Welcome to my 6th annual Thank You post. This started years ago after a super-late night at working retail at good ole EXP (aka Express Crossgates Mall in New York). I was tired, cranky and generally pissed off that I missed the big party my friends (aka The Myrtle Boyz) were throwing. And I was even more annoyed that I was in a bad mood on what was technically Thanksgiving. So….. before i went to sleep I decided to make a list of all that i was thankful for and put myself in a good mood.

The list is quite long, I mean it was long 6yrs ago so now its REALLY long (there’s a shocker) soooo, if you want to just find yourself, i understand. the names are at the very end. But hey, maybe if you read it, you’ll find things you are thankful for & forgot about too. And maybe you’ll smile about the little things.and now, in no particular order…

I invite you to tell me what you are thankful for. send me a tweet @stilettosportj or leave me a comment below.

——————————————–
I give thanks for…

The simple pleasures of life….and the thankful feeling they create.

• For the change of seasons: the colors and crispness of fall, (which you really appreciate after living in the perpetually Blue & Green land of Florida) the first snowfall, the first beautiful day of spring, the hot days of summer.
• For panicking during hurricane season and realizing you are okay—-and helping others that are not.
• For vibrant colors all around, smells, sounds, tastes, touch..

For Words.

• For books and writing.
• For Stiletto Sports and the opportunity to do what I’ve loved since I was 5 years old: write.
• For song lyrics and music that hits you right where you need it.
• For Daughtry (don’t laugh) and his music since it has a way of truly moving me.

For smiles and laughter.

For movies and fantasy worlds

• For the last episode of Dawson’s Creek and the joey/pacey reunion episode.
• For shows like felicity and grey’s anatomy that have quotes to mirror my life.
• for “What color are my eyes?”"Well at first glance your eyes are brown. But when the light hits them, they change to amber. And if you look really close around the iris, the color’s pure honey. But when you look into the sun, they look almost green. That’s my favorite.” (Monster in Law)
• And: “You have six smiles…..” (Win a date with tad hamilton)
• For all the other gooshy quotes from movies that make me cry!
• For Harry Potter, which is always the perfect escape whenever I need it

For teddy bears.

For believing in something so strongly no one can change your mind……and then thinking maybe you can change it.

for believing in dreams again.

for believing in yourself.

for wishing on stars.

for happily ever afters.

for homecooked dinners from your first home, special occasions out, taco bell at 4am, free dinners at Bonefish from contests at work, and finally making your own homecooked meals for someone you care about.

• For brownies and the bowl to be licked. For frosting.
• for the first taste of something new and the delight of your oldtime favorites.
• aaaaaah for coffee in the morning and alcohol at night
• for stopping at the farmer’s market for fresh fruit & corn on the cob

for sunsets and the ocean and for the feel of sand between your toes

and those little bits of sand that linger in your car

• for the luxurious feel of the sun baking you on a lazy day
• for wild & passionate thunderstorms in the summer
• a harvest moon rising and a full moon that’s a little spooky in october

for the insane joy of finding the perfect pair of shoes.

• And finding another pair a month later.
• and the perfect outfit.
• and earrings you’ve searched for for months.
• for that special dress in your closet that makes you feel like a princess.
• I love being a girl!!

For nice people.

For every thank you and please, and things not taken for granted.For helping people and not being rude or mean to others, especially those that work with/for you.

For love.

• for first kisses that make the world spin and for hugs that make you whole
• For falling in love and being loved back.
• for flirting, desire, passion, and longing that make you weak in the knees and dizzy.
• For the love of your life
• And the loves of your past.
• And for the friends you’ll forever love with all your heart.
• for the person who you look forward to seeing….. who makes you smile and blush like a schoolgirl….
• for finally kissing that person for the first time

for children’s laughter and their unconditional love.

• for getting to play with barbies again!
• for harry potter, sweet valley and the worlds i’ve been sucked into

for funny emails and IMs you come home to

• for out of the blue phone calls or text messages when you are thinking about that person or having a breakdown.
• for myspace and Facebook for allowing me to reconnect with everyone special in my life…and a whole lot of others too!!!
• for facebook/google ‘stalking’
• for new super cool phones that are cooler than you are that can do absolutely everything, but the only thing you actually use it for is to get onto Facebook when you are away from home

for college and all the great times

• for life after college
• for home
• for wing nights and happy hours and those nights in the bart hat you may never remember, with the people you will never forget.
• For sorority sisters and alumni weekends.
• For greek family trees (mine’s the best!), frat boys, mixers & parties.
• For a having a group of ladies that I know will be there for me even 10years down the road.

for the words i can never say, but feel

• for the feelings and emotions inside
• for the sense of accomplishment and pride and even, for the incredibly stressed times….that make moments like this, my “me time” so much more appreciated

for waking up tomorrow and having a new day to live

• for the time i was able to spend with my brother
• for the 28 amazing years that I had with my remarkable mother, which is so much more than some people get.
• for my mother. who was the most amazing woman in the world. who had the biggest, most caring heart and who was loved by everyone who met her.

