Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2004
Thanksgiving, posted at 4:25 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I really like Thanksgiving - it seems to be the last American holiday not commercialized heavily, and its deeper meanings are simple, secular, non-divisive, and non-political. As long as you don't call it "Happy Turkey Day," there isn't anything that annoys me about the holiday.People are so kind when it comes to Thanksgiving. My first year in Baltimore, I drove home. What is normally a 9- or 10-hour drive took me twenty hours, and I decided I wouldn't do that again. I am a little bit homesick right now and miss my family, and wish I took a weekend sometime this fall to fly back there, but I'll see them in about four weeks for the holidays. Still, I've been offered a spot at the table at no less than six homes this holiday: four colleagues at work invited me to their respective homes, A Fools Fate invited me to her family's home, and the bartender at the restaurant invited me for the second year in a row to eat with his family. I feel like it's a priority of people to ask stranded folks if they would like a place to stay, and that's something I never really noticed until I moved here. It's really nice and I felt good every time I got an invitation.
I decided there were two main (tongue-in-cheek) criteria I would follow in choosing which place to go to for Thanksgiving: First, the house I go to should not make fun of me for bringing Tofurkey, which I had last year for the first time and it was incredible, one of my favorite foods. Secondly, I should be able to drink enough wine to get drunk with impunity.
Later, I decided that another criteria was more important: I didn't want to eat with someone's parents. That sounds sucky and mean, but I didn't want that outside-looking-in feeling, because I think it would have made me more homesick. So, I decided on sharing dinner with my high school friend danielle and her fiance John, as well as a number of other young stranded types. It means I have to drive to DC (yech), but it should be a great time.
Ironically, neither of my two initial guidlines will be followed. My Tofurkey will be made fun of like crazy, but John has promised to try it. Plus, I'll have to get home tomorrow night to tend to the dog, so the drinking will be minimal.
It should be a great time. I have a lot of things to give thanks for this year, and I look forward to doing it.
Here are Danielle and John:
