The Least Of It

No matter the value of absolute honesty there are times when a twist of the truth is an absolute requisite and 99% of the time this is when you’re on the phone with a client as I was this morning. She was heading out of town for the holiday and asked if I had ‘big plans’ for Thanksgiving.

“I’m very much looking forward to it,” I responded enthusiastically, letting her know the hotel expected well over a thousand guests for the annual brunch and that I’d ‘get to’ spend the day seating people and watching little kids pick through their own special buffet at about my knee level. “It’s a wonderful way to spend the holiday,” I finished, and glanced up at my computer monitor.

An email had just come through from Diane:

Subject: Bull
Message: ….Sh*t award goes to you today.

I’m not sure how I finished the call without laughing out loud, but that’s all I could do as soon as I hung up the phone. “Oh come on,” I hollered out my office door, “say it until you believe it, right?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, “that was pretty good. You almost had me believing it!”

In all honesty, Thanksgiving is kind of fun, sort of like a people parade that goes on for five hours and you never know what you’re going to see, as I’ve noted in previous postings (the man who put the turkey leg in the chocolate fondue fountain and then actually ate it, the year the kids’ buffet caught fire, the time I had to inform the band manager to stop stealing chicken fingers from the kids’ buffet and loading his suit pockets with them). There really isn’t a drawback to the day if you can overlook how sore your feet are at the end of it and having experienced it for so many years now, working with basically the same people, it has a feel of being a tradition although it’s not traditional to work on the holiday. So Diane can joke with me about it and that’s absolutely fine because at the end of the day (and, in all honesty, at the beginning of the day, too) we’re both very, very thankful to be working. There’s just too many people this year who can’t say that.

Which brings to mind things I’m grateful for and I’d have to put that one at the top of the list. Closely followed, now that I’m in keeping with the time of year and considering these things, by the fact that I’m closing out a year with the companionship of the same incredible dog that I started the year with. Factoring in the many close calls she’s had with cars, getting lost, and ingesting things she shouldn’t, I’m lucky to have her. I’d follow that with the new friends I’ve made this year, my incredible Book Club Ladies and the mixed lot of my writer’s group. I’d have to claim complete gratitude for another year with incredible friends I already had, like Holly and Claire, and I’d have to say I’m grateful for the lesson behind anything or anyone I’ve lost and the blessing of any that turned up again later. I’d have to be honest and admit I’m entirely grateful for the people who have come into my heart, even those who didn’t remain in my life, for what they brought to my life. I’d be remiss if I wasn’t thankful to have had the opportunity to be one of the lucky people who knew Trent Babcock, and to have the great memories he left behind. I’d be likewise remiss if I didn’t mention my gratitude for the odd but solid friendship of Brent Babcock as well, and the peace of the first year since we split up that our lives finally felt completely and totally separate and settled. I’m grateful that losses experienced weren’t really all that bad in light of the good that followed them, as in getting to know Lainie even better after she moved from across the hall. I’d have to note even the smallest things the year brought, like the unexpected happiness that can be found in finally getting a county library card and it occurs to me that if I had time available to continue listing everything I’m altogether grateful for this year this would become an endless piece of writing because there’s always something to be grateful for, something in every moment, if you’re open to seeing it.

Something like what I saw this morning, a well-timed email that made me laugh and realize that in the big picture of everything, the condition of my feet on Friday is the least of it.