Lucky 7

Hey there, I hope everyone had a great holiday!  I was looking forward to it, and was not disappointed. It was the most time Match has spent with my family (I've spent a lot more time around his), and everyone got along great. He and my oldest younger brother especially hit it off, which was nice.  The weather was beautiful, which means we got to play football and go for hikes, which was awesome.

I know Thanksgiving is officially past, but since this whole holiday season (yes NOW it is legitimate to have Christmas decorations and music and food! It annoyed me back in October, though) is about appreciating people and life etc, I have a random "lucky 7" list of things that the holiday reminded me to be grateful for:

1)  My boyfriend's family, who treat me as one of their own, except possibly even more special.  They have always just had boys (Match is one of three brothers, one of which doesn't seem to date and the other of which has an Evil girlfriend no one can stand), and so they are pretty thrilled at the novelty of having girl around. Thus, I get indulged at every opportunity. For example,  M.'s dad made a big deal about winterizing my car for me, installing some new gadgets, treating the windshield and tires, etc etc. He also cranked his thermostat up about 8 degrees for the days that I was there because he knows I get cold, and he stocked his fridge FULL of fresh fruit (as a single man he almost never buys produce for himself) because he knows I like it.  As if M. didn't spoil me enough all by himself...

2) My family, for being smart and fun and friendly and affectionate and awesome in general.

3) This wonderful region that I live in, which is extremely beautiful in the fall.

4) One word: Zinfandel.

5) My dog, who is incredibly well-behaved and the best personality fit that I ever could have found for myself.  His age is starting to show more and more, and I find myself contemplating his mortality more often these days.

6) I promise that I will never TMI y'all with details about my sex life, but indulge me some Girl Talk for a second, because I think there is something about recovery (for adults) that is not discussed enough: the fact that being physically healthy enough to have a libido again is not the same as being mentally "together" enough to really appreciate your body as something that is sexy and attractive and strong and just plain fun sometimes. I think it's easy to not even realize/remember what you're missing from intimacy until you get to that point...honestly, is there any bigger of a mood killer than stressing about whether a certain position makes your belly pooch? Or anything more rewarding than realizing you've just spent an entire evening having fun and being admired and pleased and not giving a shit about any of the other stuff? Anyway, I guess that's the main thing I wanted to say about that. Now that I've used the word "sex" and "libido" in a post, my search string stats should get a lot more interesting this week.

7) My first thesis draft is turned in, my qualifying exams are done, my PhD applications are all submitted...I be wrapping this up, yo.  Just 6 months left in this town (which I hate) and at this school (which I HATE) until I get a couple more letters behind my name and move on to the next era of my life. I can't wait.

I won't say I was entirely relaxed about food the entire holiday, but I think I handled that part well all things considered. Especially since on holidays my family tends to eat the main meal as sort of a lunch and dinner combined in the mid-afternoon, which always throws me off.  One thing Match does that helps me a ton is that if I let him know I'm hungry and need to eat, he will get a snack too because he knows I can't stand to be the only one eating.  One small but significant new victory for me is actually telling him when I'm hungry between meals, instead of either sucking it up til the next meal or finding a way to escape by myself for a few minutes to eat a granola bar without anyone seeing.