Giving Quite a Lot of Thanks

I know I've been grousing for the past week or so - the nasty flu/cold/whatever it was bug that hit me right in the middle of presentation time made me pretty cranky - but now that I'm feeling (mostly) better, I want to re-up (is that an expression? have I just made it an expression?) the mood of the blog with only some of the many many thanks I feel today.

I am thankful for, above all other things in my life right now, the amazing opportunity of being in grad school. This experience is everything I hoped and dreamed it would be, and I am so thankful to be doing it.  I am thankful for the wonderful new friends I've made, the brilliant professors I'm working with, and the fascinating books I'm reading and work I'm doing.  I'm also thankful to have this amazing experience in one of the world's most beautiful places.  The day I moved into my apartment in Santa Barbara, as I was getting suitcases out of my car, I stood in my parking lot and looked at the light the sunset was casting on the mountains just to the east of SB.  The color, the air, and the light were all so stunning that I knew I was right where I was supposed to be.

I am thankful for my cat.  I know this sounds silly, as she's small and non-verbal and will never read this blog and feel proud to be mentioned, but I am thankful for her small furriness and her cuddles and companionship.  I never could have made it through senior year of college without her, and I don't think I'd make it through grad school without her, either.

Speaking of college, I am so thankful for all the wonderful professors I had at my various undergraduate institutions.  Without their guidance towards the best authors, the better way to write a paper, and the passion for learning and literature, I wouldn't be in grad school.

I am thankful for my best friends, whether I've known them for nine or four years.  (Yeah, you know who you are.)  The shoulders to cry on, the smiles to laugh with; the dinner dates, the movie nights, the shopping trips, the phone calls.  Everything has kept me sane and happy and looking forward to many more years of friendship.

I am thankful to my family, in particular my parents and grandparents.  Without them, I (obviously) literally would not be anywhere, but metaphorically, I wouldn't be where I am.  They are my never-ending pep squad, my patrons, my nurses, my chefs, my constructive critics, and my friends.

And, lastly, in true fashion of this blog's "appropriate pretension," as some have called it, I am thankful for my great buddies Chaucer, Shakespeare, Gower, Hardy, Eliot, Dickens, Jonson, et al for leaving me and my colleagues such a wealth of richness to analyze and interpret until our heads explode and our fingers fall off.