Milkshake Day
So it's been a great Thanksgiving.
Wednesday I met friends at Harry Singh's directly after my haircut (which even the boys noticed; I guess the change is a bit dramatic!) for very spicy red beans and rice, pigeon peas and rice, potato curry roti, and vegetable roti.
Thursday morning I made almond rocha, which I took to dinner at my neighbor's parents' house later. Her family, which included a grandma from one side and a grandpa from another, as well as her three-month old nephew, were very warm and welcoming. If I couldn't spend the holiday with my own family, it was still wonderful to spend it with someone's.
So far today I've celebrated Buy Nothing Day by sticking close to home and managing not to purchase anything, even online. I rode my bike to the library, hand-washed some sweaters, and finally finished unpacking from my trip west. (I may not stash the suitcases too far back in my closet, though--I leave again in just twenty-five days!)
Unlike Mandy, I generally really like the holidays. I also like the way they serve as placeholders that allow me to trace the past. This Thanksgiving I thought about last year in Champaign (which, oddly, neither Ellen nor I seem to have blogged about--not because it wasn't fun!), the two years before that when I drove from Bowling Green to my grandparents' in Indiana, the year before that when I had dinner with a Canadian friend and his parents, and the year before that when I was in Italy for the "Festa di Ringrazimento."* Thanksgivings are especially good year-markers, because I'm not always at my parents' house, which I've been fortunate enough to have as home base every Christmas, even when we've celebrated with different relatives or friends. This year will be my parents' fourth Christmas in the desert, and they're starting to run together into a lovely, warm, sun-washed blur. Plus, grad school is eating my brain.
*The source of the picture; you can click here for more.
6 comments:
Were you playing guitar and singing in one of those little pictures? I didn't know you could do that. Amazing. Are they pictures from when you were in Italy?
Ha! Yeah, Kate and I sang "Country Roads" as part of the Americans' little Thanksgiving presentation. The pictures are from Italy, and the thumbnails can be enlarged; I just wasn't sure how to link to the specific pretty photo album page that had all the Thanksgiving images.
dude. you were a pilgram AND a singer of "country roads"?
you just get cooler by the minute.
but still....
bah humbug.
;-)
Groovy guitar! I remember when you came to Champaign last year for Thanksgiving. My car seat is still broken...there is now a vise grip permanently attached to the lever so I can move it ;)
It was my roommate's guitar; I hadn't brought mine, and she was kind enough to let me use hers. Sadly, that's pretty much the last time I was playing on a regular basis.
And Leah, I feel so bad about your truck! I'm still not sure how that happened... but I hope the destruction I managed to leave in my wake isn't the only thing you remember about the weekend!
Yeah for Buy Nothing Day. I wrote about it as well(www.packlight.blogspot.com).
And the jeans do pose a conundrum--loss of blood flow vs. saving a memory and some cool threads. Tough call.
Peace, Jeff
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