Superficially Grateful

This is a 5 Year Journal post. The goal is to answer a simple journal prompt each day of the year as a real record of daily life in this moment.  

January 17: What are you grateful for?

It seems like I just answered this question... Okay, it was a little different - that time I wrote about what I was most grateful for. Today I'll write about random, superficial things I appreciate about modern life - since there are so many!

Let us all bask in television's warmly glowing warming glow.

• Netflix and Hulu Plus apps on our "Internet TV" in our bedroom - i barely miss satellite service
• The volume and channel control buttons on my steering wheel (something I thought was over the top and unnecessary when we bought the car but that I learned to love within the first day)
• Rhapsody - practically every song ever recorded, on my iPhone and iPod anytime anywhere, for $10/month. Another example of something I thought was dumb until I tried it for a week. Now I wouldn't want to go without it. I never buy CDs, but I can listen to anything I want. Brilliant.
• The clock app that turns my iPhone into a really great clock. I use a simple charging doc that props the phone up, turn the clock app on, and you wouldn't even guess that I don't have a traditional digital clock on my nightstand. Phone gets charged, I can easily see what time it is, and it saves space on the nightstand. Win, win, win.
• My new Ralph Lauren athletic socks. Yes - you can marvel at how fancy I am now. Actually I bought them at T.J. Maxx because several of my old pairs of athletic socks were dingy and gross looking, and I decided at the beginning of the year that I am worth clean, new socks. So I finally got some. And they are bright and fluffy and the soles are cushioned. Just one of those little things that make a big difference for me. I feel more relaxed and at peace with new, clean socks.
• Last but not least....my Britta water bottle. I didn't know I'd be this attached to it when I bought it, but its kind of a miracle. Its a lifesaver for me when I'm at schools all day. There is some really rank tasting water flowing through the pipes at some of our public schools (this is first-hand experience talking), but I don't want to lug around 4 bottles of my filtered water from home all day to meet my hydration goals. The Britta Bottle allows me to fill up at any questionable water fountain with ancient pipes and hard water with no nasty, unwanted flavors. For someone who is still learning to like drinking water in the first place, this is a fabulous tool.

And there you go - a post that started out as "what I am grateful for" and has ended up sounding like a series of product placements. :)