It's been a long few weeks, and I'm really tired. And it's just beginning. The holidays are right around the corner and so are the 60+ hour work weeks. Not fun. And I certainly don't want to do this forever. But the biggest thing I am thankful for is that I paid off all my debt! It only took me finally giving in and realizing that I couldn't do it by myself, and it only took five years once I actually admitted that to myself and got some help. I made my last payment on Oct. 1, got a confirmation call today that I am PAID IN FULL, and did a little happy dance in a circle. Now I'm going to try my hardest to not get myself involved in that mess again and finally get back on track with paying the student loan that I have been deferring for the past five years.
I am also thankful for Fall. I'm not sure if it's my favorite season because I love the spring and watching the flowers and trees starting to bloom. But after a drooling hot summer, I can also greatly appreciate weather cool enough to wear sweatshirts and jeans. Many times it reminds me a lot of the Kenyan weather I experienced - 60-70ish during the day and 50s at night. I'm not sure though if it's that I enjoyed that weather so much or that I enjoyed the experience so much and the weather just takes me back. I'm craving a visit back, but going back also scares me. It's one of those addictive things - once you've been there, it changes you (and not just the way it changed me since that's a whole other story) and it's something that you want to re-experience. There have been several days where I have fought the urge to figure out how I can make a trip back there before William comes here, but financially it's just not a good idea. And my family would probably be scared to death that I'd just stay.
So I guess that's two things to be thankful for today - three more to go...
I'm thankful that I'm proving myself at work and not completely screwing things up. I've always known that I could handle the job that was given to me, but actually doing it is a whole other experience. Given my past history doing something similar, I'm always afraid that I am missing something or that I'm going to get that proverbial slap in the face that I never see coming. With only about three weeks left to go, we're still getting by without that happening, so let's just continue down that path.
You can never underestimate a good cup of coffee either. Even moreso when it's a cold rainy morning and you've got a 2-4 cup-er starting off your day. Tomorrow morning will be a side trip to Starbucks.
Speaking of Starbucks, I'll give them full credit for Thankful Item #5. I "like" one of their Facebook pages, so they randomly added $5 to my gold card as a thank you. Thank you, Starbucks. Granted my cup of coffee from there tomorrow morning will cost me about $5, but hey, I'm not paying for it!
Until the next time ....
