Thanksgiving Back in the Sunshine State
On Tuesday I ditched contracts class and took an hour and a half trainride out to JFK to catch my flight at 5 back to San Jose. Long day of traveling. took me about 10 hours from my apartment to my house. On the other hand, I'm very grateful when I think back to the old days when people would go from New York to California in covered wagons. By comparison 10 hours is very reasonable. Hung out with my high school friends on Wednesday after going shopping in the morning. I got a new suit and a wool overcoat and had lunch with my dad and sister at Freshchoice. So nice to find salad bars again. There is a serious shortage of vegetables in my diet out East. I was a little out of it 'cause I woke up at 6 due to jet lag. Didn't help that my house was freezing either. Anyway, back to my friends. We went to the elephant bar for bizarre tropical drinks and appetizers at 9 and I was shocked when the place closed at 10. Nothing in Manhattan closes that early. Bars are open until all hours of the morning. I guess that's one good thing about NY. You can get food 24 hours a day pretty much. When the bar closed we went to Sara's house and shmoozed for another few hours. It was really good to see my friends again. It's so rare that we all get together. Thanksgiving day was about as much of a disaster as I expected. My parents fight all the time and my dad decided to leave to get away from it all a couple hour before the guests arrived. The odd part was that he didn't come back. Apparently he went to a movie theater and stayed there. Not having my whole family together for Thanksgiving was really not cool but I can't blame him too much. Since he wasn't there I had to carve the turkey. Lotta pressure there. My cousins, two of my aunts, one of my uncles, my uncle's father and caretaker, and my mom and sister all waiting. Yikes. I'd never carved a turkey before but in my life of cooking I've picked up a few tricks along the way and it turned out all right. The dark meat was a little tricky but the white went fine. Played some card games with my cousins and sister after dinner. Nice to have time with my cousins too. One lives in Santa Barbara now and the other is in Berkeley/Oakland so I don't see them much. Today I had my dad fix my computer, which had been acting strange and then hung out with my sister and an aunt from San Diego in the afternoon. I'm going out with my friends again tonight before some of them have to go back to Florida. I'll enjoy us all being together while it lasts.
