Gratitude List: Dad Edition

Today marks 2 years since my dad passed away from ALS. Every day I try to make it a habit of writing down 10 things I'm grateful for, and decided today I should make them in honor of him. He really has had such an impact on me and my growth as a person. I'm hoping that whenever I think about the great memories, I can refer to the list here and even add to it. Then when I'm missing him an extra lot I can look back on all the great memories we've shared

I'm Grateful For:
1. Holidays when I would wake up super early and put on a "cooking show" for my dad with plastic food on top of a cardboard box table
2. Tagging along with him to Starbucks so he could get some coffee and I could get a pair of Madeline cookies
3. Being able to wear his over-sized shirts and sweaters
4. Making fun of him and saying he was going to dry out like a lizard in the sun because he loved to sunbathe in the backyard
5. Going for car rides in his old white Cadillac
6. Watching NCIS, CSI, Bones, etc. with him after school
7. The fact that he made the very best grilled cheeses on the planet (and always gave me quarter of a pickle on the side)
8. How he was Wilson's best friend and partner in crime, having him sit on his lap so he could see out the window and bark at the other dogs
9. His work ethic and how much it's inspired me to be a hardworker
10. He always believed in me and my abilities to succeed in whatever I wanted to do
11. He was always up for a hug
12. He had a silly Southern-ish accent
13. His pranks and his dumb jokes, like when he pretended he was being electrocuted as I put in his feeding tube for the first time
14. Every Valentine's day he bought my mom and I little gifts
15. The music he listened to and how much joy it brought him- even when he was in his motorized chair he would play the Beatles and bob his head to the beat and smile
16. He believed in standing up for what he thought was right
17. He kept all of the art my mom and I made but wanted to throw away
18. When I was in elementary school and we went to the Daddy Daughter Dance, which was 50's themed (and I still have a polaroid photo of the two of us (me in a poodle skirt) sitting in a cardboard cutout of a retro car)
19. How he loved to take long walks
20. When he was in his motorized chair and would see how fast he could race me in the street
21. When I would give him a "spa day"- since his arms/hands no longer worked very well, I would exfoliate his face and then apply moisturizer, and he would say he "felt pretty again"
22. He was a computer progammer, tech wiz, and big nerd
23. He loved to mimic the "great cornholio" from Beavis & Butthead and would burst into laughter every time he did it
24. He introduced me to vegetarian options
25. His stupid phrases, like "cool beans" and "is this urine? don't get any on ya" and "you know what I mean, Verne?"
26. His love of polos, neon orange shirts, and ugly Christmas sweaters
27. He always wore his wedding ring
28. When he worked at a building that had office trick or treating, and I dressed up as Cleopatra and went cubicle to cubicle for candy
29. When he decided to wake me up early one day with my niece's obnoxious Elmo play guitar
30. When he taught me how to play guitar on that white Fender
31. Road trips we spent together
32. How he always pushed me to be a better human
33. His love of baseball caps (and how comfy his old Army one is on me)
34. The fact that my mom still calls him her soulmate (they were married over 40 years)
35. His awful snoring and how much grumpy old man sound he made in general
36. His "jesus shoes" aka ugly sandals that he loved to wear
37. When he took off his breathing apparatus just to laugh at me when I dropped my concealer stick face-down on the living room floor

This is a big love letter to the universe- a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me have a dad for 22 years. <3