The 200th-ish post

So I was going to do a big summary thing on the 200th post, but by the time I realized I was close to it, I had already passed it, and wound up doing a Friday Quotation instead. Then I thought I'd do it on Christmas, but at Christmas, I was too busy with, well, Christmas. Then I was going to blog in the New Year, but my New Years Eve was spent with Lego Batman, Jack Kerouac,and Reno 911. (Yes, I realize I have weird New Years habits. It's a TRADITION, okay?) Since I missed all of those lovely milestones, let's do it all in one. I was looking at previous milestones, and they all seem to feature a desire for change. This is good. A desire for change propels people out of ruts, it advances civilizations, and it wins presidencies. But sometimes it feels like we spend so much time making resolutions for change, we--or at least I--forget that what's here is pretty damn good too. To add to the list of missed Milestones, just think of this as a return to Turkey Day, as I recall some of the things I'm grateful for:
I'm grateful for my friends, both in Ontario, and in Saskatchewan, and around the world. They're great people and my life is richer for having them in it.
I'm grateful for my family. For my parents, who are wonderful and supportive, even when that support meant letting me move thousands of kilometers away. For my brothers; I can't think of two people whom I could be more different from, yet more alike.
I'm grateful for our cat, Penelope, who is walking across this keyboard as I type. And as she bites at my hands, I remind myself that that's her way of saying "I love you." (It's also her way of saying "I'm bored," "Feed me," and "Time to play!" She gets a lot of mileage out of a limited vocabulary.)
I'm grateful for the past month, and the opportunity to let things unwind after the living stress that was comp.
And despite that stress and sort of because of it, I'm grateful to be in a time and place where I can pursue the things I love and (for now at least) make a living doing so.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to teach; it lets me work off my excess-pomposity.
I'm grateful to live in Canada, which is a pretty good deal, considering the alternatives.
I'm grateful for having had the chance to pursue two opposite, but compelling subjects in my academic career.
I'm grateful I live in a world where people like Italo Calvino and Terry Pratchett share their ideas and I get to spend my time talking about it.
I'm grateful I have a space to be grateful in.
I'm grateful that each and every year of my life, since my first year of Grad School, at least, has been better and richer than the year before it.
Welcome to 2010. Come in and stay a while.

Later Days.