26 Comments

I’m alive! Merry Christmas Chuck!

Expand full comment

I had a Las Vegas cab ride like that once. Grateful to be here and able to say so.

Expand full comment

Thankful that I got to brave treacherous, iced roads to pick up a relative from the hospital today after a detox seizure yesterday. Alive and sick from withdrawal is better than the alternative. Lasting sobriety would be a great Xmas gift to himself and all of his loved ones.

Edit: His Dad went to the hospital with some kind of bacterial gut infection 4 days ago. Now his stepmother has a strangulated hernia and Im trying to get her to let me take her to the hospital. What a dramatic ass Christmas. If I wrote this no one would believe it.

PS: My scratch, corn syrup free pecan pies turned to shite. Ha!

Expand full comment

That would be the greatest gift.

Expand full comment
author

Yow! Today should feel great by comparison.

Expand full comment

I feel fine. Its just life. Without real problems to solve my brain starts manufacturing nonsense problems and tries to eat itself. Any artists in here want to design an orobourous brain tattoo for me?

Appreciate the sentiment.

Still fighting with her to take an ambulance ride, but her abdomen does look better. *Shrugs*

This cut off your nose to spite your face culture is frustrating.

Expand full comment

Spent a few days this week in the ER for my hubby; when you love someone that gratitude for life is spread around. Merry Christmas, glad you’re still around, you disruptor you. (Watch the new Glass Onion to get the reference)

Expand full comment

Was a passenger in a fatal roll over in my teens. Then in my late 20s I was in another nonfatal accident. That one involved 6 weeks of coma and a traumatic brain injury.

I am thankful everyday that I actually wake up! That 6 weeks in coma did set my thankful bar a little lower.

Expand full comment

As someone who doesn't have much, the most I can come up with are the ones usually taken for granted. I'm thankful for having a functioning brain, working limbs, my sight, my taste, my hearing. That's gotta count for something, right? I'd say I'm thankful to be alive but honestly, four days out of each week, I kinda wish I wasn't. Haven't really been able to conjure up a festive mood for the occasion either, or celebrated Christmas in probably a decade. I can't even sit on a mall Santa's lap without it being weird. Sigh...it's just not the same.

Expand full comment

I’m thankful that one of my favourite authors has read something of mine. That’s one thing off of my bucket list.

Do you write whilst on tour, Chuck?

Expand full comment

Thankful for the words, "Will you please come with me Dad?" I just heard them as my son is ushering me into the bathroom with the lights off to show me how his new watch lights up. Merry Christmas. It's interesting how all our lives are so different.

Expand full comment

Wanna keep it light.

Thankful for the internet! Without it, we wouldn't have had this group. It makes me feel less lonely.

Another thing, I'm thankful that I was raised by a dad, and two mothers. My mom and my grand mom. So much love, and potato pies.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Expand full comment

I’m thankful to live with people who understand and accept me, and who I love and understand.

As two (maybe three) of us are autistic, this is something I will never take for granted.

Expand full comment
founding

I’m thankful for you, this group, and all the other rock stars who make great things that make me want to make great things.

Expand full comment
founding

I'm grateful for having survived my history–and for being able to do the work required to escape it.

Expand full comment

After my tonsils were cut out, by the time I could eat again and go back to work, my neck started itching. I kept working the catering job I had and thought the itchiness was from my throat healing up. The swelling grew over the week, I got dizzy. At the hospital I went into emergency surgery. When I woke up the surgeon told me he cut a golf ball sized abscess out of my neck. He said when he cut into the abscess, the smell knocked him back. He said if it had burst, or I’d waited to get surgery, I’d be toast. I’m grateful to be here and learning to write.

Expand full comment

That's gnarly. Now I wanna hear everyone's "Here's how I almost died" story.

Expand full comment
author

BUT DID YOU GET TO KEEP THE ABSCESS??

Expand full comment

Great, now you got Chuck abscessed about your story lol

Expand full comment

Hahah nice.

Expand full comment

God I wish, he didn’t let me keep the tonsils either. The Dr, said no, but he did take a photo of it coming out of me. His name was Dr. Scapa. Reminded me of scalpel.

Expand full comment

I'm thankful that I have an awesome daughter,

some good friends, and that I get to workshop with several great groups of people.

Expand full comment

My Mom even though she's in Heaven because I understand her completely now.

My dog, who never not once judged me.

The friend from my childhood in Hartford I spent today with.

My other 4 dogs.

My ex, whose helping fund my current lifestyle even though he's my ex??? which allows me to be at readings...........

Also, my ex because he's the father of all 5 dogs.

My children

You

Expand full comment
founding

I am thankful for each day. For presence. For connections. For moments of feeling "gotten." And I am thankful for opportunities to reflect. Thanks, Chuck. 😊

Expand full comment