Things for which I'm Grateful as 2015 Draws to a Close

***In no particular order and by no means complete***

• The love of family and friends (a no-brainer, right?)
• Relatively good health (an even less-brainer)
• Yuengling ('nuff said)
• Having known the love of a good woman (some men never find it; I’ve been blessed to have found it several times)
• Wawa (up yours, 7-Eleven!)
• Podcasts (they help keep me informed, provide endless hours of entertainment and expose me to ideas and points of view beyond my own)
• The Benjamin Franklin Bridge (my “happy place”)
• My job (no job is perfect but what a blessing it is to have a job that I love and a place to go each morning)
• Music (feeds my soul and makes jogging only marginally less torturous)
• Re-establishment of old friendships (thanks for being there!)
• My sense of humor (a strong sense of humor is sexy, right? RIGHT?!?)
• PATCO (so convenient, makes Philadelphia more accessible and the place to go for people-watching and urine-scented terminals)
• The West Wing (an ongoing reminder of the better angels of our nature)
• Skepticism and critical thinking (skepticism isn’t about doubting; it’s the process of applying reason and critical thinking to determine validity, of not accepting facts or ideas at face value, because they’re popular or support one's own personal beliefs, of continual vigilance against biases, agendas, logical fallacies, fear-mongering, misinformation and practices contrary to the rigorous application of the scientific method)
• Forgiveness and patience (without them I’d be SO totally screwed!)
• My home (apparently the one decent apartment complex in all of Lindenwold)
• My enormous penis (aren’t fantasies wonderful things?!?)
• Aging (it certainly beats the alternative)
• John Oliver (a lone, hilarious beacon in the night now that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have moved on)
• Not being a finicky, picky eater (so many flavors, so little time)
• MST3K/RiffTrax (humor, thy name is Rosdower)
• My country (for better or for worse there's still no place I'd rather be)
• Pain, sorrow and heart-break (without them could we ever truly appreciate their opposites?)
• Facebook (a convenient means of staying connected to others and to date the single best source of cat videos)
• The joy of writing (never let a complete lack of talent keep you from doing what you enjoy!)

Here's to our next trip around the sun! {clink}