Birthday Gratitude!

Today is my birthday! And while I won’t confess to how young I am, I will give you 42 things I am thankful for (in no particular order):

1. My beautiful, little family.
2. That circumstances have allowed me to take a career sabbatical and spend that past few years with my daughter.
3. That I set out at a young age to see the world and I’ve seen a great deal of it.
4. That I’ve knocked off nearly everything on my lifetime “to do” list.
5. That my daughter has a sense of humor.
6. That while my husband doesn’t necessarily share my sense of humor, he does put up with it and sometimes pretends to laugh.
7. That my daughter has an imagination.
8. That while my husband is more of a “two feet on the ground” kind of guy, he still listens to my crazy ideas and sometimes pretends that he thinks they are good.
9. That I still have perfect vision (better than perfect actually… 20/10, maybe even better but that’s as far as my doctor tested…)
10. That my daughter has perfect vision.
11. That we, my family, and most everyone who is close to us is in good health.
12. That the one particular person who is not in good health has a very tight support system around him and all of our positive thoughts and prayers.
13. For all the new, little angles (babies) of our dear friends and family born in 2011.
14. For all the new, little angles that will be born to our dear friends and family in 2012.
15. For a totally awesome horror series, American Horror Story, that friends and fellow bloggers Ray & Gil, brought to my attention.
16. For the show Modern Family.
17. That Stephen King is still around to write novels and that there still exists the possibility that one day I might meet him.
18. That because of the circumstances of my marriage, I’m lucky enough to spend my holidays in beautiful places.
19. For books. Books made me realize that the world was big. Had I not acquired a love of reading, thanks to my mother, I fear that my world would be very small today.
20. That we live in an apartment where we cannot hear our neighbors.
21. That the people who frequent the bar on our street only stay out until 4am on Thursdays.
22. That if you push your face into the childproof netting on our windows we kind of have a decent view of the city from our apartment.
23. That I grew up in a country where education is taken seriously.
24. That my daughter loves to snuggle.
25. That my husband is not your typical Brazilian man, he has always been my partner in everything, both prior to my career sabbatical and now. (Sorry Brazilian men, but it’s the Brazilians that described you this way).
26. That my husband likes to cook.
27. That I haven’t had to clean a toilet in over 10 years.
28. That my daughter will understand that the world is a big place.
29. For all my little nieces and nephews (and of course, their parents).
30. That I’ve gotten to live in some amazing cities in my life like New York, Washington DC, Barcelona and of course, Sao Paulo.
31. That people read my blog. That some of these people think I’m funny.
32. For my friends, both new and old.
33. That I can watch ridiculous Bravo TV shows on a (possibly illegal) file sharing site – what would I do with my time otherwise… exercise… finish the novel I’m working on… learn Portuguese…
34. For coffee.
35. That I still have a lot of stories in my head waiting to be written.
36. That my daughter loves to draw and paint.
37. That my daughter loves to watch Sesame Street.
38. For Jim Henson, Walt Disney, and Charles Schultz.
39. For Gary Larsen, creator of “The Far Side.”
40. That my daughter loves her grandparents, who are thankfully all around for her to know, and they love her.
41. That every day still brings new possibilities and opportunities.
42. That I made it this far in both my life and my list.