The gift of gratitude

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. 
Denis Waitley 

If gratitude is a gift, then ya'll are about to get a whole bunch of presents from me. Because in the spirit of the season, but also as a gesture that should be made more often, here is a abbreviated list of things for which I am thankful. 

I give thanks for the new community that I have in Portland, from my friends that now live in the neighborhood, to those that live all the way out in Kenton. I am grateful to have come in contact with all the lovelies that I have and to have the support of my friends as I embark on a variety of emotional journeys.

I am almost everyday thankful that my stomach is not as weak and pained as it used to be. By all accounts I have a finicky stomach but if you all just knew how much worse it could be. (Shout out to those of you who do). 

I am eternally grateful to have been blessed with a family that is a: still around. b: very supportive. c: very handsome (I's got to get these genetics from somewhere baby dolls). But even more this time around, I am thankful for the way that my family and I got to grow closer over the past year and to be there for my grandmother as she was sick. I am thankful to see my immediate family this upcoming holiday season, I can't wait. 

With appreciation, I view the relationships that haven't made it because in the long run they will help me fine tune what I want and need and are great growing experiences. 

I appreciate, the fine food of the town in which I live.

Same for the shovel that helps me conquer blackberry bushes, plant veggies and bulbs. 

I really appreciate my roomies, who are a generally well meaning and kind block of people living far too close together. 

I appreciate the friends that aren't close by. It is a wonderful thing to have community all around the country but my how I do miss them. 

I am truly grateful for the people that I work with because work is only bearable when you do it with good people and am so happy to have a job that not only pays the bills but settles me down on the most anxious days and lets me be creative. 

If I have not mentioned some things that I should clearly be thankful for, don't you worry kiddos, this is an abbreviated list right?  a good thanksgiving. Eat your heart out. 

Tiny trains!

After work this morning I stopped by the Model Engineer's Club model train open house. It was pretty cool, although surprisingly crowded. I guess that they did a pretty good job advertising. I got to see a few train crashes. I also caught a glimpse of two Thomas the Tank Engines in reserve!

A model Oregon train city.

One of the train cars

A collection of backup trains

Power lines

Light switch blending into the background

Yeah, I just posted yesterday but wanted to get you all the model train pictures as soon as possible. Having a potluck dinner for my roomie's birthday tonight so, that'll also be fun.

The Sickness: PG13: for graphic content.

My house is riddled with disease ridden people.

To start with, you've got me and my yeast problems which seems to be settling down a bit but I'm sticking to a kind of crazy diet for a while- trying to totally eradicate this stuff.

But then you kick it up to a little cold that my roomie, Sean has, and that my body is definitely working to fight off right now with lots of sleep. I've been hitting the sack at about 8:30 for the past few nights.

After that our household goes another step into the illness because 3 days ago my next door roomie developed a gross abscess which we looked at for a couple of days before his body convinced him it was time to see a doctor (the plight of the uninsured) and was diagnosed as probably having a staph infection today. I went to the doctor with him and they don't know for sure but will probably know pretty soon what it definitively is.

And then worst of all: The roommate that lives in the basement (who is quite the recluse, thankfully) was just sick for two weeks before he learned that he had scabies. If you don't know what that is, don't look it up. It's gross and highly contagious. It makes me glad that he never hangs around upstairs and talks or hangs out with us because I really, really, really, don't want to get scabies.

There you have it. Our house is like a testing center for biological warfare. Four out of the Six people that share my space have individual physical maladies. One of the two currently safe roomies lives on a bus, next door. At the end of the day, I just don't want anyone to die (or for myself to get scabies, because that would be awful).