Well, here it is. My 365th entry on Naked Thanks. You, my dear readers, are the recipients of today’s note, and I hope you understand how much I appreciate your reading this blog.
Truth be told, I’ve never done anything every day for a year. Well, except maybe wipe my ass and brush my teeth. And some days, not even that (I mean, brushing my teeth…I always wipe my ass). But in all seriousness, I’ve LOVED doing this gratitude blog. Finding some little (or big) thing every day for which I am appreciative has been something that I’ve throroughly enjoyed. Plus, I think it’s made me grow as a person.
Going forward, I’ll still be posting to Naked Thanks, I’m sure, but definitely not as often. I’m going to try to put up pictures and snippets here and there, and I’m sure I’ll continue my thank-you writing for the rest of my life, but with a new baby, I just don’t think I could manage forming a coherent sentence, let alone writing, scanning, and posting these entries any longer. I mean, geez, I can barely write with any semblance of grammar or readability now, so with a new infant, fat chance! So truly, the timing on this blog couldn’t have worked out better. It ends and just mere hours later I have a baby popped out of my belly. You’d think that was planned, but it wasn’t.
So, I’m me signing off! NAKED THANKS, everyone, for reading my drivel for the last 365 days.
XO
Stacey
This is how I'll remember this year: having a gut and some serious FUN with my wild little boy in tow. BYE!
I’d say for at least four nights per week over the past year, I’ve sat awake in bed, typing away on this blog, lights on, while Grey tries to shield his eyes and pass out next to me. That is pretty darn annoying — for him, I mean, not me. But not only has he been such a good sport about me asking him scanner questions at 1AM on a work-night and hearing me whine the question, “Who should I thank today?” about 200 times, but he’s also been supportive of this blog from day one.
Not to mention the fact that he’s just a great husband in general. There’s no one else I could even fathom seeing at the breakfast table or at night before I lay down in bed, every day, for the rest of my life. Like, until I am 100. That’s a REALLY REALLY long time, and it still doesn’t even scare me, so I know we’re perfect for each other. In fact, I’m looking forward to the next 70 years with my best friend and Captain Sexy.
In all honestly, the only time he really even pisses me off is when we’re driving together and, for some reason, he likes to pretend he’s Mario Andretti. But then again, I suppose I’m a control freak who just morphs into a really obnoxious back seat driver, so I guess I’m no pleasure to be around either when it comes to the car.
Regardless, I owe Grey so much. A full year of uninterrupted sleep (hahaha — with the new baby this phrase is unfortunately laughable), but also my gratitude for all his support.
Up until I met Grey, my experience with the military was limited. I was once busted, along with a group of other rowdy college kids, for skinny dipping in Lake Erie by the Coast Guard, but that hardly counts as in-depth knowledge of the workings of our military. Little did I know that one day, I’d be a Navy wife and be privy to all the sacrifices the men and women of the Armed Services make for us.
Even just being an observer into the lives of Grey and his other friends that graduated from the Naval Academy has made me have an overflowing amount of respect for every single man and woman who signs him or herself away into the service. Grey completed two tours aboard Navy warships and spent seven months in the Persian Gulf at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but he’s had friends that have been on almost a dozen half-year deployments. There have been friends that have come back wounded, or maybe not at all.
Not to mention, every one of these people have been heroes because they’ve had the courage to put themselves in the line of fire for ME — and you, and everyone else in this country. These are people who have sacrificed time with their babies and wives and husbands to work toward a greater good. Whereas politicians get all the glory — spooning lobster bisque into their oily mouths, jet-setting off to exotic locales, and making oodles of cash — I truly believe it’s the military that has the hardest job in government. Does the President have to miss seeing him family on Thanksgiving? Or is a Senator required to live aboard a floating piece of steel for half a year? Uh, no.
So on this Veterans Day, not only am I so very grateful to all our servicemen and women worldwide, but I’m also so proud of my husband, my favorite veteran of all.
Grey and I before he left on Deployment in 2002 for SEVEN months. What a huge sacrifice these servicemen and women make for our country.
WHOOOOHOOO! I am so proud to announce my best friend’s spin-off blog to Naked Thanks: Naked Fan Mail. Julie (or Julia if you didn’t know her since she was in braces and a back-brace for scoliosis like I have), is baring her soul via a 365-day letter writing campaign (like Karin and me), but as you’ll see, her letters are a little more Hollywood…
ENJOY and check her out! The web address is super catchy: www.nakedfanmail.com (Doesn’t the word NAKED make everything easier to remember?!)
Isn’t it nuts how time really does fly? How is it mid-November already? It seems like just yesterday, Karin and I were chatting over sushi in the summer of ‘09 about how we wanted to start a daily blog together. I wasn’t pregnant, had no plans to move any time soon, and actually, wasn’t even writing at all at the time. Now, just 14 months later, I’m about to have a baby, an official Delawarean, and a magazine columnist. Plus, our year-long blog is mere DAYS from being completed! How did that happen? Isn’t it crazy how much can change in one year?
