T-Give 2012

I wrote about Canadian Thanksgiving last year and I didn’t hold back on the insults. This year, I’m going to take some time to write about what I’m grateful for. Weird, I know. We can pretend that we’re sitting around the table saying what we’re thankful for except that it’s all about what I’m thankful for and you’re not really a part of it.

My family. They are the coolest. Most of you know mi madre. She’s pretty much WordPress famous. But not the kind of WordPress famous where you get Freshly Pressed. All the cool people haven’t been Freshly Pressed. It’s true! If you haven’t been Freshly Pressed, you must be pretty cool. And offensive. My brother is also cool. He’s a way better writer than I am. I don’t know why he doesn’t blog more. Or at all. And my dad is also, surprisingly, very cool. He does all the things. Each member of my family is located somewhere different, but we’re all still a perfect unit. I am pretty lucky that way.

Is it just me or is the black kid being segregated?

My husband. I still think it’s weird that I have a husband. It’s almost like I’m old or something. Without my husband I would be super sad. I tried being without him once after I met him and I didn’t like it one bit. He’s a hard worker and a kind fellow that takes care of me. It’s a big job, you know, taking care of me.

My friends. I really like my little groups of friends that I have all over the world. I am drawn to people that I don’t have to spend time with 24/7. I like being able to pick up right where I left off. My friends from Chicago were always so cool with me living in England and only seeing me during the holidays. I never felt pressure to stay anchored to one place.  I also like that my friends don’t take me too seriously and ignore me when I say dumb things and laugh at all of my jokes. I never wanted to have the most friends. I just wanted to have a few good ones.

Blogging. Blogging has opened up so much of the world to me. It’s weird because I never would’ve thought that writing could lead to friendships and learning and laughing. But I have so many people that can see who I truly am on here even when I say dumb things and offend everyone on the internet.

Diet Pepsi: You might be wondering why this is on my list. Diet Pepsi has been a part of my life since I can remember. Actually, I think my dad put some in my bottle once. So technically, it’ss been a part of my life since I can’t remember.

Laughing. Laughing and making people laugh are two of my favorite things ever. You can’t buy laughter. You can fake it, but true, genuine laughter is euphoric. I love being able to make any situation, no matter how serious or painful, funny. It’s a gift, really.

What are you thankful for this year?

Canada Day!

I just wrote an immensely awesome post about Canada Day and WordPress somehow erased it. Usually WP is really great about auto-saving, but this time they failed. Instead of writing about Canada Day, I’m going to write about how WordPress owes me big time. They can pay me back in Freshly Pressing all of my posts from here on out.  Jk I’ll write about Canada Day. But I’m not jk-ing about being Freshly Pressed.

While all of you are being distracted by the recent American tragedies (the death of TomKat and Adele’s pregnancy announcement), the Canadians are celebrating. Celebrating what?, you might ask. That’s a good question. You should Google it. Any time you ask a question you should Google it. Asking questions is SO 90’s.

Canada Day is basically Canada’s Independence Day. Like their 4th of July, but except it’s on the 1st of July and full of Canadian pride. On this day in 1867, the British North America Act (aka the Constitution Act) was signed, uniting 3 colonies into a single country called The Dominion of Canada. This is great and all, but they were still under British rule in a way. Like, if they wanted to pass a law or anything, they had to go through Parliament. Cray cray, right?! In 1982 (aka 30 years ago aka lol) the Canada Act was passed which made Canada a distinguished, sovereign land. No more “Dominion of”, just plain old Canada. Yipee!

This was my first time ever celebrating Canada Day. I didn’t want to admit to myself what a great time I was having. I was part of a human flag! Do you know what that is? It’s pretty self explanatory, but I imagine all of my readers to be complete idiots. Here’s a picture of what I was a part of.

Isn’t that cool? Aren’t you jealous? I was in the Maple Leaf part of the flag. That’s the best part. Who wants to be the boring old white part? Or the red stripes on the side? The Canadian flag is a pretty lazy design when you think of it. Obviously not as lazy as say, the Japanese flag, but you catch my drift.

After that we meandered down to the food pavilion. Mainly because I kept talking about how hungry I was. There were a series of food tents of all different ethnic delicacies. Of course Paul and I opted for the Jewish Community Center’s stand. We each got a huge kosher hot dog. We were eying the blintzes, but we didn’t want to be complete fatties, so we walked away. Quietly sobbing to ourselves.

Later on we had a BBQ and played with our friend’s kids and dog. I’m forever entertained by dogs. They never get old. Well, technically they DO get old, but you know what I mean.

Speaking of things that don’t get old–the fireworks at night were awesome. How are fireworks so cool? It’s literally fire being shot into the sky. We see them at least once a year, yet they are always awesome. They were displayed over the harbor and everyone around us was drunk and singing O Canada. It was a night to remember for sure.

Thanks, Canada. Here’s to many more Canada Days to come!