I haven’t done a Thanksgiving post in a while. But I thought that now would be the best possible time to write one. Not because I’m so thankful, but because 2024 has really sucked for me, personally. Really, really sucked. Like, the worst year in recent memory. But I’ve been told by my shrink that times like these are good times to count one’s blessings.
So I’m going to tell you a secret. I’ve been keeping a list that I remember to update only periodically, called “Good Things are Always Happening to Me”. Because I am crazy, I wouldn’t normally have titled a list that way, because I think this title jinxes me. But I’m game for doing anything my therapist thinks is a good idea. So I’ve written down things like:
- “I was able to do some hard yoga poses.”
- “I had a good lunch with my dad and he gave me some money.”
- “I saw two beautiful yellow birds today.”
- “I have a place to live.”
- and so on, and so on
I don’t know if this list is changing my life, because so far, nothing’s happening. But it does give me something to do when I’m not playing Candy Crush or watching YouTube videos.
I am sure I’m not the only person who has had a shitty year. To those of you like me, I’m going to take a well-worn page out of my blog archives and, once again, reference “A Song of Ice and Fire”. It’s easy to think that right now only the bad guys are winning and the good guys are being punished. Where we are is exactly where “A Dance with Dragons” left off, more than a decade ago, with Jon Snow bleeding out into the, uh, snow (sorry for the spoiler but come on). We will likely never truly find out what happens through George R. R. Martin, but we do know there is some sort of conclusion, and that it won’t be exactly what we expect. It will be a good conclusion, but one that we won’t recognize as good until we look back on it later and realize. It will be the “green smoothie” of good conclusions, something good for us but a chore to get down.
So with that in mind, I will look back on this shitty year, and remember only the good parts of it. A lot of that means, yes, the food.
January: Deep-fried seabass in “three flavors” sauce at Pa Yunh in Petchburi
February: Kai kata (egg in a pan) at Aim Aot in Udon Thani
March: Gang pak bung with fermented pork at my aunt’s house in Chiang Rai
April: Shrimp kua kling at Haawm On Nut
May: Nasi dakae (Thai-Muslim-style fish and rice) at Nasi Dakae di Fathoni in Pattani
June: Lamb ribs at Ōre
July: Moussaka at Al-Saray Sathorn
August: Lobster rolls and steamed clams in Maine
September: Sayo at Cooking with Mon on Koh Lanta
October: Samuian Thai-Muslim tom yum soup at Somrom Space in Samui
November: Khao poon with pork heart, lungs, liver and intestine at Khao Poon Nam Jaew in Chiang Khan
It was a good year of eating! I hope that you, too, had a good year of food, and that 2025 will be a better year (and not just in terms of food) for all of us.
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