A classic lesson in gratitude

Thanksgiving came and went. My absolute favorite holiday. No questions. Family, food, and a four-day weekend. Sounds fun and fulfilling eh?

This was my aunt mitzi's spread of pies. Does that look amazing or what.


We've been pretty grateful around these parts for a lot of things. The most verbally stated things of gratitude are of course either new and exciting, or temporarily unavailable.

Of the new and exciting things:

• Jackson is eating a huge assortment of solid foods, and as result has not had a blow out in a month! Stop feeding him straight liquid, and suddenly his poop solidifies. It really is the little things in life.
  
  Sweet potatoes, bananas, applesauce and avocado, get mashed up and fed to the little Mr. 2-3 times a day. yum.
  

• Jackson also has moved to a new step in communication--called "reach and whine." We no longer have to guess what item he really would like to hold. He now can tell us. Unfortunately we do have to put our foot down with many objects--our phones, forks, glass cups etc, don't make the makeshift baby toy list. However, old remote controls, plastic cups and water bottles do. The favorite? Definitely the water bottle.
  

Of the temporarily unavailable things:

• We are still grateful for warm weather. After those frigid weeks in September, we had a gloriously warm October and November. We feel grateful for any day above 40, and we're grateful we live in a semi-mild place. This here is our solution to cold fingers. Swaddle. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's a lot better than wearing 4 pair of PJ's.

• Last, and probably of least importance, we are grateful for internet. There's a lengthy story included below of our little unplanned-week-long-internet hiatus. Feel free to skip it. I think it was mostly therapy to write about it. Of course, as in all classic gratitude lessons, we were liberated in knowing we could survive without the internet and shocked by our addiction to it. We're grateful to have it, and thrilled we got to take that hiatus.

Last monday morning (Nov. 22nd)
Me: hmm. The internet is not working. Better call Verizon.
Verizon: "So you've powered down the modem and computer 3 times, and it still isn't working?"
Me: "Correct"
Verizon: "Ok, I'm going to walk you through some steps and we'll see if we can trouble shoot the problem."
(After powering down the modem and computer and waiting for 15 min.)
Verizon: "Well it seems like that didn't solve the problem. I guess we'll send out a tech."
Me: "I love logical things."
Verizon: "Wednesday from 12-4 is our next available time. Please be sure to be home during that time, and answer your phone if it rings."
Me: "Wednesday. OK." This will be healthy. A little internet diet.

...Wednesday --I keep my phone glued to me all day. 4 pm... no Verizon tech...

Me: "A tech was supposed to be here between 12 and 4. It's now 4. Just wondering if I get to leave my house, and when I have to be back so we can get the internet back. I'm glad it's coming today--it's Wednesday you know. Blog day."
Verizon: "I'm having difficulty understanding you, can you repeat what you just said?"
Me: "Where is the technician who is supposed to magically fix my internet. I'm having major withdrawals."
Verizon: "Give me a minute I'm checking"
...30 min. later
Verizon: "It appears there was a mistake in the computer. You were never scheduled for a technician today."
Me gasping for air. Deep breaths.
Me: "So, when do I get a technician?"
Verizon: "Well it looks like we can send someone over on Tuesday from 8-12."
Me: "TUESDAY!? That's almost a week from today!"
Verizon: "We are terribly sorry about the glitch in the computer. But the earliest, is tuesday. 8-12 am. Be sure to answer your phone if it rings."

...Monday afternoon, my phone rings.

Verizon: "This is an automated message to inform you we will be at your house before 7 pm tomorrow."
Me: I love how things change so quickly! And to think I get to call Verizon again!
Me: "I just received a message saying a tech will be at my house before 7pm tomorrow, when originally you said they'd be here before 12. I am planning to leave my house tomorrow afternoon. I do not, under any circumstance, want to miss the technician, and have to reschedule an appointment."
Verizon: "I'm sorry, there must have been a glitch in the computer"
Me: "Please unglitch it."
Verizon: "I'll see what I can do"
30 min. later. "OK Ms. Brown, someone should be at your house before 12 tomorrow."

....The technician did come. He called at 11:45 am, and came by 12:45. That was close enough for me. Gratefully, he did work some kind of magic and got the internet working again. Strangely, I almost didn't know how to use it. It was almost like recovering from food poisoning... after all my yearning to see my emails (that Mark had been reading to me over the phone), and check my friends' status' on facebook, it almost made me sick to think I was going to be swept right back into the time-sucking, world-at-my-fingertips life. Despite it. I'm grateful. Grateful to have it back, more grateful to have lost it. It was such a disguised blessing, I almost feel bad calling Verizon to ask for a reduced payment next month. I feel bad until I remember I was on the phone with them for 3 hours over the past week and a half. There will be no bad feelings about that.