For rainbows. And guardian angels. And hearing certain songs at the exact moment you need to hear them that let’s you know that there is a Heaven and it’s filled with all the best people. And they watch over you and make sure you are okay.

For the possibility of tomorrow.

For Puppies and Kittens

For my uncuddly monster of a cat who hates to be touched…. because it makes those moments when she wants to be pet and cuddled and snuggled all the more special!

Not to be the crazy cat lady, but….. thank you for Peanut Butter. For a little kitten that wasn’t even supposed to be mine, she has truly transformed my life. I can’t imagine my life without her or how I would have gotten through all those horrible times without her by my side.

for my family. whose love and strength and solid support carried us through the hardest times of our lives.

• for my father,who never knew how strong he was.
• for my siblings, by blood and by marriage. My neorotic sisters Tami, Carrie & now, Marie and humorous & lovably brothers Joey, Tom, and Mickey (and always, Mark) who continue to surprise and astound me with their strength, beauty and wit.
• for the five most beautiful and amazing nieces and the four most handsome and talented nephews who all continue to grow to astound us all every day.
• For Claire who will always be a second mom to me.
• For my godmother–my mother’s best friend—the woman whose hugs can make any pain go away.
• And and for the rest of the “extended” family that includes over 100 of us.

For my other family. My friends. For friendship & love.

For Carrie & Mike. Because I would not survive my daily life without either of you. You guys truly complete me. Thank you for letting me babble for hours every single day about any little thing. For supporting me and making me believe in myself. For taking away the pain and sadness that lingers. For filling the huge void in my life left from not talking to mom every day. Seriously don’t know what I would do without you guys. Thank you for being you.

Carrie—(scroll up, you missed some of you!) For being such a great roomie and bringing lil Cat and Big Cat into our lives! For accepting my pink sparkly world despite being terrified of it! For always being there for me. For the 10hrs in the ER. For introducing me to Nathan and Dan….and naked boy, ha! For crazy nights at Rashers, road trips, meat sweats, emergency meetings of the brain trust, and knowing what i’m thinking by just a raised eyebrow. For our nightly talks after work and letting me have my “name has been deleted moments” and btw: <(“)

Charisse: For so many great years living together. For being my baby’s mama (and then taking him away from me For throwing me the best birthday EVER! For always being able to pick up exactly where we last left off. For being the other half of my brain.You get all my stuff–today, a week from now or 50years. and for always being there when i need to be picked up off bathroom floors.

Juliana–for becoming my soulmate friend in such a short time. For your amazing heart. For being there for through all my shit and never complaining, just listening patiently and helping me through it. And for the night you were drunker than i was!

Gina–For margaritas, new years, long summers, our weekly phone calls (even though its been about a year!) and the best talks ever! You are such a true friend. And for being there for me on the worst nite ever and making sure I was okay. I don’t know what I would do without you in my life, but i don’t want to even think about it!!

Stacy: for all of those crazy long talks outside For always understanding whats going on and putting it in terms i can handle. For being YOU.

Brenda–For all the great times at your place and out and about. Barbecues, margaritas, martinis……….everything! For so much more than i can put here.

Mike: (scroll up, I already talked about you!) For always being there, anytime I need anything. From Daughtry to website, to minor stresses and freakouts, to coffee and smiles.

Erik: For…. the brain trust. And March Madness. And Redzone.

Mark: for making me laugh always, for your hugs that make my world right again when its all upside down, for trying to understand & wiping away my tears. For accepting that I will only call when i need you. For “Return of the Mack” & “The Worlds Greatest.” For being the mayor of the pink bubble world and humoring my obsession with #5. And, always, for the night at partridge pub.

Matt: for dancing in the streets of Tampa, playing in the rain, banana cream pie, for noticing the little things (as weird as that makes you) like nail polish, hair clips, highlights & flecks.

My McDreamy – for everything. For making me feel like a princess and showing me what love is.

For my Extreme Team (yes katie, i know i sound lame. shuttup): Katie, Heather, Megs, Jon & now Erika–thank you for being the best team I could possibly hope for. You guys have made coming to work an absolute joy, even in the really hard times. I am so sad that our team has been split apart but I know that the bond and friendship we have formed through all the craziness will last a lifetime. And I’ll always look back and smile.

