Things that i am thankful for

Sometimes it just makes sense to focus on the positive instead of all the craptastic shit that swirls around. Because that, my friends, will always be there. Right?'

Although, I must say, I had a really good Thursday last week. All the right songs were playing on the radio (including Vacation by the Go Go's, which must be one of the greatest songs to screech along with in the car), I had a good workout at the gym and felt very proud of myself for that (although I was hobbled for two days afterward), and I seemed to say all the right things in class (which is statistically probable if you never shut up) - and, to boot, class was really interesting and mind blowing, and who doesn't love that?

But then things seem to go right back in the crapper, and your sense of time becomes foreshortened, and all you can see is the chunks of muck that make up the shitstorm. Time to refocus.

Of course, this is aided by a vicodin or two. Better that than I start smoking pot again or take up cigarettes. Although I'm hoping to do a complete detox after this is all over. Not the lemon juice and maple syrup nonsense, but getting off of sleep aids, pain pills, that sort of thing. Another stab at 100 days of health. AND I'm thinking of getting acupuncture, but I'll totally lose my scientist street cred, so I have to think about it some more. I'll write more on it later.

So, in the interest of trying to improve my daily mental health (and it's one hell of a slog through my cranium on a good day, let alone as of late), I've tried to get in the habit at the end of each day of making a list of the best 5 things that happened that day, including what was THE best thing that happened. Sometimes it's something like, well.... dinner was good tonight. Fair enough. Sometimes it's things like, I got to text with my best friend. And that makes a pretty good day for me. So if you're having trouble seeing the silver linings, start actively listing them, they tend to be easier to see after a while. Just my $.02.

So...even though it's not the end of the day, the top 5 things in the last 24 hours (in no particular order).

- Got to text with my friend that I miss

- Got offered a job doing part time A/D work

- Found out there's nothing *seriously* wrong with me from my doctor (the physical one, not the mental one. Let's not go there)

- Found an old pal on FB that i was just TICKLED to friend

- Got lots of affection from the husband, the dog, and the cat. Seriously, I get *affection* from the cat, and if you can't appreciate that, then you've never had a cat.

So things could be a lot worse. That's such a good list and I didn't even have to include the Biggest Loser being on two nights this week or the fact that Obama can speak in full sentences and communicate complex thoughts. Nor did I include that I've discovered Scrabble on facebook. My cup runneth over.