Giving Thanks

If I ever won an Oscar, my acceptance speech would look something like this. And I wouldn't stop for the music.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for going on that blind date so many years ago, and for your hugs and unconditional love and support.

Thank you, brother T-, for always making me laugh, helping me improve my music selection and for one-upping me in the gift department with your high-tech gadgets.

Thank you, feline brother Tucker, for your insatiable appetite (I am now not the only bottomless pit in the family), for being my shadow in Carmel and for making my luggage your bed.

Thank you, Mrs. Thomaselli, for putting up with my two-year-old theatrics in the pool and for letting me drown, I mean, float.

Thank you, J.P., for stealing your mom's broach and re-gifting it to me in preschool.

Thank you, Mrs. Janiga, for my first report card and telling my mom I was loud and bossy in the first grade.

Thank you, Joan, for challenging me to be the only 8/under who could make a 25-yard butterfly holding my breath.

Thank you, Steven Thomas, for being my first unrequited love.

Thank you, Crissy Jacobs, for being my best friend in Paris, and for dying your hair with me in Italy and co-facing the wrath of Sister Maureen. Now, can you join Facebook, please?

Thank you, Tim Murphy, for throwing chairs at me in the pool and for my hard-earned SISU t-shirt.

Thank you, John Blackburn, for my acceptance letter to the University of Virginia.

Thank you, Dino, for putting me on the blocks and for giving me my first pair of Virginia Swimming sweats.

Thank you, Swimster, for introducing me to the world of fine dining and encouraging me to write and write better about it.

Thank you, N.Y. family, for the happy hours, the bar-hopping, the laughs, the dance parties, the Sunday fun days, the dinners and the friendships.

Thank you, Mom, for being my first editor. Without your pen-wielding, I would be righting sum seerius garbij.

Thank you, Dad, for that wondrous turkey and the best ever Sally Lunn bread.

Thank you, corduroys, for having a forgiving waistline.

Thank you, T-, for surprising me with the 1982 Walt Disney Christmas video -- what a trip down memory lane.