Yes, that's right folks, it's turkey time up here in the Great White North. And yes, that's right I get yet *another* long weekend. (wooooooo!). Hunny Bunny is still in Freeport, Bahamas (damn him!) so other than a family dinner on Sunday I am footloose and fancy free as the saying goes.

So I'm off tomorrow for another day at Rama for some live pokah. Jules, you can expect a second-anniversary-of poker-degeneracy Dial-A-Shot. It's going to be a sunny day, and I'm looking forward to the drive up through the country to see the fall colours. It will also be a good time for me to stop and get my annual "I must have a one, even though I live in an apartment and will do nothing with until until it goes all squishy and must be composted" pumpkin.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I mentioned Canadian Thanksgiving to someone in the girlie chat thing who asked me "What do Canadians have to be thankful for?"......

So, sooooooooo much. I can only speak on a personal note but really it comes down to the fact that I feel very, very fortunate to have won the birth lottery and was born where/when I was. I'm healthy and even if I wasn't, I have access to health care and enough social systems that if anything critical ever happened, I'd still be warm, dry, healthy and fed (mostly...the system isn't perfect, but at least there's a system). I can walk downdown in the fifth largest city in North America and feel safe, even late at night and in some dodgey neighbourhoods (I just stay away from Scarborough *grin). I am educated, a state that is denied most of the world's population, and there are enough resources available to me that I can continue educating myself until the day I die.

As a Canadian woman, I have the right to be a "person" with property and voting priviledges, not a "thing" or some man's property. I have control over myself and my body. I have the freedom to decide who I want to be with and marry, even if that person is of the same gender - it's not my thing, but frankly as long as no one tries to convert me, I don't much care what other people do. It's none of my business. And I don't think it's any of the government's business either...Pierre Trudeau said it best - "The State has no place in the bedroom of the nation". Amen, brothah!

I'm thankful each and every day that I work where I do. The mission of the school reflects all my core beliefs, and not only do I get paid to play with and talk about computers all day (yippeeee!), I'm able to work with the most amazing and supportive group of people I have ever met. Unlike a lot of jobs I've held before (ok, ALL the jobs I've had before), every day there is filled with more laughter than aggravation, and I am accected for exactly who I am.

Ditto Hunny Bunny - man, talk about getting lucky in the husband lottery. He loves me, warts and all. He knows where I've been in life, and where I'm coming from, and he's been to many of the same places. He "gets" me.

And family? Lucky again. My family is, well, a little quirky (quel surprise), but we love and understand each other, and have fun when we get together.

My friends are freaking amazing. Every. Single. One. The one thing that brought me out of a period of crushing self-doubt was the realization that if these intelligent, creative, funny people want me to be their friend, then I must not be as bad I think after all.

The older I get, the more I appreciate all this, and the less I take it for granted. May you all be so blessed by whatever deity you may believe in :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We now resume our regularly scheduled poker-related whinging.