November reigns

This morning looked like November for the first time all month. After weeks of gorgeous skies, bright mornings (still no blinds on the window of my new place) and warm weather, the clouds were back in San Francisco.

Not so much with the fog, but the high clouds that act as sunglasses for the entire city, dimming the lights a bit. This is November as you might expect it. At least, as you might expect it in the parts of California where it never snows.

The forecast has rain for the days before Thanksgiving, which is the same days that our Australian couch-surfer will be coming "home" before going back to his native land for the first time in over a year. I'm actually kind of bummed that he won't be around through Thursday, cause I'd like to send him back to his family after having a semi-traditional Thanksgiving meal with my semi-untraditional family.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday by far (former fat kids know what I'm talking about) because it never lets you down. It's going to be a great meal. And even if the potatoes get ruined (1998) or you're not with your family (2007) or you spent the day before sitting in hours of traffic just to get to where the turkey would be (2004, 2005, 2006), there will still be turkey and good times.

Last year, while I was in Spain (I'm such a douche for that one), my mom made so many references to being "so thankful and blessed" via email that I assumed someone was pregnant or getting married and I just hadn't been told yet (check the comments she left on this blog from about a year ago-they're strangely upbeat, even for a woman who's pretty upbeat).

My family never did the "what am I thankful for" thing and we never say Grace, so the suddenness of being thankful for what he had struck me as odd. She started in on it again recently and I called her on it Sunday when we went to Pier 1 together.

I don't want to break a family member's news on my blog, but today I've been grinning all day and it really does seem that we do have "so much" to be thankful for. In the past year, I've been called overly optimistic and unbearably pessimistic by different people. I've also recently been called an English Dandy, but that couldn't be less the point. Despite the gray skies outside, and the fact that I just interviewed a girl to be my assistant who is more qualified for my job than I am, we do have so much to be thankful for. Life is good, times are exciting.

But, on second thought, I just saw that People magazine snubbed me again. Stupid Hugh Jackman.