After Thanksgiving

I took Thanksgiving day off, one of the few days this semester that I haven't done any work on a school project or written anything, school related or not. My Thanksgiving was non-traditional, I watched Macy's parade by myself, talked on the phone for several hours, then went to friends to hang out before we went out to dinner. Dinner was late for Thanksgiving, or at least for what my Thanksgivings were before widowhood, and none of us ordered the traditional turkey dinner. I had steak. And it was great.
But for some reason, I couldn't go to sleep (and yet I still didn't do any schoolwork). I last looked at the clock at 3:56 AM. Woke up today at 10:30 and am just starting to get going (it's 5 PM). But I did think about school. Do teenagers do that? I decided on a linear electronic publication on a new website, with pictures and author links, for the communal experiment text. Now I'm writing this instead of working on the site, but I'll get there. For once, I know where I'm going, at least for a little while.
So to all of you who read this: I am thankful you are out there. And I wish you a year of new experiences to appreciate next Thanksgiving. The holiday season is often difficult for those of us who have lost someone we love, yet it's important to remember that we still have very many people and things for which we are truly thankful. Life really isn't so bad, even for us widowed AOAs.