I am so happy Karin and I decided to partner together for Naked Thanks. Just knowing I’d let her down if I decided to skip writing my note for the day made me motivated to make it to 365 entries. And even though Karin couldn’t publish her final entries due to a conflict with her new job, just seeing her unpublished notes on the back end of this blog made me want to continue with it. Because honestly, sometimes, at 1AM after a long day, taking an hour to come up with a reason to be grateful was kinda hard. At least harder than I initially thought.
Plus, as much as Karin and I are alike, we’re also so different. Whereas I think sometimes I let my nerves get in the way of living my life (uh, my fear of flying, my worry about leaving Ollie with a sitter, my anxiety about meeting a totally irrational premature death), Karin is honestly the master of living in the now. Whereas I’d be about as likely to climb Mount Everest as I would be to eat a piece of candied cow shit, Karin did it of her own accord, under no duress or offer of large amounts of money.
Then there’s the fact that I always have the intention of doing something, but never actually do it. For example, I think I’ve signed up for ten marathons now but never run in one. Karin, on the other hand, is almost ready to complete her fourth real marathon! She’ll get out and run fourteen miles on a rainy day when I’m too lazy to even get up to brush my teeth. That alone has been a lesson in perseverance for me, but add to that the fact that she’s a carreer-driven go-getter and, well, frankly, I’ve found it very inspiring. I think my tendency would have been to settle down, have kids, and almost let my career dreams fly out the window, but seeing her work her way into a dream job at a national newspaper has been a good example for me. It’s made me realize that motherhood doesn’t mean I have to give up my life — or goals.
Going into the next year, I’m sure Karin and I will still talk all the time and continue this blog, though not in the same write-a-daily-thank-you kind of way, but I must say, I’m sad this project is coming to a close!
Good thing we did the photo shoot for the masthead BEFORE I was pregnant!
When I first told my parents about this blog, to be perfectly honest, they were less than thrilled. I think any parent, when they hear their child is starting a website with the word, “naked” in it, probably has some reservations. My parents naturally felt the same way. I remember my mom and dad warning me that this blog would come back to bite me in the ass when applying for future jobs or in my current work situation. They said I could potentially ruin not only my career, but also Grey’s and that it just wasn’t worth the risk.
Then, there was their fear that I would be stalked by crazy Internet junkies. They believed that by me letting the entire world into my life (and my family’s lives), I would be opening myself up to crazy people. I agree with this now — as I did then — however, I figure at this point, EVERYONE is on the Internet. If you’re gonna be stalked, you’re gonna be stalked. And quite frankly, there are way more enticing people to stalk than ME, so I took my chances.
Of course, after their initial pleas that I publish the blog under a pseudonym or bag it altogether, they were my biggest fans. They gave me ideas for my notes, offered constructive criticism, and watched all of our promotional TV appearances dozens of times. But I am genuinely grateful to them for their initial reservations, I’m sure that’s partially why I actually decided to go ahead and see this blog to fruition!
So thanks, Mom and Dad, for your well-intentioned, but also totally ignored, advice. I do appreciate your delayed support for this endeavor!
My truly supportive family! I've always felt free to tell my parents exactly how I felt (like how this mustache of my dad's looked ridiculous) and they've done the same with me (like how launching a blog with naked pictures of myself may be a bad idea).
As a child, I don’t even think Julie meant to be funny, but in doing things like wearing gigantic Sally Jesse Raphael red glasses that she was constantly getting bubble gum stuck all over and telling the director of our sailing camp to “go f*ck” himself — she’s always been one of the most hilarious people I know.
In fact, since having her as my best friend, I literally can’t stomach being friends with people who are not funny. If a person doesn’t have a sense of humor, then, um, well, it’s almost like I categorize them with social misfits and serial killers. The chances of me pursuing a friendship with an individual who can’t make me laugh is akin to me attempting to wax my bikini line with just a pair of tweezers: never in a million years. (Again, another reason why I’m so grateful to have met such friendly and FUNNY people here in Delaware! Like the girl who recently left Depends on my door!!)
Anywho. I’m pleased to announce Julie is starting a spin-off blog to Naked Thanks, called Naked Fan Mail. Like Karin and I have done for the past year, Julie will be “baring her soul” but she’ll be doing it through good natured celebrity fanaticism rather than thank you notes (so very fitting for her status as a LA-resident). Plus, as a stand-up comedian, I’m sure she’ll keep us all in stitches with her witty observations on Hollywood and pop culture.
Happy to pass the naked baton to you, Jul!!! Readers: stay tuned for the link on Wednesday!
Julie's been my best friend for as long as I can remember. We bonded as young children over the fact that both our mothers cut our hair with butter knives and dressed us like boys. I'm honored she's doing a spin-off to Naked Thanks!
