It’s always the first sentence that is hardest to write.

Today, Thanksgiving 2004, I feel awfully lucky and thankful. No matter what kind of craziness is going on in the world, I, for one, have been totally blessed. That sounds like a mushy and lame cliche but it is true. Even the bad things that happened to me, shaped me into a person that good things came to.

I am thankful for having an incredible, strong mother who guided me and stood behind me and watched me grow and struggle and thrive, and who understands I will never be perfect and will always need my crutches, and will always be proud of me and love me. I am thankful for my brother Tom who is funny and smart and a drummer who doesn’t get the music I listen to but will always listen anyway, and my brother Jay who is the most giving and loving person I have ever met. I am thankful for my Grandma, who loves all of us more than anything and makes all the fattening foods I love and doesn’t like George Bush.

I am thankful for my friends. I really have been blessed here. I don’t have a ton of them, but the ones I do, I would take a bullet for. I always say I could never give up music but when I really think about it, if I didn’t have the friends I have, well, life would really suck. Mark, Colleen, Cheryl, Ruth, Ariane, Lisa, Laurie, Leigh, Nancy, Jody, Chad, Bryan, Pauline – I know you all might read this – thank you for making my life a way cool place to be.

I am thankful for my job and my boss who once told me “a job is not a jail sentence” and always lets me travel when my feet get itchy. I love my job, and it never bores me – it might irritate sometimes, but it is a great job and I know these are pretty rare. So what if I will never own a summer home in the Hamptons (or wherever.) Money isn’t everything and I am thankful that I know that.

I am oh, so thankful to have spent my lifetime living in some of the most beautiful places on earth – Half Moon Bay, San Francisco, Venice, and now Ocean Beach. It’s hard to be glum when there is so much beauty outside.

Then there is music. I am thankful for Wilco and Radiohead and the Delgados, Interpol and the Super Furries and all the other bands that make it so my life could never be boring. I could happily live on beans and tortillas, but please never take my CD player away.

I’m thankful that I get to travel. I’m thankful that I am a traveler through life. And finally, I am thankful that I am me and not somebody else. Even though I am a pain in the ass sometimes, I am happy I get to spend my life with me.

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