I am celebrating Thanksgiving by wearing organic, piney-fresh deodorant. The people around me are thankful for it, I suspect.

It’s difficult to be both extremely thankful for one’s blessings and stressed out beyond human comprehension, although I manage it with the same projection of desperate positive thinking that I use to keep airplanes aloft while I am on them. That sort of energy is difficult to focus for longer than a cross-country jaunt, but I have kept it going for the past month. Tomorrow is the day I learn whether I can open my business as scheduled or be forced by bureaucratic entanglements to wait another month, and I think that the first syllable of information I receive on this topic, one way or the other, will instantly shatter my brain into its component molecules, which will waft around the premises in a frantic mist that mingles with the smell of fresh varnish.

Tomorrow may be one of the most difficult days in my life, which is saying a lot after the past two sleepless weeks, but today, I am boundlessly grateful for the wonderful people who have helped me achieve what I have so far.