Thanksgiving

Yeah, yeah, I’ve been totally slacker-assed about my blog lately but damn, work has been crazy and I didn’t feel much like getting on the computer when I got home. If I had, I’d have spat out a bunch of expletives and that’s not good reading, unless you’re talking about the Bush Administration.

On an up note though, I did get to see my blogging inspiration, Emily, last week. Emily and I worked together for a while before she took a job in France where she started a blog to keep her family and friends up to date on her adventures. Emily started a blog for Mark and I as a Christmas gift in aught three but I was a bit of slacker at blogging then too and Mark took the reins. It wasn’t until last year that I decided to start my own blog, but I digress.

Emily moved back to the US a year ago and took a position in San Francisco; I haven’t seen her since her return. Fortunately, she came home for the holiday and I was able to pry her away from all her family commitments for a few hours and a few pints. It was great to hang with her again if only briefly and she looks freakin’ fantastic!! Don’t ya’ think?

Okay…she could open her eyes but she still looks fabulous and you can’t even see the figure she’s packing. Thanks E, it was great seeing you and we’ll get together in the spring when I head to the homeland for a visit!

After a couple miserable days at work I was thrilled with the turn that Thanksgiving brought. I was up fairly early and parked my ass on the couch to catch the latter part of the Thanksgiving Day Parade on the East Coast feed on the satellite. I know, commercialism at its finest, but hey, it took me back to my youth and as long a trip as that is I really needed it. I was in a dark place. Somewhere between the Koons Rabbit (way cool!) and Shrek balloons I decided I needed to take a shower and get dinner started. Yeah…it was early but our slow roast method requires an early start. About an hour later I put the bird in the oven and had just turned on the football game when I heard a knock at the door. I figured it was one of the neighbors in need of some butter or sage but when I opened the door I was THRILLED to find our wonderful friends Nancy and Carol. Now I hate when folks stop in without warning because I’m usually dressed in sloppy torn t-shirts and sweat pants but this time I couldn’t contain my excitement. These are two of the greatest women I have ever met in my life and we haven’t spent a lot of time together this year due to Nancy’s mother’s recent passing and Carol’s new grandkids. If there was ever a time for someone to just drop in…that was it!

For the next four hours we talked, a lot! We laughed, we watched the birds, we ate, we wallowed in the joy and love this spontaneous visit wrought. Life just doesn’t get any better! Those few short hours were the very essence of Thanksgiving and a great reminder that it’s the simple, pure moments, that make our time here so worthwhile. You can’t plan that…it simply happens. I wish they could have stayed for dinner but they had other plans and I wouldn’t want to get in the way of fate or karma or whatever force was guiding us that day because everything was perfect, absolutely perfect.

The turkey turned out to be the best I’ve cooked in the past few years but the potatoes had too much garlic (yes, the possibility surprised even me), the gravy was a bit salty and we even forgot to make dinner rolls (the horror!), so we weren’t caught in some “perfect” event in the space-time continuum that afternoon. But we were close…awfully close!