Day: Not Sure. Try: Let's not keep count.

I started this Blog six months ago when I moved from Brooklyn, NY to Richland, WA. By “started” I mean I set it up and then promptly did nothing with it. I thought it would be an entertaining way to fill my ample free time, a good way to remember this transitional portion of my life, and possibly even funny to record and share the many culture shocks borne of moving from a metropolitan epicenter of 9 million people, to a sprawling cultural and culinary wasteland town of 150K people. While it would have been all those things, I didn’t do it. I can’t tell you why, exactly – I thought about it a lot. But I was also travelling a lot (Portland, Seattle, Hawaii, Denver), consumed with family weddings, friends birthdays, unpacking, repacking, unpacking again, and then I started dating someone, and then I got a job and all that ample free time was gone. I still thought about it every once in awhile, but not too deeply. I was consumed with new-relationship giddiness and stupidity, and new job stress and brain-deadedness at the end of the day. It seemed any free time I did have was better spent preparing for one of the aforementioned activities, not musing on my new small-town life. Now, I’ve stopped dating someone, still have a job, but the stress and brain-deadedness has fizzled out (mostly), but once again I have too much free time on my hands. The free time isn’t what is motivating me to try this out again, the free time has given me the opportunity to realize how completely miserable and unhappy I am in this sprawling cultural wasteland town. I’ve swallowed the bitter, bitter pill of realizing I’m going to be here another 6 months (at least), and I’ve got to get through them without being a miserable bitch. I mean, I could go through them being a miserable bitch, but I live with myself everyday and that’s no fun to live with, and less selfishly, my family and friends don’t deserve to (and flat out won’t) deal with that version of me for a week, let alone 6 months. SO, that (along with a string of other unrelated but equally motivating events) brought me back to my blog. I know I don't have the time/patience right now to regularly update with tales of small town life, but I do have the time to record some of what my life is right now.

Every day, I will write about something I am thankful for that day. I’m hoping this will keep me in a better headspace for the next few months by focusing on the positive aspects of my life right now. It’s super easy to focus on what sucks (oh, everything?), or how great my life will be once I leave (I can hear the universe mocking me now), but not so easy to see what’s great about life, today. Enter: the power of the internets and Blogger. A nice public forum for me to spew my thoughts and force myself to be honest and accountable. So that’s what this is.

I’ll kick off today with two things, just because.

1. Pilates. I have an awesome Pilates instructor that kicks my ass and makes me laugh while my abs burn, all at 5am, pre-caffeine for either of us. He shares my distaste for Christmas music and will indulge my requests of “anything metal” when asked what kind of music I’d like to listen to while pushing and pulling a variety of cables and springs. And it costs less than half of what it would have cost me in NYC. After pilates I always feel refreshed, and limber, and worked out, if not a bit sore. It’s a good feeling and I do love it so.

2. My cat. I’m sure he’ll make an appearance or two on this list, but deservingly. I can’t look at my furry little friend without feeling happy and thankful he’s with me. He’s awesome. And you know who doesn’t give a rats ass if you’re grumpy if he wants attention? A cat. And it’s REAL (impossibly) hard to ignore 10lbs of purring fur and claws when they want to be loved on.