Here's part 2 of my 4-part series on 35 things I'm thankful for, in honour of my 35th birthday. (Part 1 is here.)
24. Facebook. No one in my family knows how to make an international phone call except my sister and one uncle. Literally, no one else. A certain parent of mine gets confused because there are too many numbers. It doesn't matter how many times I say "you can just input those numbers," they don't believe me. My parents don't even answer the phone when I call because my number shows up in their cell phones as a US number with an area code of 447. My parents have apparently been convinced -- for five years! -- that my number is that of a telemarketer. There is no 447 area code in the US. There's a 440, which is by their house so they would answer it anyhow, and 441 is Bermuda (442 and 443 are apparently also US codes). But no 447. This hasn't deterred them from ignoring my calls for multiple years.
And when I say my number starts +44, none of my US friends know what the + means. Okay, "none" might be an exaggeration; but "most" wouldn't be.
Facebook lets me connect with my family and friends in a way I just couldn't when I was living overseas in the pre-fb days (yes, my students, I remember life before facebook). I've reconnected with old friends, stayed in touch with new ones, and even have about 12 facebook friends I've never met. I wish they'd stop messing with their privacy settings, and I really, really wish the messages didn't now show when someone has read the message. But, on the whole, I'm grateful for facebook and facebook-like technologies.
Oh, and it's a really good way to waste some time when I need a mental break.
23. Butternut squash. You can use it in so many recipes! And it's soooo good. My other thankful-for foods: avocados; asparagus; artichokes; chocolate; and ice cold water. Okay, water's not really a food but I love the non-taste of ice cold water.
22. Chai tea lattes from Starbucks. Seriously. When I feel lost, or upset, or just far from home, sitting and sipping this drink - with alterations suggested to me by a barista I once dated - makes me happy.
21. My friend R, who once told me that if I couldn't name the restaurant a guy had taken me to on a first date, I wasn't in love. That advice - and strangely a dozen other little things he said to me in the brief period when our friendship involved actual face-to-face contact - stays with me. He's an under-appreciated man.
20. This video.
And this one.
And the woman who shared them for me to find on my facebook feed.
I think the human experience is amazing. We subdivide and sub-subdivide and are always trying to define ourselves based on meaningless factors like age, race, gender, language, accent, disability, in some bizarre attempt to find those who are most like us, to define ourselves and others as acceptable or unacceptable. Yet, the human experience transcends these issues. It's the moment when you've embarrassed yourself so completely that looking at someone makes you cringe; and knowing that later in life you'll probably laugh at yourself (and sometimes that later in life happens within the hour when you run home to your housemate). It's the first time you see someone who takes your breath away. It's the first time you had to break someone's heart. It's the song that makes you cry when you're not even fully sure of the words. It's the first time you've failed and weren't sure how you were going to get back up. Then getting back up. It's your first funeral; the weird sensation of seeing someone you knew, whose last conversation you remember, just laying there, made up by someone else's hands. It is the knowledge a loved one will die. It's holding the hand of your grandmother as she forgets who you are and her eyes glaze over and she starts talking about the dance you supposedly went to last weekend when you were both 18. It's hoping that someday your grandchild will hold your hand when you do the same.
This video shows us how our human experience is more common than we want to recognize. If we just let ourselves experience what we should - our commonality - we'd find a lot more friends and far fewer strangers.
Oh - and the woman who shared these? Pretty. Fricking. Awesome. I've known her since we were children.
19. My own human experience. I remember doing a speech in first year undergrad and looking into the eyes of the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my life - still today - and actually catching my breath and thinking "wait, oh no - what was I was saying?" I don't know if anyone noticed that moment. I recovered relatively quickly and it wasn't reflected on my evaluations, but that moment... seared into my brain. So are these: My first kiss was with Eddie B. when I was about 5 years old. We didn't know what we were doing; we just followed what we saw on television. I used to cheer with Heather and Krissy when the local boys played football until we got tired of standing on the sidelines and decided to play with them. One time, they picked me up and carried me backwards so my team lost. That seemed massively unfair but today it just makes me laugh. Sitting next to Vince in Mr. Ingersoll's history class. The moment I knew I was taking Brian to senior year homecoming; he didn't know it yet, but I had made up my mind. Calling a girl the b-word after a parade, while we were still wearing our flag corps outfits. She smacked me and before I could respond my friend Mo grabbed me and carried me away. My first kiss with each of the two men I've loved. Taking my first Japanese bath, and walking out to a room full of people clapping for me. Teaching myself how to drive stick shift on an island in Malaysia. Sitting at a table in Copenhagen surrounded by people speaking to each other in any one of a six languages, coming from a dozen countries, and thinking "this is what home feels like." My JD and LLM graduations. Standing on the northern most point of Cyprus. Drinking beers - and tequila shots, and fruity cocktails - at Panini's with a series of great friends. The first conversation I had with AV. Making homemade pasta in Jo's kitchen. Carrying my grandmother's casket. Without meaning to, my cousins, my sister and I all wore red heels, and I remember the sensation as mine sunk into the ground, feeling the casket's weight change with each movement any of us made. Hugging my sister before she left for Iraq. And then again when she left for the Mediterranean. Walking into Aya Sofia.
18. Language and our capcity to use it. I am in awe of my friends, with their multiple languages and dozens of accents. I love that when we talk, and really connect, sometimes I forget that they have an accent. Or that I do. But I also enjoy the moments when our accents make us laugh, when an entire room will turn to me and expect me to translate for my flatmate -- who speaks English as her native language.
17. Balloons. They currently decorate both our ceiling and our floor and they make my house a more colourful experience.
16. Gerbera daisies.
And forget-me-nots.
