In the last three nights I have shared a bed with three different people and never gone to sleep before 4 a.m.

So I guess you could call it a successful Thanksgiving.

Except…

“Shit!” I exclaimed to myself halfway through my drive back to Iowa. “I forgot to be thankful again this year! Damnit. Third year in a row I have literally forgotten to give thanks because I got so preoccupied with thoughts about mashed potatoes.”

But then I remembered a moment from the weekend when I’d randomly had the thought that I was lucky to have a cool job in a cool city and be young. So I think that counts. I’m going to count it.

I had the thought while playing The Game of Life during Bevin’s We-Have-To-Play-Every-Board-Game-In-My-House-to-Decide-Which-Ones-to-Throw-Away family game night.

I’ve never enjoyed The Game of Life. Because I’m already living life, so why would I waste time merely simulating it in board game form? But I decided to use it as an opportunity to play out my existence in an alternate universe in which I am an uneducated gay man in the sales industry. And I did quite well for myself. I love how the point of that game is to die with the most money.

Anyway. My life has clearly gone downhill since five years ago when I spent Thanksgiving Day hiking over Fox Glacier in New Zealand.

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That was the same week I jumped off a cliff. My bungy jump story was recently published in Bucket List Publications. You can read it here.