Skip to main content

Thankful

I can't imagine spending the holidays without my family or without having turkey, mashed potatoes, and roasted pears.  

But people like Diana can chuck the family thing and serve Chinese food for Thanksgiving. "Kung Pao chicken is a perfectly fine substitute for dry turkey," she said last year. "While you're fighting with your cousins over who has a better life, I'm spooning extra peanuts on my plate."

It's true: my cousins and I have issues, but a cozy New England dinner makes up for everything. The smells alone permeating the air is almost enough. 

I'm thankful to receive big hugs from women who smell like perfume and stuffing. 

I'm thankful for the chance to pry the wine bottle from my grandfather's hand when he stutters and starts the conspiracy theories.

I'm thankful that I will have Jan with me. 

I'm thankful that I don't have to eat Chinese food alone or even make Thanksgiving dinner. 

I'm thankful I can afford to go "home" for the Holidays. 

I'm thankful for my family, my friends, my readers, myself. I'm most thankful for life. So with that, I head off to NH, and I will see you all next week. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Be thankful, dammit.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Broiling Alive

Some of you might not be aware of this but Chicago has morphed into the fiery pits of Hell, with atrocious sunburned feet to boot. See, this is why I hate summer, for this exact reason. Why do people insist on wearing flip flops in the sun? I can't tell you how many hundreds of sunburned feet I witnessed just last week alone. Jan managed to drag Diana and me to the beach on Sunday, where we both proceeded to bake and die immediately. Jan didn't care -- he was busy working on his "sex tan." You know, the kind where there's a dramatic tan line around the hips. The Swedes sure know how to tan, don't they? you would think with them being Nordic that they would just burn to a crisp, but no -- golden brown goodness all the time. This weekend, Diana's apartment was a cooling center. We conked out with old Glamours and iced raspberry-lemon tea. I don't know why Diana is afraid to throw away magazines. I swear there is a 1997 issue of Glamour with some supe
Read more

Personal Day

It's one of those days where work is less important than my mental well-being. So, instead of heading to a tense office, I will be eating take-out and having a day of deep reflection. I'm sitting in an ocean of take-out menus trying to decide what to have for a BIG lunch. Chinese? Nah, had that most of last week. Pizza? Nope. Italian? Not quite. Indian? Uh...close. Falafels? Hot! I'm so predictable. So I'm calling Jan over and we're going to do the whole girlfriends thing, and he's going to groom me, and I just might tell him about the blog. Maybe.
Read more

Morning Angst, Vol. 2: Things I'm Out Of

I love this shampoo . It's only $19, and it keeps my color looking fabulous between appointments.Plus, it smells so good. Aromatherapy for sure. It's summer. Clinique's Happy is the quintessential summer scent. Must refill quickly. Who doesn't want to smell like ruby red grapefruit this time of year? I think being out of my Stila's lip gloss is the most devastating thing. The poor tube is all rolled up, with sharp edges. I'm seriously thinking of taking a pair of scissors to it, and using my fingers to scrape the sides. Desperate. But for work, this cheap pot of sweet goop will have to do. I once owned twenty-three (I counted) of these lip glosses at one time. It's a cheap fix at only $1.99 Work.
Read more