• to katie I give you: Peter. and my uncuddly cat. and lots of free food cuz you are pretty and pretty girls don’t have to pay!
• to heather: sean’s truck and a lifetime supply of tingle. and gobstoppers
• jon: i shall whip my hair back and forth for you forever

I love you all and feel so thankful and blessed that we are friends. I am a very very lucky girl.
happy thanksgiving!!

what are YOU thankful for today?

Before I go back and try to dig into some March Madness, thought I would honor finally feeling better with the things I am thankful for this week:

1. My health being restored! Yay!
2. Pain meds and antibiotics that make you really loopy!
3. Mike for taking care of me all weekend and forcing me to go to the ER even when I really really didn’t want to.
4. Carrie for taking me to the store and calling to check on me daily (and only making fun of me a little!)
5. American Idol, Top Chef, The Bachelor, ANTM Marathons & new episode, Friends on DVD and Grey’s Anatomy—all of which kept me in a mind-numbing coma for a a good week and a half. Although I will say Jason Mesnick, ABC and The Bachelor producers royally pissed me off this week. But anyway.
6. FACEBOOK! You have no idea how much fun it is to go deep facebook stalking at 3 a.m. when you are completely cracked out on pain meds and antibiotics. Oh the places you will go and the people you will find!



7. Facebook! Definitely deserves another mention because this week has totally rocked just because of that. Even if I suddenly feel like I’m back in high school. To the point that I found my high school crush and I’m still too shy to friend request him. Seriously!
8. My compulsion to keep every ticket stub, postcard, letter, picture, and piece of randomness since high school and…
9. My neurotic and complusive documentation of every single event and feeling from 1993-2001 in my many journals because
   • While talking to a guy on Facebook who was a year younger than me in high school, I took out an old photo album and what fell out but a picture of said kid from  7th grade. I got to tell Him that A. my friends and I used to call him “cutie pie” B. Upon reading my pink hearted journal circa 1993, I discovered “we danced together and [Cutie Pie]is so HOT!!!!” and C. We also once kissed (I didn’t tell him that though!)
   • While talking to my first great love Charlie on Facebook, was able to read back to him, word for word, the excruciatingly sappy and cheesy first letter that he ever wrote to me in my junior year in high school. And the super corny postcards that he didn’t even remember writing to me! (I also read him things I wrote bout him like “the prom was the most magical night ever!!! We were in our own little world I LOVE him!!!”
10. Twitter Followers! Big Big thanks to all of you! Definitely kept me in the loop, even when I was loopy. And kept me really entertained! I couldn’t do much and had the attention span of my cat so Twitter was a great tool this week! Thanks for all the support and fun!
11. Peanut Butter (my cat, not the food) who remained perfectly indifferent to my pain and suffering and still refused to cuddle with me–but checked in on me every once and a while to make sure I would feed her was okay.
12. My older brother Mark’s friend from high school Dave, who found me on facebook and told me crazy stories about their parties back in the day—like skipping school and stealing a keg from the country club and putting it in our bathtub while my parents were at work. Oh,  and while babysitting me they
    1. Once convinced me to get inside one of my parents’ antique trunks and closed the lid. They were so stoned they almost forgot to let me out!
    2. My brother made hash brownies and lied to me. Told me they were special peanut butter brownies for school and I couldn’t have any.

    

13. V-double O-R-H-double E-S-V-I-Double L-E. That’s Voorheesville to those who aren’t from our lil upstate NY town. It’s one of those places that you loathe when you are growing up cuz it’s so small. Graduating class of 107—about 95 of which I went to school with from pre-school through senior year. But looking back, I had a really great childhood, great friends, and it was a really great place!
14. And finally……(Dad, if you are reading this, skip ahead to the fun video and do not read this) to the four different guys who asked me to show them, um, cleavage pictures or “video chat” with them. Thanks for the ego boost guys!

One more think I’m thankful for, all the technology of today. Without it, this week would have been so miserable. So to give thanks to everyone for the love, support, friendship and laughs, here is a hysterically funny video that is so true and gives props to technology and people that hate on it! Promise you will LOL. Louis CK on Conan O’Brien

I also noticed that I had an overwhelming response to my last post about Flight 1549 and I thought I should write follow-up that gives a bit more information about what happened Thursday, January 15, 2009.

The Miracle on the Hudson.

At 3:26 p.m. U.S. Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport in New York headed to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Almost immediately both engines of the Airbus A320 failed and caused the plane to take emergency measures. The pilot radioed to the air traffic control to tell them there was a “bird strike,” meaning the plane hit a flock of birds in the air.

A four pound bird hitting a plane that is taking off at over 170 miles per hour would have the impact of two tons hitting the engines. Some Canadian geese weigh 20 pounds.

