Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all

I'm not going to lie, I woke up this morning in the Bitter Barn. As I logged onto facebook I was inundated by hundreds of messages about people traveling home to see their families, craving their mom's cooking, etc. I don't get to spend Thanksgiving with my family because I have an evil teacher who is requiring me to stay in class until 9:30 p.m. tonight, with the threat of failing if we miss. This isn't much of an inconvenience to the 99% of students whose families live in the New Orleans area, but the 1% like me are pretty offended. Someone suggested that I merely "talk to the teacher and explain that my family lives 6 hours away". Nice suggestion, if she were a hooker with a heart of gold, but this is the teacher who gave me a zero for the day while I was in surgery. I've come to the conclusion that the idea that everyone is inherently good and kind is, well, crap. Some people just aren't kind and a semester spent with this woman has made me convinced of this.

Ok, now I need to make a list of gratitudes before I dive into a full-blown pity party:
1) Although I don't get to spend this day with them, my family is healthy. We received news that an acquaintance of J's, who was in a terrible accident with his wife and two young children a few weeks ago, was taken off life support yesterday, and his wife is still fighting for her life. There are things SO much worse than missing my second Thanksgiving in a row. In fact, I feel a little petty now as I imagine how this family will feel tomorrow.
2) I get to spend the day with the love of my life. Miraculously, the ship scheduled for tomorrow decided not to come to port until Friday, so I get to spend tomorrow with my other family; J and our pets :)
3) I get an extra day to study....and boy do I need it!
4) Thanksgiving is the day that J has deemed officially acceptable to deck the halls, so I finally get to add a little sparkle to our home, which invariably will put me in a good mood while I prepare to survive the last two weeks of school.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you get to spend your day with the ones you love!