Post Thanksgiving

Nothing to do,
Nowhere to be,
A simple little kind of free.
Nothing to do,
No one but me,
That’s all I need.
John Mayer, “Perfectly Lonely”

Is Thanksgiving supposed to be a religious holiday? Maybe it’s being around family that makes it feel like a religious holiday. The Spirit of Gratitude coupled with the Spirit of Elijah….

Traditionally, this would be a post dedicated to things I am grateful for. Somehow, my heart is not up to making a list this year. I guess because I have experienced so much failure over the past twelve months, and because I face so much uncertainty in the next twelve months…

So, last Saturday I drove to Utah to see my new nephews for the first time, and to participate in the baby blessings on Sunday morning. My two youngest sisters both gave birth in the last two months, and I’ve been so booked with my job and taking graduate classes that I haven’t made time to see them yet. (I know, that’s sad, since I’ve had two three-day weekends that I should have/could have made the trip, but I allowed myself to get behind in school…) But, my parents are in town from Moscow, Russia, so I figured I should probably drive the 400 miles, since they came more than 5,000 miles…

I forgot it was my birthday on Sunday (when you have had as many birthdays as I have, they all tend to run together….it seems like just last year I had a birthday….), so when my sisters started asking me what I wanted for my birthday, and where I wanted to eat for our dinner that night…I hadn’t put much thought into it. We ended up eating at a little burger joint I hadn’t been to since I was living in Provo as a college student. And Sunday brunch was at Mimi’s Cafe. (The corned beef hash is excellent.) Again aloof, I was taken by surprise when they delivered my birthday dessert. Maybe it was too early in the day for me to be expecting dessert, or maybe I’m getting so old that I’m forgetting how important I am. At the very least, I’m forgetting important days, like birthdays and anniversaries.

So, three days back in Vegas, and it was time to drive back up to Provo for Thanksgiving. All the driving has reminded me how much I love having my summers free to travel all over the country. It also made me realize if someone else were driving, I might get some quality reading or writing done. Or even better, I might get a good look at, or take a few pictures of, the landscape I speed by, too focused on the traffic to get a really good look at the mountains I have come to love and miss so much.

The drive also brought me back to this basic realization: I’m a loner. I love being alone to ponder life and take in the world around me…but I’m not so sure it’s good to be alone as much as I am. So, I’m seeking companionship, in the form of travel partners, and music listening partners, and dining partners. Problem is, I’m pretty picky. I’m also fairly prickly, I’ve heard. Wish me luck!

And that’s my last few weeks in a Nutshell,
Hop