So Thankful

I've come to realize how excellent my life is right now. My gripes are pretty minor. Because I'll be traveling this thanksgiving to Las Vegas for a little R&R, I'll write what I'm thankful for now. These are in no particular order, just train of thought:

• My Family - Even though I haven't lived in LA for just under 2 years, my family still makes it point to keep in contact with me. It might not be as often as it used to, but such as life. I talk to my Mom, Dad and Sister often.
  
• My High School Friends - I've been trying to do a good job to keep in touch with as many of my High School friends as possible. Even though I say 'High School' some are really grade and middle school. At this point, I've known many of these people for over a decade. That's a long time. We've been through a lot and I hope our friendships only grow stronger.
• My College Friends - You know who you are. We've all diverged and went our separate ways to some extent. But we make it a point to have semi-annual 'reunions' and keep in contact by phone and email. You guys are all super smart and doing very well for yourselves. Considering it's been only a little over 2 years since we graduated, I think we're all off to wonderful careers. I have no doubt we'll be lifelong friends. I mean, who else can hold up a pinky finger and burst out laughing like we can? We left college during a bad job market and still managed to carve our name into the business world.
• My New Friends - Over the past few months, I've been lucky to meet new people by living in the Midwest and doing a bit of traveling. I've made new friends in Ann Arbor, Chicago and Toronto. From my Irish roomie Kevin to my new friends, such as JD in Toronto and Matt in Chicago, I hope that we'll be able to make future memories together. I've had a great time getting to know people in different cities around North America and I hope to make many more friendships to come.
  
• My Career - I've worked my way up at Google a good amount. I've tried to make a long term impact that will shape my division for some time to come. I started out as a temporary contractor, converted into an Account Associate and was recently promoted last week to an Account Strategist. I worked really hard to get ahead and I'm happy that everything is going well. I've gotten to work in Ann Arbor, MI and I hope this opens the doors to new opportunities in the future.
• My Co-Workers/Friends - Working at Google, It's hard to separate the distinction between friends and co-workers. Never in my life have I been surrounded by such sharp, motivated, and down to earth people. I love all of my fellow Googlers and Gayglers. I hang out with you all the time and I couldn't ask for a better set of people to spend my life with on a daily basis. Even when I moved to A2, you've done a great job keeping in contact. I appreciate it. :)
• My Online Friends - Don't think I forget about y'all. I still read your blogs and posts from time to time. I haven't met many of you in person, but I feel like I know you.
  
• My Health - To some extent, this is what I'm most thankful for this year. I never realized how much good health has on the quality of my life. Before about a year and a half ago, I weighed nearly 300 pounds. Today I weigh close to 180. Yea, I lost an average woman. I sometimes cry when I look at older pictures. I can't believe I let myself go so much. I'm happy I'm healthier in mind, body and spirit. I'm not totally where I want to be, but I'm damn near close.
• My Love Life - This is something I don't talk about much. I guess I'm relatively private about dating and relationships. But I'm thankful I've gained a lot of experience in dating over the past year or so. I've grown by getting to know other guys at a deeper level. I went from zero experience to more experience than many people I know. By no means am I an expert, but I now have people I can lean on to to give me advice. To some extent It was a whirlwind. I'm starting to look into settling down a bit more in the near future. I'm talking with someone, but It's hard because it's long distance. I hope things work out alright.

Soon I'll have a post about what I want to accomplish in 2008. 2007 has been a HUGE year for me. Hopefully I'll have a list created before the holiday rush.