For those that don’t know, LaGuardia Airport is located in Queens, only seven miles away from New York City. The pilot was forced to reroute the plane in an attempt to return to a nearby airport for safe landing, but realized they wouldn’t make it.

The pilot, Captain C. B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III, saved the lives of the other 154 people on board–and countless others—when he managed to avoid a head-on collision into the biggest metropolis in the country. Instead Sullenberger was able to navigate the plane to a “safe” water landing in the Hudson River at 3:31 p.m.

The whole thing took five minutes. Five minutes!

What came next:

If the extraordinary landing wasn’t enough, what came in the next hour was truly remarkable. When passengers were able to deplane, they had no idea how long they would be standing on the wing of their plane in the middle of the freezing cold Hudson River. Looking at the images and knowing how cold it was in New York today (20 degrees), all I could think of was Titanic (yes, I know there were no icebergs but I still thought it). The water was only 32 degrees.

There was no wait. Within moments of landing,  police, fire and Coast Guard boats plus water taxies and ferries were lined up to rescue the stranded passengers.

It look less than five minutes to initiate one of the most spectacular emergency responses. Calls to 911 were flooding in as traffic around the city realized how low the plane was flying. Air traffic control noted that the plane cleared the George Washington Bridge by only 900 feet.

About the Pilot:

Captain Chelsey B. Sullenburger, III, otherwise known as Sully, was a true hero of the day. He was described as calm and methodical through it all His line to prepare the passengers: “We’re going down. Brace for impact,” will be heard everywhere.

Sullenburger has been a pilot for U.S. Airways for almost 30 years. Before that he graduated from the Air Force Academy and was an Air Force Fighter Pilot. He also owns his own company Safety Reliability Methods to help train people in high risk professions.

It really is such a remarkable story about a tragedy turned into a miracle.

But I know I won’t be flying anytime soon.

My Original Article: A truly Thankful Thursday

I just wanted to take a moment to really process the enormity of what happened today with the U.S. Airways Flight 1549 that went down in the Hudson River almost immediately after take-off.

It is a miracle that everyone got off the plane and will be okay. It is truly an amazing story that could have been a tragic disaster.

The remarkable skill of the pilot Captain C.B. Sullenburger III (not sure of spelling) and the quick response of the emergency and ferry crews throughout New York and New Jersey saved the lived of 154 people today.

There just aren’t words to express how thankful I am. God bless you all.

And to all the people in NYC & NJ that saw it happening and must have had their hearts in their throats…my heart goes out to you as well.

~All photos found on flickr.com

**Because of the overwhelming response to this article, I have posted a follow-up with additional information The Miracle on the Hudson

Most of you know of my other blogging adventures (and if you didn’t, well now you do). In those travels I came across quite a few great ideas like the theme days of the week: i.e. Wordless Wednesdays, Sunday Fundays, Thankful Thursdays.

I read a lot of blogs all week, some good, some not so much. Normally Thankful Thursdays will honor my fave five blogs of the week but this week I’m going to be giving thanks to everyone that has helped this site grow from top commentors to my favorite communities!

Before I can start I have to thank the people in my life that make this possible. Without their love and support, I seriously wouldn’t make it! THANK YOU: Mike, Dad, Mark, Charisse, Gina, Brenda, D.B., Auntie Rene, and everyone else that believes in me and this little idea!

My Top Commentors:

Pretty excited about this because I had 66 comments in 100 posts! That’s not bad! I mean, it’s no kitty-blog stats but I’m happy. (For those that don’t know, my cat site gets like 21 comments a day. Some cats get upward of 100 comments a day. Cat people iz crazy!)

• 8: Andra from Basketball Basic
• 7: Lezzymom from Lezzymom
• 3: Tied: Josh Q. Public, Akirah from Quarter Life Lady and Al from Al’s Daily Word
  
• However, Akirah does send me personal messages too and follows me on Twitter so she gets bumped up!

Other wonderful supporters:

• Sports are 80% Mental
• Extreme John
• Section 59: Yankees Blog
• Mr. Moms Unite: Everyday Living
• The Sports Scribe
• Peanut Butter N Jenny: okay, so this one’s my own site but the cat keeps sane during all of this and all of her fans have been a huge support over here as well!

And my favorite blogging communities:

• The Bleacher Report: Wonderful place! Like a magazine/newspaper for sports blogs.
• 20s-Something Bloggers: Love the atmosphere and groups and can’t wait to dig into this (Thanks to Akirah again because I learned of this through her)
• BlogHer: Still trying to figure this one out…
• And….the Cat Blogosphere. Shutup. It makes me happy!

Continue on with the celebration!

My 100th Post Celebration!

The Stiletto Saga

My Fave Five