Thanksgiving Day 2020

Thanksgiving Day 2020

 

Thanksgiving Day 2020 will be a real turkey, but I’m counting my blessings anyway while remembering years past that were filled with love.

 

Usually on Thanksgiving Day for the past several years, Lisa Twining has come here, or I’ve gone to her place, to share the day with her, since she’s one of the people I’m most grateful to have in my life.

 

with Lisa and Heidi a few years ago

 

We have also invited Edward Smith to this annual feast, but this year we’re all behaving and staying home, apart from each other.

 

Edward and Auroara back in the 70’s

 

It’s no fun!  But I’m planning a COVID-proof exchange of leftovers tomorrow afternoon with Edward.

 

Lisa will be cooking turkey and “fixins” and preparing leftover plates for Edward and me.  Sometime tomorrow she’ll drop them at my back door at a pre-determined time and knock, I’ll gather them in, and then drive Edward’s bounty to him in Yelm, where I’ll pass it from window to window while both of us are masked and isolated from each other.  It’s going to suck, but it’s what we have to do to make it as sure as possible that we’ll all be here next year to celebrate together after there’s a COVID vaccine.

 

We’ll probably do something similar the day after (or before) Christmas, if the weather is decent enough to allow me to drive to Yelm again.

 

It’s what we do to protect the people we love. We follow the guidance of professionals like Dr. Fauci and the University of Washington pandemic response pros.

 

And given the extra time that we save, since we can’t commune and chat, I’ll use it to list things I’m most grateful for this year (since it’ll be a long list even though this has been The Year of COVID):

 

1.) I’m grateful for my dearest friends Lisa and Edward. I don’t see Edward nearly often enough, but Lisa and I are practically joined at the hip during normal times (right now we’re eight feet apart on the rare occasions we interact because she cares for a 95-year old and is a stickler about keeping her safe, and I concur 1000%!) biking, grocery shopping, chatting, dreaming, planning, and as power partners in business.  I couldn’t ask for kinder, more loyal friends than these two.

 

2.) I’m grateful I survived what I believe was COVID-19 in mid-February

 

 

3.) I’m grateful for my medical team at U of WA Northwest Hospital, notably Dr. Sarah Goldsberry-Long, her able assistants and my nurses and other doctors during and after my surgery. They gave me the gift of JOY when they masculinized my chest in late August.

 

Dr. Goldsberry-Long

 

4.) I’m grateful for the outpouring of love and support I received from my Cle Elum friends post-surgery, when they sent me a lovely card and a gift card, which I used for new clothes that accentuate my true gender.

 

 

Some of my new clothes

 

5.) I’m grateful to have a newly remodeled home that I’m not embarrassed to show people (when I can risk inviting people in to take a look at it!).  I still have a few things to finalize (paint touch-up, electrical box moves,  an end cap and small front piece that need replacing and painting, etc.) but there is still plenty of time, given the extended lockdown, to kick those into shape before I can open my doors to friends and family again.

 

OLD FLOORING – YUK!

NEW FLOORING (SAME LOCATION) – YAY!

(before baseboards went back in)

Kitchen entryway–new colors

 

New bathroom colors

 

Critter Corral (Living room)

Zebra decal on utility room door in living room

 

New quartz countertop (before backsplash went in)

 

New light switch covers on SERVAL LANE

(kitchen hallway into den and bedroom)

 

 

6.)  I’m grateful for my Facebook friends, my Aussie honorary stepson Greg Barton (who created another age-regressed photo of me as the boy I actually was), and everyone else who gives me a thought (positive) from time to time.

 

 

7.) I’m grateful my pets are hale and hearty. Patches is very old and may not be with me a whole lot longer, but she’s happy, bright-eyed and responsive, and she has resumed eating like a horse recently, so I hope she’ll live a lot longer. (I’m just not holding my breath.)

 

 

8.) I’m thankful for my writing clients, for the readers of my books, and for the encouragement I constantly receive to “write another one!” (I’m thinking about it, I promise!)

 

9.) I’m grateful that a lot more people voted for Biden-Harris than voted for the other option, because I’m sleeping soooooo much better now, and I look forward to a far less stressful future (as opposed to a daily/hourly “damage report”).

 

 

10.) I’m grateful we FINALLY have a winning woman on the ticket. YES!!! My hope is that VP Kamala Harris will succeed Biden when he retires and go on to rock the Oval Office in ways that honor us as a nation and lead us farther up to road to genuine justice for all and equity across the board.

 

11.) I’m grateful for my health, which is why I’m such a stickler about making sure I protect it during this soon-to-be-sad-history pandemic.

 

I’ve lost almost 30 pounds since this photo was taken!

 

12.) I’m grateful for the $8K grant I’ll be receiving from the Washington State Community Small Business Resiliency Grant Program (confirmed just yesterday) and the encouragement I received from the GSBA (Greater Seattle Business Association) to apply for it. They assured me I qualified, so I went for it!  Thank you, GSBA (an LGBTQI-affirming business association!)

 

I could go on and on about just this Pandemic year alone!  But I’ll stop now.

 

I encourage you to write your own gratitude list.

 

I think it will pick you up and set you on your feet again as you realize the many blessings in your life that have bolstered you this year and kept you hopeful and as positive as these dire conditions have allowed you to be.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY, HOWEVER AND WHEREVER YOU END UP CELEBRATING IT!

 

SAFETY GUIDELINES TO RESPECT IF you’re celebrating in a group that includes multiple households, to lower (although not eliminate) the risk that you or a loved one will end up in the hospital and on a ventilator at Christmas :

• Maintain at least 6′ of distance between each other (farther apart still while you’re eating with your masks off–outside if you can!)
• Wash your hands often. (Imagine every surface you touch as a COVID-bearing spot.)
• Use separate utensils–no communal spoons, knives, forks while dishing up
• Wear your facemasks at all  times when you aren’t eating or drinking