Thankful

I have a bad habit. Rather than using the holiday breaks as a way to do *no* work-I use it as a way stockpile stuff to work on. So, I spent the last four days or so working on things that I've put off. I never get it all done, of course. And at least I've become better about giving myself a break and being kind to myself when I don't get it all done.

But Thanksgiving was a nice time. It was just my wife and kids for dinner and, in fact, my wife had the great idea to spend the day going through the house and getting rid of stuff that we don't use. I'm proud to say that I was pretty ruthless--for 12 years I've held onto 2 different copies of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Those are big ol' books. Why two? Well--the first one was the text I used in my Shakespeare class as an undergrad. It's got all my notes in the margins and such and was therefore valuable. The other one was given to me by Kirk Gasper--my best friend from high school and onto today--when I was his best man at his wedding. He was later my best man, too. Anyway, his was the one I kept and the other one went to Goodwill. That type of weekend--if I haven't used it in years then I packed it up and sent it out.

Now, beginning tomorrow we begin the upward slope toward the end of the semester. I didn't get nearly as much writing done. But, I must admit to being thankful for the career path I've chosen. There are very few jobs you can have where you can read and think and study just about whatever drives your fancy.

Something to be thankful for.