Half Awake

Neale Donald Walsch put up a nice Thanksgiving post suggesting that we should use this holiday to be thankful for what is going to happen rather than what has happened. I’m a sucker for positive psychology, so I have decided to declare here what I will be thankful for over the next twelve months:

• My mother’s health (a cancer survivor)
• My brother’s recovery (a republican)
• A consistent running schedule over the winter
• Rockband
• The foresight to maintain my health, and the resilience to come back quickly when I am sick
• The Teeth in the Darkness, and the Talons in the Night
• Two publications in scientific journals
• Patience with anger, peace with hostility
• The eloquence to explain my opinions to others, and the self-confidence to agree to disagree
• Sticktoitivness in all my endeavors (particularly in my research, my running, and my XBOX 360 achievements)
• The dark nectar
• A judicious and thoughtful choice of allies
• Refreshing sleep and quick awakenings
• My friends and my fathers

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

For our post-dinner Thanksgiving entertainment, one of my housemates has long insisted that we watch “Doctor Zhivago“, a three-hour twenty-minute film (2 DVDs) made in1965 about a Russian doctor who experiences hardships with his wife and mistress during the Bolshevik Revolution. Needless to say, this classic tale of Communism doesn’t make anybody’s list of top thanksgiving movies, but I am a reasonable person who is at peace with everyone, so I was happy to oblige (it happens that I did my obliging with some of our like-minded guests playing football and other games).

While we were playing Tekken, Heath, one of our guests watching Dr. Zhivago, came upstairs with a knowing smirk on his face. He told us that they had reached the end of the first DVD only to discover that they were watching the second DVD! They sat through an hour and a half of a movie where they had little-to-no idea of what was going on, and *nobody* realized that it was the second disc until the credits actually started rolling. I can only imagine that everybody’s expectations were so very low initially that when they became paralyzed with boredom because the movie made absolutely no sense, they just assumed that was what it was supposed to feel like. I could not stop laughing for a full five minutes, and for the rest of the night I would burst into spontaneous giggling at the very thought. The most boggling part is that they proceeded to watch the first DVD anyways.

The collaborative Thanksgiving meal is ready.