24. Facebook. No one in my family knows how to make an international phone call except my sister and one uncle. Literally, no one else. A certain parent of mine gets confused because there are too many numbers. It doesn't matter how many times I say "you can just input those numbers," they don't believe me. My parents don't even answer the phone when I call because my number shows up in their cell phones as a US number with an area code of 447. My parents have apparently been convinced -- for five years! -- that my number is that of a telemarketer. There is no 447 area code in the US. There's a 440, which is by their house so they would answer it anyhow, and 441 is Bermuda (442 and 443 are apparently also US codes). But no 447. This hasn't deterred them from ignoring my calls for multiple years.
And when I say my number starts +44, none of my US friends know what the + means. Okay, "none" might be an exaggeration; but "most" wouldn't be.
Facebook lets me connect with my family and friends in a way I just couldn't when I was living overseas in the pre-fb days (yes, my students, I remember life before facebook). I've reconnected with old friends, stayed in touch with new ones, and even have about 12 facebook friends I've never met. I wish they'd stop messing with their privacy settings, and I really, really wish the messages didn't now show when someone has read the message. But, on the whole, I'm grateful for facebook and facebook-like technologies.
Oh, and it's a really good way to waste some time when I need a mental break.
23. Butternut squash. You can use it in so many recipes! And it's soooo good. My other thankful-for foods: avocados; asparagus; artichokes; chocolate; and ice cold water. Okay, water's not really a food but I love the non-taste of ice cold water.
 |
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cucurbita_moschata_Butternut.png |
22. Chai tea lattes from Starbucks. Seriously. When I feel lost, or upset, or just far from home, sitting and sipping this drink - with alterations suggested to me by a barista I once dated - makes me happy.
21. My friend R, who once told me that if I couldn't name the restaurant a guy had taken me to on a first date, I wasn't in love. That advice - and strangely a dozen other little things he said to me in the brief period when our friendship involved actual face-to-face contact - stays with me. He's an under-appreciated man.
20. This video.
And this one.
And the woman who shared them for me to find on my facebook feed.
I think the human experience is amazing. We subdivide and sub-subdivide and are always trying to define ourselves based on meaningless factors like age, race, gender, language, accent, disability, in some bizarre attempt to find those who are most like us, to define ourselves and others as acceptable or unacceptable. Yet, the human experience transcends these issues. It's the moment when you've embarrassed yourself so completely that looking at someone makes you cringe; and knowing that later in life you'll probably laugh at yourself (and sometimes that later in life happens within the hour when you run home to your housemate). It's the first time you see someone who takes your breath away. It's the first time you had to break someone's heart. It's the song that makes you cry when you're not even fully sure of the words. It's the first time you've failed and weren't sure how you were going to get back up. Then getting back up. It's your first funeral; the weird sensation of seeing someone you knew, whose last conversation you remember, just laying there, made up by someone else's hands. It is the knowledge a loved one will die. It's holding the hand of your grandmother as she forgets who you are and her eyes glaze over and she starts talking about the dance you supposedly went to last weekend when you were both 18. It's hoping that someday your grandchild will hold your hand when you do the same.
This video shows us how our human experience is more common than we want to recognize. If we just let ourselves experience what we should - our commonality - we'd find a lot more friends and far fewer strangers.
Oh - and the woman who shared these? Pretty. Fricking. Awesome. I've known her since we were children.
19. My own human experience. I remember doing a speech in first year undergrad and looking into the eyes of the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my life - still today - and actually catching my breath and thinking "wait, oh no - what was I was saying?" I don't know if anyone noticed that moment. I recovered relatively quickly and it wasn't reflected on my evaluations, but that moment... seared into my brain. So are these: My first kiss was with Eddie B. when I was about 5 years old. We didn't know what we were doing; we just followed what we saw on television. I used to cheer with Heather and Krissy when the local boys played football until we got tired of standing on the sidelines and decided to play with them. One time, they picked me up and carried me backwards so my team lost. That seemed massively unfair but today it just makes me laugh. Sitting next to Vince in Mr. Ingersoll's history class. The moment I knew I was taking Brian to senior year homecoming; he didn't know it yet, but I had made up my mind. Calling a girl the b-word after a parade, while we were still wearing our flag corps outfits. She smacked me and before I could respond my friend Mo grabbed me and carried me away. My first kiss with each of the two men I've loved. Taking my first Japanese bath, and walking out to a room full of people clapping for me. Teaching myself how to drive stick shift on an island in Malaysia. Sitting at a table in Copenhagen surrounded by people speaking to each other in any one of a six languages, coming from a dozen countries, and thinking "this is what home feels like." My JD and LLM graduations. Standing on the northern most point of Cyprus. Drinking beers - and tequila shots, and fruity cocktails - at Panini's with a series of great friends. The first conversation I had with AV. Making homemade pasta in Jo's kitchen. Carrying my grandmother's casket. Without meaning to, my cousins, my sister and I all wore red heels, and I remember the sensation as mine sunk into the ground, feeling the casket's weight change with each movement any of us made. Hugging my sister before she left for Iraq. And then again when she left for the Mediterranean. Walking into Aya Sofia.
18. Language and our capcity to use it. I am in awe of my friends, with their multiple languages and dozens of accents. I love that when we talk, and really connect, sometimes I forget that they have an accent. Or that I do. But I also enjoy the moments when our accents make us laugh, when an entire room will turn to me and expect me to translate for my flatmate -- who speaks English as her native language.
17. Balloons. They currently decorate both our ceiling and our floor and they make my house a more colourful experience.
16. Gerbera daisies.
| http://frimminjimbits.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/gerbera-daisies.html |
| http://jv-foodie.typepad.com/foodie/2009/04/forgetmenots.html |
Check out the movie "The Human Experience"
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation! I'll check it out!
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