What am I thankful for?

Even though I'm not American and Canadian Thanksgiving was a long time ago, I didn't really sit down, watch football, eat turkey and contemplate the things that make me thankful. Today I watched football, ate other stuff and decided to contemplate what it is that makes me especially thankful this year. As you may know from reading this blog this will be a hard thing for me to do. I'm not one to ramble on about how wonderful life and the world are. But give me a little bit of adversity and I'll blog about that till the cows come home.

Incidentally why are the cows out to begin with? And aren't they technically "cattle?" Who sends their cattle away from home? And what are they homing cattle? Why would they just come home? And, okay, okay, Who let the cows out, moo moo moo moo!

See what I mean? Give me a small opening like a strange turn of phrase and I'll run with it. As long as I can make it sound like a complaint. This could be my calling. I really should be a critic. It really doesn't matter what needs to be criticized, I can do it all. So like all critics Thanksgiving is especially hard for me. Can you imagine Thanksgiving in the home of a famous food critic? That'd be something! Imagine the pressure every year on the person who does the cooking!

Anyway, let's get on with it so I can finish up and leave blog space for another scathing entry about something else. What am I thankful for? I guess I have to say first of all I'm thankful to be working. It's impossible to survive without a job and I really can't complain about my job. Well, I've proven that statement false numerous times in this blog. But all in all I DO like what I do. And the hours are great! In fact after Monday I will just have to do all my marking, grading and attendance recording for the session and I'll be off till March! Pretty sweet. Of course I will be trying to find something to keep me busy in that time and make me some money. I am not planning a vacation during this break. But I still have a pretty sweet job. At times like this I feel like it's worthwhile being away from my country, family and friends, dealing with the crap I deal with, the people conning me and fighting against me every step of the way. Still wish I could bypass all of that but at least I'm working. And I like my job. Not everybody can say that.

I have a pretty good body. I'm sure I couldn't do a Calvin Klein ad but what I mean is I could still do any job out there. I am smart enough to do any thinking job and strong enough to do any labour job. That's a real blessing. Right now I'm doing a job that requires NO strength at all and I'm never intellectually challenged unless it's to figure out what the administration is trying to do to make my life difficult. One of the things they are doing is keeping me trapped in the dorm and that is actually HURTING my health but not to the extent that I can't work. But other than recurrant acid reflux that I will probably never lick, I am healthy as a mule. That's another big blessing.

I'm thankful for my computer and for email, facebook, skype and sites that keep me in touch with friends and family. I can't say I'm thankful for friends and family this year because I'm as socially isolated as I've ever been in my life, and for that I'm NOT thankful. But thanks to computer chatting and email I still keep in touch a little bit. And when I can once again say that I'm thankful for friends and family it'll be my computer that made it so I still HAVE friends and family.

I'm thankful for other internet sites like this one, sports and sports pool sites, comedy central, youtube, and google that make life for a socially isolated person a bit more bearable. I just found out that I lost a very valuable site like this today. Goodbye mininova.org and thanks for all the fish.

I'm thankful for my favourite TV shows that I used to download from mininova. I'm thankful for all the Thai and Filipino people who animate them for ridiculously low wages I'm sure. Family Guy, Simpsons, American Dad, Cleveland, Sit Down Shut Up, King of the Hill, Southpark, I love them all. I also like The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Survivor, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Fringe, Dexter, Big Bang Theory, 2 1/2 Men, 30 Rock, The Ultimate Fighter, Merlin, Man vs. Wild, How I Met Your Mother, Deadliest Catch, Mythbusters...OH MY GOD I need a life!

Who is thankful at Thanksgiving for a list of TV shows?! You know who I'm most thankful for? Two people. Named AXXO and EZTV. These are the people who upload and share the TV shows and movies I spend my down time watching. They're about the most important people in my life right now. That's sad.

But I'm thankful for the Jacksons. Cuz after a long semester like this last one, I can always go visit them and get out of my funk. Some real people time. In fact with the two boys it might be a little TOO much people time at times. But it's a nice change. So that's a sincere one. It's nice to have them to spend Christmas with every year while we're all still in Korea.

Even though my other friends are mostly moved away it's nice to have a few good friends left here in Korea. But because of the isolation at Seokang I'm not making new friends to replace the ones who leave.

I've had jobs that involved isolation before. I was taking care of a logging camp during break-up one spring and it was just me and the camp dog, Rocky. That I didn't mind too much. I drilled and camped in the woods for a few months solid seeing only 3 other guys. That I got through okay. I did lots of security work where I was the only guy in a grain elevator or construction site. But even though I see my students almost every day it's been a really slow year socially. Really slow. Slowest ever. So I'm thankful for every email, chat, letter, blog comment, phone call, text message or communication of any kind I get.

I'm thankful for having a life that even though I bitch about it is better than the lives of most people on this earth. There are a couple billion people who would be WAY more thankful than I am to have my life. I guess I need to try to be more thankful. But don't worry, I'll be complaining about something new soon. Probably next post.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans and people who are being thankful today!