i remember thanksgiving last year. i had just lost my job about a month before. we were running out of savings in a month and we didn't even know how we were going to be able to pay rent or even for food. we lived in a mid size town but i am a video game developer and there were no jobs here. there weren't even regular programming jobs here.
the day i lost my job i was able to get remote work with a client i had worked for for years but they were also struggling due to the recession and all they could pay me for full time work was $325 a week. a fraction of the pay i had been making for years. my wife had a 4.0 in school and i was determined not to have her have to drop out again. she had worked so hard with me for years so we could make it at video games and i wasn't going to let her put her education on hold any longer. i took a second job as a manager at a movie theater for $10.50 an hour just to make enough money to live.
so i worked a lot. 80 hours a week. for months until the company i worked remote for was able to pay me more again. and i went part time at the movie theater. and then months later again i got another raise and i was able to live off of one job. i still kept the theater job out of pure fear that if something happened to one job i needed another to fall back on. but i finally went on leave because i was taking some classes in school to finally get some of the education i had not gotten in math and other sciences.
so, this thanksgiving is very different from last thanksgiving. i have a great job i love. this game is my first to design myself. i am getting As in both classes i am taking. my wife is in 2 of them with me and she kicks my ass. even when i get a 102% on a math exam because of an extra credit question she gets 107%!! but that makes me even happier than if i got the better grade.
in a few days we have our 10 year wedding anniversary. for 10 years we planned to go to a tropical island on our 10 year anniversary to make up for not having been able to afford a honeymoon cause we were in college. last year when i lost my job i think that was the most painful thing. thinking that there was no way we would get to go. cause for 10 years my wife had delayed college for my career and she was finally just back to college and then just like that everything we had sacrificed for was all gone. and we wouldn't have our honeymoon 10 years later.
of course, last year, when i lost my job, she took my hand and said that she was with me even if we had to live on the street. and this year as our anniversary approached she told me that she didn't need a honeymoon with me because everyday with me is a honeymoon because we are so close to each other and we love each other so much. but a couple weeks ago we went to hawaii for our 10th year anniversary. a little early since our anniversary is the day before a final test. but we had the money and we went. the flight scared the hell out of me but she loved it. and it was beautiful. not as beautiful as she is, but pretty damn beautiful.
today we sat around the dinner table with my brother, who lives with us and works with me, saying everything we were thankful for. which was mostly what i said in this diary. each other, great jobs, college. and the fact that instead of like last year when we were wondering how we would afford food for the month, let alone for thanksgiving or christmas, this year we had plenty of money to buy any food we wanted to eat. including this piece of pumpkin pie. which for the record is the best piece of pumpkin pie i have ever eaten.
oh, one last thing. somehow, in a crazy moment of i don't know what, i suggested that my wife and I could go and see the new movie Burlesque because she likes dancing and singing so much. even though i have never seen as much t and a in a movie theater in my life i still feel like my manhood was violated watching that movie. i had to rent the Expendables to watch with my brother in a bit just so I can restore equilibrium. if you are thinking about going please don't make your husband or boyfriend go. it was a great movie... for girls and men who like singing and dancing movies. it was a little too much for me. though, damn, that christina aguilera can sing.
happy thanksgiving.
UPDATE
if you want to know how much i love my wife... here's the trailer for Burlesque. i am a big movie lover and i admit that it's a great movie, but... it's just a little too much for me. and i actually liked watching Mulan Rouge and Chicago.