Happy Thanksgiving
I love Thanksgiving - for me it is the least stressful holiday of the year. It's also the best weekend to be in San Francisco. This is when everyone shags off to other parts (almost everyone in S.F is from somewhere else), and all my favorite haunts are a lot less packed. The weather is traditionally lovely in November, and despite an overnight downpour worthy of a January day in Limerick, I am currently looking out on baby blue skies. It's a mite cold, but as Annie might point out, nothing compared to Reykjavik.
We are heading down for dinner with some friends who in live in lovely, bucolic Montara, a short drive south of S.F. I was planning on stopping off for a quick surf at Pacifica on the way, but I must have slept awkwardly on my neck last night and have totally bollixed the left side of it. I can barely turn my head. There is a bottle of Vicadin in the medicine cabinet and I can hear its siren call wafting towards me (and it goes down well with a glass of wine!). I'll see how the two ibuprofen I took work first.
And here I go complaining when I should be thanking. I have a lot to be thankful for, and like most people, I forget that all too easily. We are all usually too busy striving to stop and sniff the roses. Among the things that I am thankful for:
Three funny, healthy, curious children, and my lovely smart wife ( I could write a book!). My job wouldn't be my first choice in life, but I never wanted to be a starving musician, and was lucky enough to find a challenging, interesting other career. Everyday, I am thankful that the people I manage do a great job, and make my life so much easier, and that the company I work for gets that hiring good people, and treating them with respect, is the key to success. All of my kids grandparents are still alive, and super nice people to boot, and Tash and I consider all of our siblings among our best friends. Speaking of friends, what are the chances of ending up 5,000 miles from home, only to find some of your best mates from your home town are living there also?
So, a great Thanksgiving to all of you out there, and a special shout out to Devin whose optimism in the face of some unbelievable obstacles promoted me to write this post.
We are heading down for dinner with some friends who in live in lovely, bucolic Montara, a short drive south of S.F. I was planning on stopping off for a quick surf at Pacifica on the way, but I must have slept awkwardly on my neck last night and have totally bollixed the left side of it. I can barely turn my head. There is a bottle of Vicadin in the medicine cabinet and I can hear its siren call wafting towards me (and it goes down well with a glass of wine!). I'll see how the two ibuprofen I took work first.
And here I go complaining when I should be thanking. I have a lot to be thankful for, and like most people, I forget that all too easily. We are all usually too busy striving to stop and sniff the roses. Among the things that I am thankful for:
Three funny, healthy, curious children, and my lovely smart wife ( I could write a book!). My job wouldn't be my first choice in life, but I never wanted to be a starving musician, and was lucky enough to find a challenging, interesting other career. Everyday, I am thankful that the people I manage do a great job, and make my life so much easier, and that the company I work for gets that hiring good people, and treating them with respect, is the key to success. All of my kids grandparents are still alive, and super nice people to boot, and Tash and I consider all of our siblings among our best friends. Speaking of friends, what are the chances of ending up 5,000 miles from home, only to find some of your best mates from your home town are living there also?
So, a great Thanksgiving to all of you out there, and a special shout out to Devin whose optimism in the face of some unbelievable obstacles promoted me to write this post.
posted by John Mc at 11:50 AM
6 Comments:
Howya John, have a good holiday. Saw you around on Annie's and Devin's a few times, and am fierce jealous of where you live. I've never been to the west coast, but will get there some day...when the kids have grown up.
Any jobs going in IT out there?!
I hope you are full to bursting today!
Pretty damn full FMC and hungover. Lsat thing I remember is we the drunken trivial pursuit. My friends have a hot tub so we were able to soak out the toxins this morning. unfortunately my neck is FUCKED. I had to dose myself with vicadin to be able to stand or sit. It's mildly better today.
Hey Kav seen you in the same locations! Browsed your blog myself. We have a job or 2 in IT :)
Hey John,
I just wanted to say thanks for all the support recently.I was catching up on a little of your backstory at Dervala's and I'm amazed.
I was in SF myself right at that time visiting another Limerick exile.Sodacake San Francisco indeed.
I might find myself out there again one of these days.Suddenly find myself thinking West Coast thoughts (admittedly more Portland-Seattle than SF but still Pacificy)
Great post on TG by the way.It seems i'm not the sole Irish optimist in these parts and isn't that just grand?
Hope the neck heals up soon and you enjoy the rest of the weekend.
I can't BELIEVE you thought it was cold in California on Thanksgiving! It was ROASTING. How long have you lived in America? Obviously a lot longer than you lived in Ireland...
It must have been at least 15 degrees C!
Okay, I'll stop squealing now.
Dev
You every make it out here, meself and Dervala will take you out for pints. We had dinner over the weekend and your blog came up as a topic of conversation.
Annie
13 years in the US. Before that 6 years as a student, (often without heat, you don't need it when you are stoned half the time), in Galway and half a lifetime in Limerick. You'd think I'd be used to cold.
That said I live in The Sunset in SF which is almost always 10 degrees lower than anywhere else. SF has about 7 different microclimates, from balmy in The Mission to damp and foggy in The Sunset.
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