (in the past two years I've lived in four different houses!)
• I'm thankful that I have the comfort of leisure time, with which I can watch TV, read, and hang around.
• I'm thankful that I'm doing quite well in school this year :)
• I'm thankful for the month plus that I get off for winter break!!
• I'm thankful for the many creative and talented authors who have written the many books I've indulged in this past year
• I'm thankful that it's almost Christmas/Christmas cookie time!
• I'm thankful that I live quite close to the cupcake store! ;-P
• I'm thankful for my friends who make life more exciting and much more fun.
• I'm thankful for who ever invented tofurkey!
• I'm thankful that I have food to eat and the luxury to chose what food it is that I eat.

There are a trillion plus things to be thankful for, but I think this hits the most important ones.
Have a happy Thanksgiving! :)

Best (most pathetic) dream ever last night!

So... Last night I had a pretty amazingly pathetic (in a happy kind of way) dream. I was on the bus when I ran into my cousin, Galen (I've probably seen him once in the past year) , who told me there was a free concert at Red Rocks that night. Mason, another cousin of mine (who I also never see... odd that I'd dream of them) became a bus driver and drove Lane, some amigos, and myself to the concert, which turned out to be the Jonas Brothers! (WOOT!) I was super excited and got to meet Kevin. :) My friends (who have a "plan" to go to the next jobros show and start a mosh) gave in to the awesomeness of the band and didn't start crap. What a lovely night... Told ya it was pathetic. Much better than my dream the night before when my body rejected the change and my life's blood poured out of me... I think I've been reading too many vampire books lately.

I'm truly a horrible person.

Imagine:
You're a beautiful, innocent praying mantis.
You're going for a walk and enjoying the lovely fall weather.
And all of a sudden... CRUSH!
Jessica accidentally stomps on you on the way to work.
And now you're just dead.
Poor little praying mantis!

I get older every stinking day!

It is kind of scary when you realize your superheroes aren't actually all that super. Like in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, when Biff catches his father doing immoral things and realizes Willie isn't wasn't perfect as he had grown up believing--like everyone else, Willie had flaws, insecurities, and made mistakes.


On a smaller scale:
At work today, my head manager asked me which colors she needed to mix to make red. I know, not a big deal... but for the past year and a half, I have grown too look up to this individual as my mentor, in a sense. She has been scooping ice cream and decorating cakes for much longer than I, and I have never before questioned her judgment or competence.
I realized today that the people I have grown too admire and inspire to be like aren't actually all that different (or better) than me. I'm getting older, maturing, and beginning to become these individuals' equal. I am now also a manager, with quite a bit of experience behind me. It's frightening to feel that I no longer have someone to aspire to be like. Thankfully, I have the security of knowing I don't plan on serving ice cream to snotty children for the rest of my life--I still have plenty of things I want to do with my life, and plenty of people to inspire and encourage me along the way.
So, in many ways, this incident was also quite assuring. It made me aware of how my hard work was paying off. Of course, the momentary lapse in logic that my coworker experienced doesn't necessarily say anything about me as an individual. However, this experience guided me to an epiphany, during which I finally understood that I was no longer the pupil, but the friend, waiting for the chance to teach.