Well, sort of.

There is no way I'm going to figure out what specific grat relates to each day from August 30 to today, but considering tomorrow's the last day of this year's Gratitude Project, I'm taking a moment to be grateful for several things.

At the forefront, I'm grateful to every Spanish teacher I ever had, everyone who ever let me practice speaking Spanish with them, and every Spanish tv show with captions that ever helped me learn as much of the language as I have, because I had a patient yesterday who spoke no English, had other illness-related communication problems, and I was able to carry out most of the day in her own language with some help from her family when they arrived. There was a lot of talking around words I couldn't remember, and a fair bit of gesturing, but she was so happy and her anxiety level dropped so much because of that simple fact, making me hugely grateful to be able to help her in that way. (Now to find out if my school still offers the medical Spanish course and/or certification they used to have. I'd forgotten all about that, and yesterday was a reminder that it would be a Good Thing To Do.)

I'm also grateful to have an awesome clinical instructor who is really focused on making sure we get as many varied and challenging experiences as possible this final semester.

Other things I've had reason to be grateful for over the past few weeks have included replacement insurance that handled my lost phone smoothly and the Backup Assistant that meant I didn't lose all my contacts and have to start over, friends who let me babble at them even (especially) when I'm not making sense, my chiropractor, flistees who post stuff that makes me think, the friends I've made through GSA, the amazing energy and ideas coming from some of the new GSA members this semester, and probably loads of other things I'm not remembering right now.

Even when I don't make time to post every day, though, I have to say that estaratshirai's Gratitude Project does remind me to stop and think about what I have to be grateful for, which is a large part of the point, so I'm also grateful to her for starting it lo these many years ago.

Hoo, boy, have I got a lot of catching up to do! So, things that I'm grateful for, more or less associated with days on which I was particularly grateful for them.

Sun 8/15 - A Sunday with no commitments whatsoever to actually relax.
Mon 8/16 - A friend got good news on her husband's health status, which may not yet be great but is improving.
Tue 8/17 - Last visit with the in-laws of the summer. Sort of a mixed grat, but mainly that it went all right despite a near-fiasco assembling MiL's new flat-screen tv. And then disassembling it and packing it back up to be returned. After losing screws inside the tv set itself. It's actually very funny in retrospect.
Wed 8/18 - For being able to make lemonade out of lemons and spend a day at Kripalu doing yoga and workshops and hanging out with ubiquirk, whose other vacation plans had fallen through.
Thu 8/19 - Patsfan's birthday. Ummm. That we got to have a little time together despite work.
Fri 8/20 - Discovered flu shots available already! Got one before school could start nagging about it! (Later learned they've decided not to make it a requirement unless our specific assigned hospitals require it after all, but I was still very psyched Walgreens was offering them already. Regardless, it's done, and with the way the asthma has been, I should probably be getting it, required or not.)
Sat 8/21 - For the opportunity to spend a day with my new niece. I'd been feeling oddly disconnected, having only seen her at the hospital and then one other brief visit. So having a day of babysitting was actually very nice.
Sun 8/22 - That despite the rain, RI Pagan Pride Day went off well. (Note to self: next time, remember your audience when referring to Pagan Pride Day as PPD. Fellow nursing students are likely to misinterpret. *g*) Also, that people were so receptive to the Hellenic Temple of Apollon, Zeus, and Pan ritual. Usually, PPD closing rituals are a bit more open/generic. But folks were very receptive, whether they participated or observed. Also grateful to Tim for opening up the last round of libations to other Gods. Obviously, I included Kwan Yin. Another Temple member later said he'd bet someone I'd do that. My response? "Seriously, what idiot took that bet? That was a gimme!"
Mon 8/23 - I think I spent most of the day in bed recovering from the weekend. I think I've already been grateful for having a day to do that earlier this month, so I need to come up with something else. Unfortunately, as that is probably all I did, I'm not sure what else there is!
Tue 8/24 - New student orientation went well. Other GSA members showed this time as well, so we got to hang out a bit. Got quite a few people interested in joining too.
Wed 8/25 - Local library has wifi, making it a safe place to escape to whilst the landlord cut a hole in our bedroom wall. (Originally tried staying home, just at the other end of the apartment. Lungs decided that wasn't good enough.)
Thu 8/26 - Kind of covered by drive-by post: 1st day back was survived.
Fri 8/27 - Personality Disorder Role-Play Theater! No, seriously, that was the absolute best part of the whole day. The prof who designed this should do more stuff like this instead of reading her PowerPoints to us. Interactivity=much better learning experience. I got to be Adam Avoidant, which probably came off more like Social Anxiety Disorder than Avoidant Personality Disorder, but seemed to more or less work anyway.
Sat 8/28 - Angel Food Ministries. So far, I'm very pleased with the program and the site. This month, I had enough leftover frozen meats that I just got the fruit & veggie box, and it all looked good when I unpacked it. We'll see whether that continues once we get into fall and winter and things are out of season, but for now, it's working out really well.
Sun 8/29 - I'm grateful that my other niece (on Patsfan's side) is progressing well enough in her pregnancy that her shower today is still on. There have been concerns about placenta previa and possible pre-eclampsia, so this is definitely a non-trivial thing. Just about a month to go. Looking forward to meeting my third great-niece. (Well, second great-niece. Other is a great-nephew. Again, where is the gender-neutral collective for this relationship? Grrr.)

Today I'm grateful (and relieved) that my laptop plays Region 2 DVDs. Yes, this relates to the icon.

See, someone posted a heads-up in barrowmanfans about a concert DVD, and I bemoaned that it's in PAL format/Region 2. This prompted me to finally actually look at the Animals at Work DVDs I ordered and received a bit ago. Yup, Region 2. Haven't tested them on the DVD player yet, but at least they're playable on the laptop. So a) money not wasted, and b) I can, if I want to, order Region 2 DVDs and have at least one way to play them.

Er, yes, I've become that much of a fangirl. Though the goofy animal show is more consistent with me generally (because, hey, animals are always cool to watch, and animals with jobs range from amusing to inspirational) than the idea that I might actually buy a DVD of someone singing show tunes.

Playing catch-up twice in the first week. Oops.

Definitely grateful for the cooler weather, and also that last night was quiet at work. Not sure which to assign to which day, but at least there's two!

So, right now I'm grateful that the latest tornado warning came to nothing.

This is, what, the fifth one this summer? That's unheard of around here. Also, whilst under said warning, my fellow tutor and I observed that we work in what is essentially a giant glass box with few places one could reasonably duck for cover and that even an F0* tornado would probably reduce the whole place to shards.

So, yes, very, very grateful to have been bypassed and hoping that continues.

*Yes, I realized F1 is the smallest. Just a bit of hyperbole.

Today, I'm grateful for music. All of it. Listening to it, dancing to it, singing to it, ferretting out lyrics so's to be able to sing along with it, any means of experiencing music. I've been reminded in so many ways today just how much music permeates my life and adds to it, so, yep, that'd be the gratitude du jour.