Though they are too little to even read this post (I know kids are learning to read earlier and earlier but I’m sure most children are at least fully gestated by the time they can differentiate vowels and consonants into actual words), I still wanted to include my two little peanuts in my wrap up of gratitude for this blog.
It seems silly to thank two people for simply existing, but basically, that’s what I’m doing. By just being here on this earth, Ollie and #2 have made my life. I mean, really, #2 isn’t even technically out of the gates and he/she’s already had a hugely positive impact on me. Do children realize this power over their parents? Just their very BEING makes parents the happiest people on earth and gives purpose to their lives.
I definitely didn’t know this until I became a parent myself. And it’s a good thing too. Otherwise, I’m sure I would have abused this power when I was a teenager and found some way to manipulate it into a later curfew, an excuse to get my way, or a strategy of how to get my parents to let me do anything I wanted.
As it stands, I’m just happy to be a mom and feel so lucky to have one baby, and one soon-to-be-delivered baby that I adore.
Ollie and a baby doll. Um, I wasn't sure how to capture the likeness of my to-be-determined kiddo. At least he's not chucking the doll down the stairs in this pic (what he usually does with the poor thing)
To be perfectly honest, writing this blog has been kind of hard. On most days, I’ve known exactly who I’ve wanted to thank. Inspiration has come in the form of a compliment or a funny experience. Maybe a grown man wearing a denim onesie or a monkey shaped child leash. Possibly a poop joke or a store that sells both candy necklaces and ninja stars. But then other days, I’ve struggled, staring at my computer screen and scanner thinking: “Uh, who should I thank today?”
In reality, the hard thank-you-writing posts are the ones that have probably been the most beneficial to me. I mean, for the last 357 days, I’ve HAD to be thankful for something. But not just the same thing — because that would have been easy. I’m thankful for my family and friends every day. But rather it’s forced me to take stock of all the unconsidered goodness in my life that extends past the obviously wonderful things like my husband, baby, parents, brother, friends, etc., etc., etc.
Mustering up some sort of casual appreciation every day has, in a way, acted as an exercise in positive thinking. Or, since I’m not really a religious person (I say prayers with Ollie every night but that basically consists of us screaming, “AMEN!” at the top of our lungs and “God Blessing” every single person with whom he’s ever come into contact), I could consider this blog to be a pseudo-prayer for me. Like I’m thanking the universe for some sort of daily good fortune.
And over the past year — what good fortune I’ve had! I started back to work after year plus hiatus of being a stay-at-home mom (even just a monthly magazine column feels good to put out), Grey and I got pregnant with our second baby (and we’re ALMOST at the finish line!), Ollie’s grown into a healthy two-year-old-wild-child, and we’ve moved to a charming town we love (zero commute, beach picnics, and where the local grocer knows my name). I have to in some ways think part of all this goodness is due to my thank yous. Maybe I’ve read The Secret one too many times, but I think positive thinking can do some amazing things!
So for the days I’ve sat thinking, at 11:45pm, “Uhhhhhh….who should I write to tonight?” – thank God for random bloggers, People.com, books, magazines, newspapers, Wikipedia, and CNN for thank-you fodder!
Sometimes, inspiration for thank yous comes SO easily. Like this picture I saw today of a family wearing matching Christmas pajamas. This could be a thank you in and of itself -- it's that bizarrely hilarious that it inspires gratitude in me immediately. But other times, writing these letters has been harder and I've had to rack my brain and search everywhere for a note idea.
The morning after complaining at my book club about how I pee 100 times per day as a pregnant woman, I went out on my front porch to find a pretty little package waiting for me on the stoop. When I opened it up, lovingly wrapped in pink tissue paper, were several pairs of Depends with a note from a girlfriend explaining how I should give ‘em a try for the tail end of my pregnancy. I laughed out loud. Then I thought: Wow. That’s what friends are for. Who else would deliver me adult diapers like some sort of Bladder Fairy Kris Kringle?
Moving to Delaware has been great. It’s like that little song my mom taught me as a kid, “Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold.” I miss my friends back in DC, however, I’ve still seen them a bunch and we talk daily. It’s the same thing for my girlfriends in other cities — yeah, I don’t see them as much as I want, but I still appreciate their randoms filthy text messages saying stuff like, “Happy Mole Day, Beeotch!” Out of sight is definitely not out of mind and it just makes getting together with them all the better.
Even for my friend, Katie, that is no longer here, I am still grateful. Maybe it’s my crazy pregnancy psyche that won’t turn off, but she’s been coming to visit me so much in my dreams that it makes me wonder if she’s really just circling around me in another dimension, close enough to enter my mind but invisible to my eye.
I am so grateful for all these wonderful, hysterical girlfriends — those I’ve known since birth and those I’ve known for two months.
To all the girls I call friend: Thanks for the laughs and support!
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