As you all might be aware of, today is the day where people sit around and eat thirty pounds of mashed potatoes and talk to their relatives about how single they are but it’s NOT SAD. It’s a usually fun holiday because there is cheese and there is wine and for me, there is Jeopardy. We are also supposed to wax poetic about the things we are thankful to have in your life. There are lots of things I am grateful for, like friends and family and puppies and you all know that, but I love those things every year. I will list the things I am most grateful for in 2011. This year- the year of snowstorms in October and hurricanes and good SNL episodes, I discovered a lot of neat things.Things I didn’t really know existed or didn’t appreciate to the full extent I do now. Hopefully I can give you something new you will learn to appreciate, too. These things are as follows:

1. Kale. Sautee that shit up with some garlic and olive oil and you will fill yourself up like a happy, veggie-filled rabbit. It’s cheap and it lasts forever, and if you put a fried egg on top of it, you are living the life that you have always dreamed.
2. Black Truffle Salt. Amanda bought this for her mother as a b-day gift, then tried it, then freaked the hell out, and then I tried it and did the same. It’s mindblowing. It’s ten dollars and it’s overly expensive but it tastes like having sex with Michael Fassbender in the the dirty wild. 
3. Michael Fassbender. He looks like somebody in heaven got bored and got a bunch of angels together and was like ‘how can we make the perfect man’ and then this timid angel perks up and goes ‘well, make him a bit intimidating’ and there we go. THERE WE GO.
4. Okay, Norman Reedus and sometimes you just need to be attracted to somebody that you never thought you would be loin-moved by, kind of like you’re learning a lesson without any of the benefits of learning a lesson at all.
5. The cult television show Wonder Falls- one short season of a great female lead character, the sexy eyebrows that is Lee Pace, and talking wax lions. Funny and satisfying, like warm soup that is funny. It also wraps up quite well and quite adorably, which makes me happy and satiated.
6. Spotify. Thanks for making every pre-game I have had so much better and also more filled with *NSync. Also, look up Saxtribution on Spotify, if you want to hear smooth jazz saxophone covers of Katy Perry and Adele. Also, don’t put it on your Facebook because it clogs up my feed and it’s annoying.
7. Julie Klausner’s amazingly poetic reviews of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Vulture, and Gabe’s scathing reviews of The Walking Dead on Videogum.
8. Bloody Marys on a Sunday when you have lots of stuff to do, but instead you get drunk on tomato juice and eat lots of eggs with plenty of cheese upon those eggs. The friends you go to brunch with also count, too.
9. This video
10. That makeup line E.L.F that is sold at Target for a dollar and so I can experiment with red lipstick and actually find that I look great with red lipstick when I am drunk and so is everybody else.
11. Pho. Whatever kind of Asian noodle soup that just hugs your soul and kisses you softly on the lips with its Rameny noodle goodness
12. Going to a bar sober and drinking two beers and a shot. This is the perfect amount of warm belly goodness to stomach being in a bar, but also a reminder that when people get really drunk they act stupid, and maybe the next time you go all out you shouldn’t do 90 shots and act like an asshole.
13. Visiting your hometown when you are out of college and your parents are just happy you have moved out and they love that you want to eat dinner with them and it’s just nice. Joking with your siblings about dumb shit you did as a kid. Admitting to your parents you drank out of their liquor cabinet. Looking at your old room and finding something like Bar Mitzvah photos or Spice Girl cassettes. To keep the peace don’t mention how much money you have in your bank account or how much you drink.
14. Making new friends in the city, going to wine with these friends and remembering how fun it is to make new friends. On the same note, keeping up with the people you love that live far away is a bonus, too.
15. Reading books in cafes. I haven’t done this in ages, and I forgot how nice it feels to finish a book and hold and read a book. Faves this year have been A Changed Man by Francine Prose and I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley.
16. Kids my age getting actively involved in causes again. Discussions being had. Stances being taken. Good to see, peers. Good to see.
17. The fucking candles that also act as air fresheners and make my whole room smell like ‘lavender fuck lounge’ instead of ‘mountain lady fiesta,’ whatever those things even mean at all.
18. Late phone calls and early morning texts.
19. Hate to be a cheesemonger, but Tumblr. Every morning I wake up to 3,000 hilarious posts from the best kids I know on the Internet. I’m talking pictures of cheese fries, hotties I want to nibble on, Corgis walking up the stairs, memes about ‘food products, essentially’ and everything else that I didn’t know I needed and wanted and thirsted for. Learning about cool kids I want to high-five and drink whiskey with that live a world away is the best feeling in the world. Having the amazing opportunity to write anything that you guys like and you guys read, and have I told you how much I love you? I do. I love you. I’ve never said that before except maybe to pizza.
20. For as long as I live, it will never hurt to bring up warm socks and long laughs. Never.

Email me your favorite finds of the last year to my ask box or IAmTheFrenemy@gmail.com, and I’ll compile a post of my favorites tomorrow!!