It’s Thanksgiving! Everyone is all gobble gobble gobble, and gluttonous happiness.

Let’s talk gratitude for a minute. Yesterday, I was thankful hobbies. When I was younger I did bead work and crocheted too. I all but gave ‘em up because of the pain in my joints. But with meds, and mostly pain free afternoons, I’ve picked up my hobbies again. I’m grateful for that.

Today is Thanksgiving and I’m grateful for the opportunity to spend my day writing and reading. Rocking sweatpants, snuggled in to a cozy couch, I’ve got a serious day of writing, reading and maybe some cooking planned. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Since we’ve arrived at last at Thanksgiving, this will be the final, formal “gratitude” post.  But this has been an important exercise for me in finding the positive.  There’s always something to be grateful for.   And I’ll be working to bring that perspective to this blog on a more regular basis.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  Move forward with gratitude.

The last 24 hours have been an interesting reminder of how grateful I am to have family, especially the ones I’ve picked up along the way.

Between the offers to spend Thanksgiving with various sections of N’s (my ex) extended family and my roommates, I’m feeling the surrogate family love.

My relationship with my actual family can feel strained–like when my brother calls me at 7am to tell me he thinks my dad’s cheating on my mother, again.  He’s snooped through my father’s iPod touch and found incriminating emails.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful I have my brother.  And I’m grateful for various facets of my relationships with my family.  But I am so grateful to have the stability and optimistic normalcy of all the family-like connections I’ve formed.

I have health insurance and I’m grateful for that.  Right now, I’m grateful that health insurance providers, among others, cannot discriminate based on genetics.  What the LA Times called the “most sweeping federal anti-discrimination law in nearly 20 years,” went into effect this past Saturday.  Knowledge of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act could probably have stopped me from putting up with a very inappropriate situation.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a genetic condition. As a consequence of it, I have a lot of doctors’ appointments…  When I first started work at this shiny, new exciting firm, I let my manager know that I had a couple doc visits coming up.  She flipped, escalated it to the HR, who implied that I was faking it and required that I document everything (this is the situation outlined in our privacy policy).   Of course, this situation was probably a violation of my rights under previous regulations and legislation, but I am grateful that I am very clearly protected now.

Today is Sunday.  Yes, you knew that already.  What did you spend your day doing?  Are you using the day to catch up on work?  Or are you taking it easy?

There aren’t too many days that you get to slow down, maybe even sleep in.  I was incredibly grateful today for my lazy Sunday… Even if I’m going to pay for it tomorrow.

Rest is so useful!

Today, I’m grateful for the Internet.  It was allowed me to uncover a wealth of information about my disease (and many other things too of course), and the web has also helped me to connect with others for support.